EXCLUSIVE: Sarah Silverman Tackles Depression in New Film, Opens Up About Her Mother's Death

Sarah Silverman spoke to ET about her battles with depression, and while talking about her new film I Smile Back also opened up about her mother's death last month.
In the dramatic indie film, which premiered at Sundance and will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, Silverman plays a mother-of-two living in suburbia who struggles with depression and addiction. To capture this character, the 44-year-old comedian drew upon her real-life experience.
"I've had my experience with depression, having a mother that also had experience with depression and being a child of that and being an adult with that and seeing both sides of it and trying to see what that is," Silverman shared.
WATCH: Sarah Silverman's Mom, Beth Ann O'Hara, Dies
Silverman's mother, Ann O'Hara, died on Aug. 19 at 73, and a few days later, she shared a touching tribute on Twitter. "Wednesday morning my Mom died," she wrote. "She was a know-it-all in overalls and two different colored socks. And defiantly, no bra."

O'Hara touched many lives, having founded the theater company New Thalian Players in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she produced and directed 50 plays over 25 years. For her work, Silverman got to present her mom with a lifetime achievement award at the New Hampshire Theater Awards in 2003.
"One time, she said, 'Sometimes all you have to do is be brave,'" Silverman recalled to ET. "Just meaning sometimes you just have to exist through things and they pass or you get to the other side."
PHOTOS: Stars We've Lost In Recent Years
Silverman keeps remembrances of her mother close by and even wore her overalls during our interview.
"She painted many sets and many grandchildren's nurseries in this," she lovingly remembered. "She was something else. She was one of a kind that one. I may never take these off."
I Smile Back opens Oct. 23. To see Silverman's dramatic turn, watch the full trailer below.
Source: 
Sarah Silverman spoke to ET about her battles with depression, and while talking about her new film I Smile Back also opened up about her mother's death last month.
In the dramatic indie film, which premiered at Sundance and will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, Silverman plays a mother-of-two living in suburbia who struggles with depression and addiction. To capture this character, the 44-year-old comedian drew upon her real-life experience.
"I've had my experience with depression, having a mother that also had experience with depression and being a child of that and being an adult with that and seeing both sides of it and trying to see what that is," Silverman shared.
WATCH: Sarah Silverman's Mom, Beth Ann O'Hara, Dies
Silverman's mother, Ann O'Hara, died on Aug. 19 at 73, and a few days later, she shared a touching tribute on Twitter. "Wednesday morning my Mom died," she wrote. "She was a know-it-all in overalls and two different colored socks. And defiantly, no bra."

O'Hara touched many lives, having founded the theater company New Thalian Players in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she produced and directed 50 plays over 25 years. For her work, Silverman got to present her mom with a lifetime achievement award at the New Hampshire Theater Awards in 2003.
"One time, she said, 'Sometimes all you have to do is be brave,'" Silverman recalled to ET. "Just meaning sometimes you just have to exist through things and they pass or you get to the other side."
PHOTOS: Stars We've Lost In Recent Years
Silverman keeps remembrances of her mother close by and even wore her overalls during our interview.
"She painted many sets and many grandchildren's nurseries in this," she lovingly remembered. "She was something else. She was one of a kind that one. I may never take these off."
I Smile Back opens Oct. 23. To see Silverman's dramatic turn, watch the full trailer below.

17 lies your anxiety is telling you

If you suffer from anxiety you’ll know all about the pesky little lies the condition can tell you when it takes hold.
Lies we can sometimes believe every single day, for years.
But you’re not the only one suffering and these thoughts are very common.
Here’s 17 lies your anxiety is telling you.
You cannot be trusted to remember anything
So you must continue to write every single solitary thing down. In case you forget something world-ending.
Everyone is staring at you. And judging you
You’ve worn something new to work, you’ve tried that new hairstyle, and everyone has noticed. And not in a good way.
Is your grandmother not picking up the phone? Best go out and buy something black
Because she’s not just at her Bridge Club. Or pottering round in the garden like she does every afternoon.

8 simple everyday tips for dealing with anxiety that actually work

These palpitations are a heart attack. You are having a heart attack on the toilet at work
Because as if exiting this mortal coil wouldn’t be bad enough, everyone will talk about you for months afterwards.
You need to get used to having panic attacks, because they’re not going anywhere
Because there’s obviously no way of you learning to control them.
Your friends are fed up of you
They are totally over how much you worry about the smallest, silliest things. 
You? Go on a date? You’ll just embarrass yourself
Why on earth would anyone want to listen to what you’ve got to say anyway? Just cancel it and stay at home.

