Using 'concrete' thinking to beat depression

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"The idea is, depressed people have negative thoughts that are abstract and general, like "I'm useless." If you practice thinking about how exactly you're useless, you either find that it isn't true, or you see stuff you can do about it."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 202935.htm

This could help correct patterns of destructive thinking, but I don't think it's a cure for depression. Negative thinking is only a part of depression. I think it a symptom, not the cause.

I concur.

I have learned to cope a lot better by breaking negative thought patterns but the mood disorder is still there.

Not once was the word cure used... huh?

I'm sorry I provided this thing that might prove useful to some people. Nitpick if you want, I guess that might be a symptom of being a negative thinker, right?

Let's say 'help manage then'.

Medication doesn't cure depression either.

And if your negative thinking is not a cause of any problems in your life, then that's cool. For me and (I assume) others it really is a cause, since negative thinking can hold you back in life, and being prevented from doing what you need or want to do in life can become a cause of depression.

As someone who's had a depressive disorder their whole life, I can say that the strategy Moog refers to has been extremely useful to me.

When your mood is artificially depressed, I believe your mind naturally generates negative thoughts to "justify/explain" it and reconcile your mood with your environment, even if these thoughts are clearly irrational.

Seeing these thoughts for what they are: irrational and artificial, is a very effective tool for coping with them I've found...

what if, you start thinking about 'how exactly you're useless' and find lots of perfectly valid points. sitting having a long hard think about why you're useless isn't necessarily going to help you stop being useless, nor feel any better about it than if you were to only have passing thoughts of uselessness. some people have valid reasons to be depressed?

sounds like a way to beat negative thinking, rather than depression
which may in turn beat depression for some people

You used the word 'beat' in the title of the thread, which implies 'cure' to me. Sorry to nitpick, but that's where I got the impression from.

I didn't claim that medication cures depression. No one thing cures depression. However, I need to be on medication before I can even think rationally enough to deal with my negative thought patterns.

I find nearly all my thoughts are like that. I have a lot of silence in my mind when I let them go.

It also helps to not focus on particular thoughts so much, but notice what the general pattern of your thinking is. I think of it as recognising one raindrop as part of a whole storm.

ive tried this and just made things worse.

teehee negative replies

No, but it may give you a clearer, more realistic sense of what problems may be, and can lead you to solutions. Or like the blurb I quoted suggests, realising that they aren't real problems, they are phantom figments.



Diagnosis is not a cure, but diagnosis is an essential step towards a fix, or at least positive action. If I take my broken down car to a garage and say what's wrong with it, they inspect it in detail to get a clear, realistic, accurate assessment of what's wrong. Then they go about finding solutions.

I don't see depression as being valid or invalid, it is just a response to conditions.



Good?

My thoughts exactly.

I can see how searching for a solution might be helpful, but if I ask myself about the ways I suck, hey, I'll always find perfectly logical and valid reasons. (They don't need to be true reasons, but my brain will make them seem logical and rational).

I do, however, think that people prone to depression should learn how to recognize when the mood switch is created by something external (weather change, for example), and to assure themselves they're feeling like crap because of the high/low pressure and/or rain, not because life is bad.

I forgive you. And I will refrain from launching into a linguistic nitpicking fest (sits on hands)

I've had the same experience. Depression is real; it causes negative thinking. If you treat it by trying to change thinking patterns you are treating only one symptom, not the cause. This can lead to blaming the patient for their own illness because they can't change their brain chemistry with mind control. It's like telling someone with diabetes that they should be able to mentally control their insulin levels.

That's why it helps to have external support as well. Someone who knows you well and can tell you when you're being unrealistic. Someone who does this for you.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPbH1g5iicw[/youtube]

I know that it's hard to find such people, which is why WP can be so great (if not ideal), it can be used for this purpose.

Eventually, hopefully, you can internalise that realistic assessment of yourself and have a healthy self image, esteem and more balanced thinking.



I believe inner weather is important to monitor too.

To use your analogy, some people can control their diabetes through eating correctly. Some have to use drugs. It is the same with depression, as I see it.

No one is blaming depressed people for being depressed here. I'm sorry you are reading this with that in mind. I am sorry that others prefer to blame rather than trying to help.