How the default mode network affects depression and anxiety

As individuals, if we don't know how our minds work, if we don't know how our brains work, we can't possibly work with our minds. [MUSIC PLAYING]

There's a network of brain regions called the default mode network, which seems to be what we default to when we're not doing anything in particular.

So when somebody is depressed or when they're anxious, their brain looks very different than when they're not depressed and they're not anxious.

This network of brain regions, this default mode network gets activated both with depression and with anxiety.

And so you can think of it as our brain is really good at perseverating, where we're thinking about things over and over and over.

And so if that perseveration is about past events, typically about us, you know, that can fall into the realm of rumination,

where we're ruminating about the past. And that is very linked to depression. In contrast, if you look about that perseveration, where we're

constantly thinking about the future, when there's this flavor of worry and we're constantly worrying about the future, that's where anxiety comes in.

And so this network of brain regions, which is so busy getting us caught in the past and the future, gets us caught