More than just "the blues,” clinical depression represents a serious illness that in some cases results in suicide. If you feel depressed, seek treatment as soon as possible. Doctors often advise medication and psychotherapy for depression. Cognitive therapy in particular combats negative and unrealistic thinking by teaching you how to identify your toxic thinking patterns and change them into healthy patterns.
Step 1
Ask yourself, "What am I thinking right now?" several dozen times a day, every day. Pay particular attention to thoughts that you have when you feel the most depressed, advises the Mayo Clinic.
Step 2
Learn common negative thinking patterns, such as assuming the worst, filtering out positive aspects of experiences, accepting blame too easily, over-generalizing, black-and-white thinking, and mistaking feelings for facts. Use these patterns to help you identify thinking patterns of your own that either conform to these patterns or are otherwise negative because they are unrealistic or counterproductive.
Step 3
Keep a "thought journal,” advises Psychology Today magazine, so that you can keep track of the number and nature of the negative thoughts that your mind produces every day.
Step 4
Revise your negative thinking patterns, at a time when you are feeling less depressed, so that they are more rational and productive. For example, you might replace "I can't do anything right" with "This is a challenging task." Prepare a series of replacement thoughts with a more positive spin.
Step 5
Intervene in your thoughts whenever you notice yourself slipping into negative thinking. Challenge the thought, examine it for rationality, and replace it with a more rational thought.
Tips and Warnings
- Psychotherapy alone may not be enough to lift you out of depression. Consult your doctor about whether to use prescription mood stabilizers such as Prozac or Paxil.