16 things you only know if you have anxiety

All your hard work is ruined…
Because you didn’t go to the gym for a week or made one mistake at work.
You’ve got to go out and meet a new group of people tonight. You won’t manage to hold this together
They’ll think you are an absolute fool.
You need to achieve all your life ambitions in the next 12 months
You just do. You can’t possibly get things done the year after next. No way.
You didn’t send that email before you left work. You’ll be sacked without a second thought first thing in the morning
You had better lay awake until 3am worrying about that.

6 things not to say to somebody with anxiety

The person you’ve been seeing for a while hasn’t text you back for four hours. It’s all over
They’re bored of you. They have met someone else far better looking. They’re almost certainly not just a bit busy.
It’s all you.
Even though everyone just laughed at your joke, they still think you’re an idiot
They’re just laughing to appease you. The minute you go to the toilet they will start talking about how dumb you are.
In a relationship? You will mess it up
Because you spend so long worrying about stuff. Which will drive your other half to insanity.
Heaven forbid you might find someone that actually understands or you might get better.
Even if you get the courage up to talk to someone, they will think you are crazy
No chance you might stumble across someone that feels the same or gets where you are coming from.
You are crazy, let’s be honest
Because nobody in their right mind would spend that many hours worrying about a text message.
Or worrying about if the chicken in the fridge is going to kill them.
Or that all their friends will soon stop talking to them for no reason.
This is how you are going to be forever
There’s no help and no way to get your head round the amount  you worry.
So just sit there some more and worry about the worry. Don’t consider talking to someone. Just worry some more.

Source:http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/22/18-lies-your-anxiety-is-telling-you-5436226/

Understanding Depression

THE first step towards overcoming depression is understanding it. What it is, how it works, and what it does to us.
UNTIL NOW, it has been difficult to link the psychological elements of clinical depression to the physical symptoms.
Now, however, a new breakthrough so profound has changed our ideas of what depression actually is.
And this breakthrough makes depression much, much easier to treat.
It shows us exactly what we have to do to halt depression in its tracks.
And precisely what will stop it coming back.
It removes all uncertainty, and most of the fear from depression.

If you suffer from, or treat depression, this is the most important page of the whole Depression Learning Path.

 

Depression, Dreaming and Exhaustion: The New Link

How your thoughts affect you physically

"Depressed people dream up to three times as much as non-depressed people."

This is a startling, and illuminating fact. And when combined with a recent breakthrough in dream and depression research by Joseph Griffin of the European Therapy Studies Institute, it gives us a clear understanding of the how depression affects us physically.

 

The Cycle of Depression

 

What dreams do

If you are, or have been depressed, you may have noticed that you ruminate, or worry a lot during those periods. Typically, these ruminations are emotionally-arousing as they are carried out using 'All or Nothing thinking' (more on this later in the section) and a negative bias. That is, you have a thought and you feel unpleasant after it - anxious, angry or helpless.
The trouble with this sort of emotional arousal is that it doesn't do anything. The thought creates the emotional reaction (usually anxiety or anger) and that's it.
What this does is leave an uncompleted 'loop' in the brain's limbic (emotional) system.
Normally, the emotion would be 'played through' by action being taken. For example: You think "That's a tiger in the bushes", feel anxious, then run away. The cycle has been completed. Or, someone annoys you, you shout at them, and the cycle is completed.
(By the way, we are not advocating the 'playing out' of anger as a therapeutic technique. All that does is makes people more angry!)

 

But what happens when the cycle doesn't complete?

When these emotionally arousing introspections remain incomplete at the onset of sleep then the brain needs to 'do something' with the emotional 'loops' that have been started.
What it does is create scenarios that allow those loops to complete. We call them dreams. The dream acts out, in metaphor, a situation that will allow the emotional loop to be completed and therefore 'flushed' from the brain. In other words, an imaginary experience whose pattern resembles the 'real life' one enough to create the same emotional reaction.
Normally, this does its job, and everything stays in balance.
However, because you do so much more ruminating, or introspecting, when depressed, the brain has to increase the amount of dreaming you do. And before long you are:

1. Spending too much time in dream sleep (Rapid Eye Movement - REM) and missing out on physically-rejuvenating Slow Wave Sleep.
2. Depleting your hormonal system with extended night-time emotional arousal.
3. Exhausting your 'orientation response' - a crucial brain activity that allows you to change your focus of attention and so motivate yourself. It is also a key part of concentration.

