Hi weasel, Thanks for stopping by to let us know how you are doing. Continue to keep us posted on your progress, Casey ___________________________________ The Depression Center Support Team

Have been having another go at this challenging negative thoughts thing and i think i'm starting to get somewhere. one of my big hang ups is being terrified of losing my temper and making a fool of myself. it's been quite interesting to note that i get very angry when i am being attacked, but that that fear is never absolute terror, so the consequences if i actually answer back are not generally life threatening. i suppose when i was a kid i quite often got beaten up and so my anger was in proportion to the threat - now i don't think its quite as bad as it was then but i'm left with this beleif that losing my rag will result in something terrible so i bottle it all up. don't know if this makes any sense so i'll leave it here for now. am still confused re the psychiatrist but i guess it doesn't all happen at once. weasel

YES! Weasel for a while, I was so overwhelmed I didn't want to do anything...at all. I'd hide in bed and cry. THEN, my friend told me this: 1. Make a list of what you have to do. 2. Organize them in priority. 3. Pick something and do it for five minutes. Set a timer. JUST five minutes. The rationale: you can do anything for five minutes, right? five minutes, not even that long. start there. If after five minutes, you feel like you can't continue...stop. When you feel better..try five minutes again. Soon, you'll stop hearing the timer and just keep going. It really helps get your going. At least it did for me. Hope that helps. :)

Weasel, Try breaking the work up. Make a list of what you have left to do. Make small goals and knock them off one by one, taking small breaks in between. Have any other members felt this way? How did you handle it? Keep us posted, Danielle ____________________________________ The Depression Center Support Team

Thanks for that - it really helped. it's been one of those weekends and I just couldn't stay on top of it. went to father in law's and hid in the bathroom to cry a few times. i have a study day off from work today and i have to produce two pieces of work in their final form by the end of it. seems rather daunting even though i've been preparing for a few weeks. oh well.

Weasel, I've gone through this type of program before and I can relate to where you are right now. I've had TONS of therapy-people that I didn't like/didn't work well with, etc. First with that, be very honest with your psych. Make a list of what makes you unhappy with your sessions with them. Think about for a while, I'm sure you'll be able to come up with somethings to share with them. Also articulate to them what you need to change for therapy to be successful for you. If nothing changes after this...find a new one. Second, with the program...this is probably one of the hardest steps to do. I mean, these negative thoughts have been running through your head for so long...just trying to recognize them made me anxious at first...then if I had a bad day...everything just went out the window...WAAAY too overwelming for me. The secret is this: keep trying. There WILL be days when you won't feel overwhelmed and then you can work on it again. Believe that. It won't be like this forever. When you get overwhelmed...accept it. Don't beat yourself up. You're allowed to feel the way that you do. There's no time limit that says you have to get better in so many days. To help you out with this step make a list of five of the main negative thoughts that run through your head. Put them on paper. Now look at them and see where the fault is. Why is that thought not a good one to keep thinking about? What could make it better? What is the opposite of that thought? After that, try and write down something positive, even if you don't think it is true right now. ex.) Negative thought - "I'm just so ugly and frumpy, no one's going to want to be friends with me. Positive thought - "I was not made to look like everyone else, I am unique and I like that. True friends will like me for who I am, not what I look like." The key once you have the positive thought written out is to keep thinking it or saying it everytime you think the negative thought. You may feel dumb, stupid, or like it's not even working. But, surprisingly, it does. If you're still having a hard time thinking of positive things to fight the negative things with post some of your negative thoughts here and we'll help you come up with some positive ones. Remember, this is a very important

Hi weasel, This can be challenging, but you can do it. Take these changes slowly. Make your alternative thoughts as meaningful to you as possible, but start out small. You can later work up to bigger challenges. By your post it seems you are able to really identify your goals which is a fantastic start. It is unfortunate that you are feeling this way about your psychiatrist. A trusting relationship can really make a huge difference in your progress. Is there any way that you could share your concerns about your relationship with them so that improvements can be made? If there are other members who have had this same concern, please join in and share how you managed this. Please continue to share with us weasel. We wish you all the best and hope that you notice some improvements soon. Casey _____________________________________ The Depression Center Support Team

started with this again at the beginning of the week and i'm still struggling with it. i'm finding it very difficult to come up with alternative thoughts to challenge the negative ones. it's mainly to do with how i relate to other people and expecting them to respond negatively to me. the thing that makes it hard is separating when its likely to happen and when it's just me fearing the worst. i don't have a good relationship with my psychiatrist and i keep talking myself into thinking that it's going to be ok when we meet and then being completely crushed during the session. don't know what else to say so i'll stop here.

weasel, Sorry to hear about your bad day. Start fresh and continue on. Challenge you thoughts and progress forward. Our members can help with support and knowledge :) Keep Strong, Josie ____________________________________ The Depression Center Support Team.

I haven't been doing too well with this part of the programme and I think I'm going to need quite a bit of time to get to grips with it. Something happened a couple of days ago that made me so angry and upset and caused such a violent emoptional response from me that I couldn't even begin to start filling in the thought sheet. The best I could do was just to try and keep myself safe. I'm interested to hear how other people did or are doing with this step. I think that stuff about dealing with big general thoughts is very true - it's too difficult to try and deal with them all at once. I think I would have torn up the form and eaten it if I'd even tried. Hope I don't get stuck with this for too long.