Self-reinforcement
A
lot of the thoughts, feelings and
behaviour, which occur in connection
with depression, can also be contributory
to prolonging and strengthening the
course of the depression, hence a
self-increasing effect.
Feelings
and memory
If
you feel down, it can effect your
memory in a way that only makes you
think of negative rather than positive
memories. You might for example have
the feeling that life until now has
been drab even though it actually
hasn't been the case. This distortion
of your memory strengthens and prolongs
your depression.
In
trials, where healthy trial subjects
were made to feel depressed through
hypnosis and chemical substances,
it has been proven that the feelings
distort the memory. The trial subjects,
who were made depressed "artificially",
remembered their past in a more negative
way than they did a few hours earlier,
when they were in their normal mood.
Behavioural
change
If
you are depressed, a behavioural change
occurs, which unfortunately can mean
that your relation with others deteriorates.
Because your behaviour is changed
by your becoming more passive and
more "negative" in your
behaviour towards others, your relationship
with, for example, members of your
family or work colleagues deteriorate.
Your
negative behaviour towards others
also causes them to react negatively
towards you. This is of course a problem,
as they distance themselves from you
instead of comforting and encouraging
you. You therefore become even more
convinced about your life's misery
and that can mean that you slide deeper
into depression.
Vicious
circles
These
two circumstances create a self-reinforcing
"vicious circle" of negative
thoughts and feelings and negative
relationships with others. This eventually
creates two vicious circles, one inner
and one outer circle.
The
inner vicious circle is the negative
thoughts about life, which constantly
prevails as a thought pattern in you
and which makes you vulnerable. During
periods of adversity, the inner vicious
circle causes you to feel severely
down. This dejection increases your
negative thoughts, your negative thoughts
increase the dejection and so it continues.
The
outer vicious circle increases your
tendency to react passively or negatively
towards others. Your thereby push
the people closest to you away from
you, which means that you become more
lonely. And when you become more lonely,
you become more depressed etc.
Cognitive
therapy
The
vicious circles can continue long
after the outer triggering causes
of the depression have ceased (such
as a divorce or losing your job).
This means that you and the people
around you have forgotten what it
was that started the depression!
But
you can do something in that situation is
a form of psychotherapy which actually
is about analyzing and changing inappropriate
forms of thought and behaviour. This
form of therapy is therefore the most
effective psychological treatment
method for depressions.
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