Dementia and disorders such as depression and anxiety have long been intertwined.
Indeed, several screening tools have been developed to distinguish between depression and dementia, because, as Dean Burnett, a neuroscientist, wrote for BBC Science Focus, being “cognitively unable to answer questions” and “insufficiently motivated to answer” look the same on a test.
Whether it’s the knowledge or symptoms of a dementia diagnosis, ‘prolonged low mood’ is inevitable, but a recent study suggests that constant, repetitive patterns of negative thinking, considered a ‘fatalistic attitude’, can lead to earlier onset or increased symptoms of dementia.
So how can a negative mindset lead to actual physical damage to the brain?
Although it’s by no means confirmed that a negative mindset causes damage to the brain, one possible mechanism is through the stress response, Dean said.
“A typically functioning human brain produces an optimism bias in our thinking. We tend to assume that we are right, that honesty is of the utmost importance, and that things will go well,” he wrote.
This is the mentality that keeps us motivated to get through the day and not overthink everything. “It’s a kind of psychological defense mechanism,” Dean explains.
But once that optimism and positive thinking are lost, as with depression, we experience both negativity and stress.
And the chemical element stress is known to cause biological stress in the brain, often resulting in the more well-known mental disorders.
If your brain is already physically affected by a reason that causes dementia, then it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that constant negative thinking could speed up the whole process.
