This morning I was sitting in
a ballroom listening to a talk on the neurophysiology of empathy. The presenter
stated that one of the major factors involved was facial feedback. Basically, however your face is arranged impacts
how you feel—your mood, and even your respiration and your posture. The example
she gave was when you are talking with someone and their face is scrunched up
in an expression of distress, you subconsciously do the same, and that this
impacts you physiologically. She told a very interesting story: research shows
that injection of Botox into the area between the eyebrows, where people
typically get a frown line, has been shown to reduce depression. Because you
can’t physically frown, it impacts your mood!
This is fascinating to me.
Not that I’m going to run out and get Botox, but simply because I never really
thought about this at this level and yet it makes sense. How many times have
you heard from self-help gurus something along the lines of “fake it ‘til you
make it” or “act as if?” The idea is that no matter how you feel, if you put a
smile on your face and act as if everything’s great, you create that reality. It
becomes a self-fulfilling action. Naturally, if you have a serious mental
health disorder, this is not going to cut it. But for most people, often times
it’s just a matter of a shift in attitude. Take a minute and regulate your
breathing, relax your face (unfurrow your brow!), and you are going to feel
better.
Now, I must have missed the flap about this
research when it first came out—and having delved into it now, it turns out
that the doctor who conducted this research only used ten patients as subjects,
nine of whom were allegedly depression-free two months after treatment, so it’s
hardly an authoritative study.
But anecdotally around the web, a number of
people have come forward to state that while they got Botox for cosmetic
reasons, they noticed two unexpected side effects: the first, a lifting of what
had previously been a lengthy depression; and the second, a reduction in
headaches, including migraines.
Okay, that all sounds pretty great, but then
there are the cons, among them: facial paralysis. Thanks, but no. Others have
said Botox seems to suppress certain emotional responses. How can that be healthy? It seems
like if you were sad and wanted to cry, but couldn’t, it would be toxic to your
insides.
Well, I think I’ll be keeping my frown line and just
try to be more mindful not to scowl while squinting at my screen. How about
you?
