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Picture of Anna Tasha had noticed a regular pattern of mood swings during her teens, but was only recently diagnosed officially with bipolar disorder. She has learnt self-help strategies to supplement medication... more > >

Also in "Tackling Depression"...

"It also helped when I realised that it was up to me not to be depressed. Things are the way they are, what can change is your point of view. What is there to lose by just trying to look at everything from a different angle? If you find the strength to smile to yourself in the mirror, you will most probably feel slightly better. Sometimes I even laugh at myself and at my tendency to see tragedies everywhere." Elena

"The whole time, I really knew I was being unreasonable. When I had these angry crying fits, there was a little voice in my head saying - calm down. There's nothing that wrong with your life." Kristy

"These days I tend to look at the positive things, rather than to dwell on the negative. At the same time I recognise that sometimes the negative things have got to be dealt with. But also I now understand better that certain things are totally out of my control, so feel less irrationally guilty." Anna

Students Against Depression
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Challenging Depressed Thinking

Sherlock

How to build up longer-term resistance to depression

Tackling depressed thinking is probably the most effective thing you can do in order to start to shift depression out of your life for good.

Step 1: Understand the depression habit spiral

The negative and pessimistic habits of thought that depression brings have an effect on your behaviour, brain chemicals and mood. See the depression habit spiral page for more.

Step 2: Become a detective on yourself.

We all have an "internal running commentary" of thoughts - "I'd better hurry, I'm going to be late. What an idiot! Why didn't I get up when the alarm rang?” and so on.

Spend a day or a week "tuning in to your internal running commentary". You may be surprised at how negative and critical it is.

Step 3: Make a list of your own depressed thinking

Write down examples of your running commentary, especially the most repeated ones. Which forms of depressed thinking can you identify? Notice which thoughts make you feel particularly bad or low.

Step 4: Learn how to take a wider perspective

Depressed thinking is about narrow focus - look at your list and practise evaluating each thought from a wider perspective. It is very useful to consider whether other people would agree with your beliefs or whether there is hard evidence to support them ie. evidence that would stand up in a court of law.

Ask yourself:

What's the evidence for this perspective?
What evidence is there for a different point of view?
How did I get into the habit of thinking this way?
take into account personal history (see why me?)
and evaluate wider social and cultural influences (see depression in context)
What would be a more positive way to see this?

More specific strategies...

Build on this starting point by following up on the more specific strategies for the types of depressed thinking which you are particularly prone to. Nearly everyone affected by depression will benefit from challenging all-or-nothing thinking and self-bullying in particular:

Find out more

The strategies described here come from something called "cognitive-behavioural therapy" or CBT for short. Find out more about this effective form of therapy by:

Reading the excellent book Overcoming Depression: a self-help guide using cognitive behavioural techniques by Paul Gilbert (see books).
Practising this strategy using the best-selling workbook Mind Over Mood (see books) or online by going to the mood gym.
Finding a counsellor or psychologist who is trained to help you learn these techniques.

managing stress levels > >

Links

More about depressed thinking habits: the depression habit spiral , depressed thinking , stress,anxiety & anger , books and other inspirations
More about the habit of considering suicide: thinking about suicide , making sense of suicide , surviving suicidal thoughts , desperate right now?
More about how depressed habits start: why me? , depression in context
More about tackling depressed thinking: managing stress levels , going to the mood gym , tackling depression
More about help with tackling depressed thinking: what do counsellors offer? , what about other mental health services?
Check page references (*): references and sources

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