 

Recurring dreams

If you are continuously having the same problems or ruminating in the same way then you may experience recurring dreams (the same dream over and over). This usually continues until the situation changes or you begin to deal with it in a less negatively arousing way.

 

Why are my dreams so weird?

Dreams exaggerate the feelings they represent from waking life, so even if you have just had a fleeting moment of anger at someone during the day, the dream that flushes this out may involve you becoming furious.
As an aside, dreams usually just 'borrow' imagery from the your surroundings.
So, for example, images from a recent T.V program may be used by the dream when representing something from real life. So the fact that you kill your brother in a dream, for example, doesn't necessarily mean you have any problems with your brother at all!

 

Depressive thinking styles mean more arousal

Depressive thinking styles will tend to cause more negative emotional arousal, and therefore more dreaming. This extra dreaming is to try to 'clear the brain' for the next day, but because our negative arousals are excessive when depressed, our natural rhythms find it hard to cope with this "over-dreaming":

 

Why is over-dreaming bad for me?

Basically, because dreaming is hard work.
Dreaming itself is not a restful activity. Dreaming is called 'paradoxical sleep' because brain wave patterns are similar to those of the brain when completely awake.
Dreaming is a state of arousal.
As far as much of your brain is concerned, your dream is real. So adrenaline and other stress hormones in your system will be active in the body.
This is a double edged sword, because over-dreaming, as well as using up these hormones and energy, is actually making it harder for the body to make more. As you try to flush out the incomplete emotions, you spend more time in REM sleep, and therefore less time in deep sleep, when your body should be recuperating in preparation for producing these hormones for the next day.
So if you are over-dreaming you're not resting but flooding your system with adrenaline and other stress hormones. If most of your sleep consists of dreams, your body and mind will begin to feel very tired during the day. Depressed people often report that the worst time of day is first thing in the morning.
Sometimes a depressed person may start waking up early in the morning and not be able to get back to sleep. This may be a way of the body trying to cut down on over-dreaming in order to try and lift depression.
This depletion is also why depressed people often feel at their worst first thing in the morning.
As the day progresses, their hormones replenish themselves and their energy levels increase, and they are better able to motivate themselves.
Here's a more complete picture of how depression works:

(Note: Levels of the stress hormone cortisol are much higher in depressed people.(1))
And because we can clearly see that what maintains the clinical symptoms of depression is emotionally arousing introspection, or rumination, we know exactly how to deal with it. Cut down the amount of emotional arousal.
Source:  http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/dlp/understanding-depression/understanding-depression/

 

Dealing With Depression at Work: What You Need to Know

A few months ago, I told you how a quarter-life crisis catapulted me into a severe depression, and my story of recovering. The response I received from that piece since tells me that I’m not alone in this plight, and that many of us have experienced a similar personal crisis. And a recent article on Forbes confirmed that more millennials are suffering from depression, anxiety, or some other form of mood disorder than ever before.
One of the hardest parts of my ordeal was that, in the midst of it all, I still had to be a functional adult and stay on top of my job responsibilities. And while there are many great books online about how to deal with depression or anxiety at work, I also want to share some suggestions based on my own experience for making it through—and even thriving.

1. Get Help

If you’ve recognized that you’re depressed, then hopefully, you’ve already begun treatment for depression—working with a therapist or support group is the best way to help you cope with your symptoms, which in turn will help you better manage your professional life.
If not, keep in mind that most employer- and school-based insurance plans offer some type of mental health coverage. Many companies offer additional mental health services through the Employee Assistance Programs at little or no cost. If you’re unsure about the coverage you have, reach out to HR and inquire about the specifics of your plan. Also read your company’s policies and procedures regarding medical leave and sick days in case you need to take time off for medical appointments.
If you’re self-employed, check out your insurance policy and see what kind of mental health benefits it includes. (This is when you hope you read the fine print!) And if you’re uninsured, look into community mental health centers, which often offer services on a sliding fee scale.

