Hi Kelsey,
Welcome to the Depression Center. You have found a great place to share your feelings of depression with members who truly understand what it is like to experience these feelings.
Regarding your concern about bad thoughts, this is very common in depression and is addressed directly in our free online program.
Unfortunately, people with depression see the world through a distorted lens of inaccurate assumptions and beliefs about the self, other people, how the world works and the future. As a result, the meaning that depressed people make out of many situations is distorted, which results in inaccurate assumptions and beliefs.
These inaccurate assumptions and beliefs lead to problems in thinking, feeling and behaving. In short, when you’re depressed the lens through which you see the world is distorted. As a result, you do not see the glass as half full, you see it as almost empty! Seeing the glass as empty is your depression talking.
The basic idea is that an event activates our assumptions and beliefs. This happens outside of our awareness (subconscious). As a result of the activation of our assumptions and beliefs, we have automatic thoughts that are consistent with the beliefs. When we are depressed, our automatic thoughts are negative. In depression the automatic negative thoughts then start driving a downward negative cycle of thinking, feeling and behaving.
In summary, the ability to make meaning can work against when we’re depressed. In depression the process of making meaning activates negative, inaccurate and unhealthy (or maladaptive) assumptions and beliefs about ourselves, other people, how the world works, and the future. These negative, inaccurate and unhealthy assumptions and beliefs lead to automatic negative thoughts that are also inaccurate and unhealthy. Because the lenses through which depressed people see the world are negative, inaccurate and unhealthy, their thoughts about the world are distorted.
In Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which is what our online program is based on, we teach people to recognize and classify negative thoughts into different kinds of “cognitive distortions.”
Why do automatic negative thoughts have so much power over us? Why are they so hard to stop? There are a number of reasons why automatic negative thoughts have such powerful effects.
1. Our assumptions and beliefs are formed very early in life
Our assumptions and beliefs about ourselves, other people, how the world works and the future are often set in place early in life. For example, if as a child you got the message that you were bad, stupid, fat, lazy, a monster, selfish, clumsy or ugly, those early messages may have shaped your assumptions and beliefs about yourself.
2. Negative Thoughts are automatic
Negative thoughts are powerful because they’re automatic. In fact, negative thoughts can be so automatic that some people have trouble noticing them. When you ask someone with depression, “what were you thinking about when you noticed an increase in your depressed mood?” they often say, “nothing.” It’s only after they start to pay attention to what’s happening that they actually notice any negative thoughts at all!
This is why it may take a few weeks to notice your specific negative thoughts. You may have been thinking these thoughts for so long that they’re now wired in. In the Depression Program we’re going to unwire them.
Be sure to check out our free online program for more information. The program is actually a 16-session cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)course. When using cognitive behavioral therapy, each person has unique goals in their treatment. Whatever your motivation, cognitive behavioral therapy is a very effective treatment for depression. You can use the tools whether or not you are taking medication, and whether or not you are currently seeing a therapist or mental health professional. The Depression Program has a number of tools and resources to help each individual overcome their depression and win.
Casey
_____________________________
The DC Support Team
