The way they followed Spartacus is terrifying. Man, you should write a novel or screenplay. Even if you do it on a different subject, you have lived something few of us have--the visceral experience of being a hunted creature.
Here's another article. A clinician describes the role of external social cues and depression.
Depression
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In subjects who work, it is common to observe a worsening of depressive mood at the beginning of the week, when social rhythms have been lost during the weekend and have not yet been retrained by professional constraints (Monday mornings).
And in this same article, the author notes many are already short on sleep. This would enhance vulnerability for anyone put in some workshop where they are made short on sleep.
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A certain number of other arguments highlight the clear link between emotional control and sleeping time. It suffices to spend a night without sleep to understand the degree to which a simple reduction in sleeping time can cause moodiness, aggressiveness, episodes of crying, explosions of rage, and other emotional reactions. All these symptoms are directly linked to the most archaic parts of our brains, collectively called the limbic zone. Under normal circumstances, these areas are linked to the prefrontal lobe, which is the “adult” and reasonable area responsible for our intelligence. Indeed, many authors think that human beings are above all a “prefrontal animal.”
It was in order to allow the development of the prefrontal lobe that our ancestors experienced a gradual diminution of the supraorbital ridge and disappearance of the receding forehead characteristic of most large apes. This part of our brain, capable of controlling instinctive and affective movements, is probably the anatomical seat of what differentiates humans from other animals. Indeed, it has been shown that experimental conditions of sleep deprivation will “disconnect” the prefrontal lobe from the limbic zone. This disconnection deprives the conscious and reasonable part of our brain of any control over emotions, hence an increase in emotiveness and ultimately in violence and aggressiveness. It is therefore possible to hypothesize fromthesemechanisms that chronic sleep deprivation favors depression, which would help to explain the increased incidence of this condition at a general epidemiological level.6
Finally, the author lists these interventions. Note the high protein diet--- a contrast to the low protein diets one hears about in many high demand groups.
(Note)I dunno what kind of diet you guys followed in SGI. But in a lot of guru ashrams, such as Amma's, the diet would run high in refined carbs, with very little concentrated protein.
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Therapy involving adjustment of rhythms must be considered as supplementary to the therapies referred to above. It is thus necessary to reinforce the circadian rhythms through behavioral measures: getting up earlier in the morning (always at the same time), physical exercise immediately on rising, a long hot shower, a relatively high-protein breakfast, and exposure to brilliant white light at 10 000 lux.
In the evening, no intensive physical exercise or excessively stimulating or stressful activities, an evening meal containing slow-release carbohydrates*, a warm bath, and low lighting to encourage the release of endogenous melatonin.
When these recommendations regarding healthy rhythms are respected, a rapid improvement can be observed in general wellbeing and a reduction in residual symptoms: morning tiredness, insomnia, morning gloominess. Although there is a dearth of studies in this area, it is possible that rigorous compliance with this chronotherapy may to some extent reduce the risk of recurrence.
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Corboy: 'slow release' carbohydrates are those that digest slowly and produce slow rises in blood sugar. Old fashioned steel cut oats, barley, beans are all 'low glycemic index' slow carbohydrates.
This contrasts with the diets high in refined starches one hears about in many groups--sugar, white rice, white flour breads, etc, without enough concentrated protein to offset the fast release of carbohydrate. Indian and Chinese vegetarian/vegan[www.google.com]
cooking tends to fit this profile.