Neuro plasticity is a term that has been popularised in recent years; it is one that has revolutionised the way that people understand the brain. It turns old ideas of brain development over the course of the lifespan upside down and opens up new worlds of possibilities when it comes to this mysterious organ. It has profound implications for the management and treatment of depression.
What Is Neuro Plasticity?
Neuro plasticity is the brain’s ability to adapt (think of “neuro” referring to the brain and “plasticity” as referring to the ability to be moulded or changed). This ability to adapt can be as simple as the brain learning something new or it can take the form of efforts on behalf of the brain to heal or reorganise itself when it is damaged by illness or injury.
By leveraging neuro plasticity, the brain can even be guided to adapt in ways that help to heal serious mental illnesses; this is the means by which neuro plasticity can be applied in the treatment of depression.
How the Brain and Neuro Plasticity Work
Take a look at two of the ways that the brain can adapt to get a better understanding of exactly what neuro plasticity can do, and how this leveraging for depression treatment is possible.
Neuro Plasticity in Learning
Understanding how the brain works to learn and store information will give some insight into how the concept of neuro plasticity can be applied to treating depression and mental illness.
The brain changes all the time. Many people think of the human brain as being rather fixed after a certain age has been reached and the development of the younger years has been completed, but this isn’t true. The brain changes every time something new is learned. If you learn a person’s name, a new set of directions, or anything that you didn’t know before, then your brain has changed.
Your brain is storing new information, forging new pathways, and restructuring itself all the time. Pathways that are used frequently are made stronger and those that are not used start to fade away. This holds true for people of all ages, too. There is no point in time where your brain becomes set in its ways or loses its ability to change itself.
The bottom line is that the brain can always be, essentially, “reformed” by forging and strengthening the appropriate pathways. It is this fundamental ability that makes it possible to treat illnesses like depression via neuro plasticity.
Neuro Plasticity In Healing Mental Illness
If a person is suffering from a mental illness like depression then neuro plasticity can help. The brain changes every time you think so you can change your brain by learning to think more positively. As you do, the brain will literally start to change its own structure and will even devote more space to positive thinking neural pathways.
By doing something as simple as making more positive statements, you can begin the process of changing your brain. All you have to do is say more things that make you happy and fewer things that make you unhappy and your brain will do the rest. A brain that seemed to be built for depression can be rebuilt for happiness and mental health. This same simple idea can be applied to changing the mind to address other mental illnesses and their symptoms as well.
Neuro plasticity is a topic that is sure to garner much attention in the coming years. Its implications for both learning and healing are profound. The more you learn about neuro plasticity the more you will realize just how much the growing understanding of this topic might change the way the world looks at the health and healing of the mysterious organ known as the brain.
Annette Tonkin
Adversity Consultant, Physiotherapist and Author
About Annette Tonkin