Focus, Focus, Focus

I haven't written in a few weeks because my focus has been elsewhere - in a book. It was not a focus I intended but a required one for a class I am about to begin. I was focused on depression and on the sadistic twist of fate that results in those least capable of coping being hit hardest with this disease/disorder/state.

But what I notice most is the function of focus played in mental health and mental unhealth. As the spiral of depression kicks in on someone, their focus turns downward to the pain, the losses, the what ifs, until even movement, or walking or swallowing saliva is an event of momentous effort. But what seems to be a common thread throughout these books is the role of one's focus.

I recall from my undergrad and grad work the research of the Gestalt movement and their description of the Reticular Activating System - a central part of the inner brain's functioning. The RAS is like a switching servo-mechanism that distinguishes foreground and background so that we don't get overwhelmed by the zillion stimuli bombarding us at each instant. In essence, the RAS is our focusing switcher. Yet I see no reference to it in any of the depression literature I am reading so far.

The reason I am fascinated with focus comes from another recent event. I was talking to a friend about his infatuation with a woman with whom he said he was in love. I related to him how I had re-fallen "in love" with my wife during the year of preparing for her 50th birthday extravaganza. Each day I had done something requiring my focus on her and with each day became more infatuated. I know it sounds cold and unfeeling, but I suggested that his state was more a result of his intense focus, the dozens of daily text messages, the hourly anticipation of seeing her again - the intensity of his focus may have been more the issue than anything else.

Does depression work the same way? Is the RAS part of the cause or solution in depression? If so, what little is there to focus on when one lives in austere poverty - nothing but loss and refuse and vacant lots or deserts. Is my friend's focusing actually the root of the intensity of his love? And if what we focus on alters our emotional state, what choice might we have in shaping our moods, our successes and failures and our fidelity and relationship successes? I don't know but it sure seems like it is worth asking. And when we turn our focus to god, and begin to focus daily or even hourly on that relationship with our god, what might we notice then. I don't know but it surely seems like it might be worth the try.

I do not mean to lessen the personal tragedy of depression for those going through it nor suggest anything less about its toll on people and societies. I am only wondering if there might be a connection with the RAS and with the function of focus.