Psychologically Speaking

with Stewart Hase

A good dose of fun

A week or so ago I was taking my morning constitutional jogging along the side of the river at Iluka. Just your average lovely morning until I noticed a small boat moored in the bay, with a large wooden bookcase sitting in it. I almost hurt my neck as I checked that I had really seen what I had seen. It certainly looked a bit strange. Anyhow, the thought went through my mind that the boat owners must be very keen readers. Or that they really know how to relax. Out on the river with enough reading for a thousand or more tides.

As I gasped along the foreshore I started thinking about the issue of relaxing and having fun - as you surely do when you're jogging. In fact I prescribe doing fun things as one of the standard treatments for stress, anxiety, depression and for people who have lost their way a bit. Incidentally, this last diagnosis is quite common although you won't see it in the standard psychiatric manuals. I suspect that it is a normal symptom of everyday living and it gets sadly misdiagnosed. But more of that some other time.

In the 1970s a psychologist by the name of Lynn Rehm did some research with clinically depressed people. She found, compared to control groups, that if she could get these people to regularly do something that they used to enjoy then they started to feel better. These experiments were important because they demonstrated that this was not just a placebo effect. This is the well known phenomenon in which people feel better just because they are receiving treatment, not because of the actual treatment itself. So, she found that if people do things that are nice they feel better.

The idea that having fun, or doing things that make us laugh, satisfied or just plain good inside is an antidote to sadness, anxiety, and the stresses of everyday living is hardly rocket science. But, it is surprising how we can just plain forget how to look after ourselves. I meet all sorts of people who have got so caught up in work and other 'important' things that they have forgotten how to live. So, I help them to schedule 'pleasant activities' into their daily lives and to 'have some fun'. Of course many want to remonstrate about how difficult it is. There's no time. Something or someone gets in the way.

It seems to me that if you're not feeling good then it is time to change what you're doing or you'll just keep on feeling bad. As Bill O'Hanlon says, "Insanity is doing the same damn thing over and over again and somehow expecting things to turn out different". If you're losing 23-0 at half time then you'd better change your game plan for the next half!

The other two obvious lifestyle changes for the depressed and stressed that I've mentioned before in this column are exercise and relaxation. There is very strong evidence that both of these cause positive chemical changes in the brain similar to that obtained from antidepressants. Fundamentally, these simple habits are good for you.

So, get your boat and a bookcase and go out and have fun. Or something like that.