In this spirit, I offer five ways you can start to win right now. Care for your mind. We can cultivate healthy optimism by making use of recent advances in psychology. For example, if it seems difficult or pointless to improve yourself, you may be depressed. It may be the world's number one public health problem.
Depression is an agent of entropy, and can lead to personal, social, and financial ruin.
Depression can be caused by physical factors, or just by habits of thought. Recently, there have been great advances in treatment of the physical factors that cause depression, especially in the use of new drug therapies such as Prozac. Other new antidepressants, such as Deprenyl and melatonin, have been shown to extend lifespan and improve mental performance. As Princeton psychologist Dr. David Burns points out in Feeling Good , cognitive therapy also represents a significant breakthrough in the treatment and prevention of mood disorders. Cognitive therapy is a fast-acting technology of mood change.