is it possible for our brains to shut down during depression?

Answer 1

Depression certainly cause a lot of changes in the brain, it doesn't shut down (if this happended you would die). The chemical balance of the brain's neurtransmitters can become unbalanced which can lead to emotional, psychological and physical manifestations of the illness. It is not uncommon for someone with clincial depression to suffer from loss of appetite.
Irritability. Sleep problems, such as recurrent nightmares.
Learning or memory problems where none existed before.
Significant behavioral changes; such as withdrawal, social isolation, and episodes of aggression.

Anxiety is a physiological state that is caused by the sympathetic nervous system as well as the brain . Anxiety does not need an outside influence to occur. Panic is related to the "fight or flight" mechanism. It is a reaction, induced by an outside stimulus, and is a product of the sympathetic nervous system and the cerebral cortex. More plainly, panic is an anxiety state that we are thinking about. Finally, stress is a psychosocial reaction, influenced by how a person filters nonthreatening external events.

Answer 2

Our brain shuts down all the time. The reasoning behind depression is people can think past the bodies natural ability to change reasoning and people maintain their depression by labeling it will a concept and strengthening it with another one.

1) Denial-I am not depressed
2) Maintain the depression
3) Label the depression with a concept
4) Reinforce the concept with what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger

Answer 3

Mahna Mahna
Do doo be-do-do
Mahna Mahna
Do do-do do
Mahna Mahna
Do doo be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do

Oh I am sorry, I'm such a muppet some times. What I meant to say was some people appear to be taking your question too literally. I found this page on Yahoo Health, don't know if you have read it or not but it deals with your question and seems to support that idea.

"The brain is more shut down in a way?

That is reflected by patients who have low metabolism, low activity in their frontal lobe routinely, and at the most severe, have shut down major portions of the frontal lobe."

http://health.yahoo.com/topic/depression/overview/article/pt/Psychology_Today_articles_pto-20030103-000012

Waldorf: "The question is, what is a Mahna Mahna?"
Statler: "The question is, who cares?

Answer 4

My wife, who had clinical depression, was able to fall asleep rather quickly when stressed or depressed. She found ways to escape emotionally. If I had not seen that, my answer would have been no, how could we possibly do that.

Answer 5

Do you mean like comatose or worse? I know thinking is clouded and thoughts exaggerated when one is depressed.

Answer 6

I prefer my brain to reboot like a computer

Answer 7

I believe so. I think that it definately has an effect on memory and retention. I think it makes it hard to focus on things, even simple things.

Answer 8

sort of, they don't turn off completely, just the parts that aren't nessacary to live, but extremely rare

Answer 9

Yes..but get restarted when you recover :) don't worry!

Answer 10

no