The kindling phenomenon – sensitization: what doesn’t kill you, makes you weaker

The phenomenon kindling – awareness described by Teasdale explains why some people appear weaker after several depressive episodes. Curiously, this explanation contradicts one of the myths of popular wisdom that says “What does not kill you makes you stronger“.

This effect explains that when faced with stressors new, we are always conditioned by internal experience and previous external experience. For example, after several job failures, every time we try to do a job well and fail, we will feel more frustrated and less motivated than the first time we tried.

This “node of negative information about work” will be easily activated by any new work experience. Like that node, there are many similarities and differences in each person.

So, We all have nodes of negative information that are activated by very different stressors and information. Teasdale tries to explain with the phenomenon of kindling – awareness of how these negative nodes are activated in human beings.

Teasdale’s differential hypothesis theory of depression

The phenomenon kindling – awareness are framed within a broader theory: Teasdale’s differential activation hypothesis in depression. This theory has been proposed as an explanation of cognitive vulnerability to depression.

Influenced by Beck and Bower, Teasdale postulates that each emotion is represented in memory by a specific node. That node is connected to associated cognitions or traits. In the case of depression, the cognitions are negative. When a node is activated, the corresponding emotion is experienced and the activation spreads through the node’s connections.

The author maintains that The factors that determine whether the initial depression becomes more persistent are the degree of activation and pattern content of those nodes.. This led to the specification of two key concepts: kindling – sensitization.

Diathesis-stress model

Teasdale’s theory is a vulnerability-stress model in which it is assumed that the type of events that cause clinical depression in some individuals are capable of producing a dysphoric or mild mood in others.

The onset of depressive symptoms results from the activation of the depression node after the occurrence of a stressful event.. This activation spreads to the associated (negative) cognitive nodes or constructs. If this cognitive activity reactivates the depressive nodes through a cyclical mechanism, a vicious circle is established that causes the initial depression to intensify and be maintained.

Unlike Beck’s theory, he does not believe that the match between type of event (type of stressor) and type of nodes or cognitive constructs is a necessary requirement. For him, As personal experience of major depressive episodes increases, environmental stressors of lesser magnitude are required. to cause relapse.

Research on cognitive models of depression has frequently neglected the relationships between different levels of cognitive and personality variables, the interaction of person and event factors. However, Teasdale’s theory is a perfect example of an explanation of how The person receives an experience, but at the same time constructs it.

Kindling – sensitization: the pain is activated less and less and spreads faster

The classical hypothesis of differential activation (Teasdale, 1988) was reviewed by Segal, Williams, Teasdale and Gemar in 1996. They proposed a further elaboration of this hypothesis by suggesting the application of the concepts of kindling and awareness.

The phenomenon of kindling supposes that The continuous reactivation of negative cognitive structures causes the associative networks between depressotypical constructs to be strengthened. Thus, a wide range of stimuli can favor the activation of the network by simply activating one element. The sensitization effect is explained by a lowering of the activation threshold of depressotypic constructs produced by the repeated activation of these structures.

These aspects add difficulties to the already problematic definition of stressor in the vulnerability-stress model. According to this theory, the importance of the stressor would reduce as a person’s cognitive sensitization increases. Therefore, a minimal stimulus could trigger an activation of the depressogenic network in a personwithout it having to be a great stressor.

Depression: what you have experienced and how you interpret what you find

Vulnerability to depressive relapse is determined by the increased risk of negative information patterns being activated in depressive states. The studies of kindling – sensitization explain the reason for this greater risk of activating negative thought patterns.

On the one hand, the appearance of a depressive episode facilitates its familiarity in cognition, that the already known negative processing can be resorted to in the face of a new stressor. This dependence on the negative nodes for their strength and accessibility would be the phenomenon kindling.

At the same time, This dependence makes it easier for its future activation to be achieved on the basis of increasingly less intense signals., that is, it facilitates awareness. The necessary pain threshold is lowered.

This model suggests that the processes related to relapse/recurrence and episode onset may not be isomorphic. That is precisely the reason for research and psychological interventions aimed at optimizing relapse prevention strategies.

It must be clarified that the form of negative processing implies a tendency, but not permanence and immutability. Certain experiences can accentuate or attenuate it despite their relative resistance to change.

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