2. Find Support

It’s key to find a trusted friend, ideally at work, who can support you through this difficult time. There will be tough days—some that seem nearly impossible—on the road to recovery, and I can’t stress how important it is to have someone to lean on and talk to. In my case, I found several friends at work that had been through similar experiences, but if you don’t want to share what’s going on with anyone at the office, make sure you have supportive friends and family to talk to. Group therapy is another great way to see that you’re not alone in your struggle. One of the best things I did was participate in a depression and anxiety therapy group, where I learned coping strategies for the workplace from other participants.

3. Set Clear Goals

One of the difficult things about my depression was that it made it nearly impossible for me to focus. I had to set very clear goals for myself and be realistic about what I would be able to accomplish—and I had to do it on a daily basis.
I would create lists for the day and highlight my top priorities, which would ensure that I was meeting the needs of my most important audience—my boss. I would also double check any important memos, give myself extra time to prepare assignments, and have a colleague give my work a second look if I was having a rough week. During staff meetings, I would take copious notes because I knew that my memory retention was failing me.
Do whatever helps you, and don’t be too hard on yourself when you have a difficult day. The road to recovery is a marathon, not a sprint.

4. Speak Up

If things are incredibly difficult, or if you need to take more time off than your mental health days allow, you may need to say something to your employer. During a particularly difficult week, I finally told my boss that I was dealing with depression. I was so worried that she would figure out something was wrong, and I decided I would rather her know that it was depression and not a lack of interest in my work.
Obviously, not everyone has that kind of relationship with her supervisor, so don’t feel obligated to disclose details. If you’re taking a lot of time off or you’re worried others will wonder what’s going on, you can tell them that you’ve been “dealing with some health issues” and leave it at that. Or, consult with HR to determine the best approach.
If don’t want to discuss specifics with your colleagues at all, request a few days off and do whatever helps you cope with your symptoms and re-group. Really. It may mean the difference between maintaining your professional reputation and having a breakdown at the office.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2012/05/02/dealing-with-depression-at-work-what-you-need-to-know-2/

For Some, Math Anxiety Improves Performance

Anxiety associated with being asked to perform math is often viewed as a contributing factor for poor scores.
New research, however, finds that math anxiety — nervousness and discomfort in relation to math — may improve performance among motivated children.

In two studies, researchers Zhe Wang, Ph.D., of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Stephen Petrill, Ph.D., of Ohio State University, and colleagues found that a moderate level of math anxiety was associated with high math performance among some students.
Researchers found children who reported they valued math and embraced math challenges, appeared to use math anxiety to enhance their scores. For those who are low in this kind of math motivation, however, high math anxiety appears to be linked with low math performance.
“Our findings show that the negative association between math anxiety and math learning is not universal,” say Wang and Petrill. “Math motivation can be an important buffer to the negative influence of math anxiety.”
The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
While some children might be anxious about math because it is extremely difficult for them and they feel threatened by it, others might be anxious about math because they want to perform well.
The researchers hypothesized that different underlying motivations for these two groups may have different consequences for math learning behaviors and performance.

For the first study, the researchers looked at data from 262 pairs of same-sex twins. The children, about 12 years old on average, completed measures of math anxiety and math motivation.
They also completed six tasks aimed at measuring math performance, tapping skills like representing numerical quantities nonverbally and spatially, calculating with fluency, and using quantitative reasoning in problem solving.
The results indicated that there were no differences in math anxiety and math motivation according to age, but they did show that girls tended to have higher math anxiety than boys.
When the researchers investigated math anxiety and math motivation together, a complex pattern of results emerged. For children who reported low levels of math motivation, increases in math anxiety were associated with poorer performance.
For children who reported high math motivation, the relationship between math anxiety and performance resembled an inverted U shape: Performance increased with anxiety, reaching peak levels with moderate anxiety. As anxiety increased beyond this midpoint, math performance decreased.
To ensure that these results were robust, the researchers conducted a second study with 237 college students. Again, they found that math anxiety was related to poor math performance among students who reported low math motivation, while students who reported high motivation showed the inverted-U relationship between anxiety and performance.
“These findings suggest that efforts that simply aim to decrease math-anxiety level may not prove effective for all students,” says Petrill.
“Although math anxiety is detrimental to some children in their math learning, motivation may help overcome the detrimental effects of math anxiety. In particular, for children highly motivated to better learn math a moderate level of math anxiety or challenge may actually prove efficacious.”
Future research will examine the real-time physiological changes that underlie the complex relationship between math anxiety and math achievement.
Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/11/05/for-some-math-anxiety-improves-performance/94443.html