Depression Explained

1. You are depressed.
2. You are depressed because of thoughts going through your mind.
3. The thoughts going through your mind paint a gloomy picture of yourself and the world.
4. But these thoughts are unrealistic and unhelpful.
5. By seeing things in a more realistic and helpful way, you will feel less depressed.

Example: Tommy was lying on his bed staring out of his window. He was depressed. In his mind he was thinking about all the "bad" things in life - failed relationships, nasty people, being unemployed, feeling out of place - as well as all the "bad" things about himself - his physical shape, his inability to find a girlfriend or a job. Life in Tommy's mind was overwhelmingly unpleasant.

However, in reality Tommy was lying on a comfortable double bed in a comfortable flat with all mod-cons. Outside his window the sun shone warmly, lighting up a beautiful blue sky and bouncing vibrant lush colour off the swaying trees below. People passed below in the street, many of them perfectly pleasant and making the best of life according to what they knew. Further, in reality Tommy was a young able-bodied man, intelligent, talented in many ways, attractive, much loved, with a small but quality social and family circle.

Life was not really so gloomy. In fact, if Tommy concentrated exclusively on the positive pleasant aspects of life and himself and interpreted the supposedly "bad" aspects in a more balanced rational light, his outlook would turn 180 degrees from gloomy to positively cheery. It would be as if suddenly the light of the sun flooded in saturating everything while the gloom that covered everything up was suddenly lifted.