Depression

What I am learning

Notes from Depression by Richard O’Connor,Ph.D., c. 2010.

Skills of depressed people:

Ability to put on false front.

Isolation from affection, no emotion showing.

Somatization (body reveals through some illness)

Denial: anger turned inward or outward.

Repression: displaced emotion to other event (death of a pet, for example)

            Or “forgetting”  everything

Intellectualization

Projection onto others, blaming

Externalization (blaming)

Rages

Anehedonia (loss of joy in anything)

Hopelessness and apathy

Procrastination

Lethargy

Overwork, inability to prioritize

Obsessive/compulsive activities

Victimizing or violence towards others, or self mutilation

Pessimism

Negative self-talk

Selective attention to negative events

Depressed logic

Restricting social circle to depressed/dependcy

Counter dependency or porous boundaries

Impossible goals

No goals/lots of guilt

Passive-aggressive vs. self (set up failures)

Symptoms:

Lack of exercise

neglecting of medical care/ succumbing to quacks

abuse of alcohol or drugs

Depression is apparently a “threshold disease” like heart disease, that builds until it is discernible.

Back to healthy eating, exercise, reduce stress, increase involvement.  Pay attention to messages the body is sending.

Develop trust confidants, emotional engagement and support, seek understanding not advice.

Forego emotional control

Forego perfectionism

Develop mindfulness.

Know how you DO depression, to get clues how to Undo it.

Learn to feel.  Emotion are reflexes.  Pay attention to initial responses.

Feel, then decide how to express yourself.

Keep a mood journal, look for underlying causes.

Acedia (sloth) is a state of mild chronic depression.

Practice happiness.

Planning to see a therapist?  Choose with care.

Note your gut reaction to him/her.  Do you trust?

References, esp. from former patients.?

Experienced with depression?

Openness to medication?

Willingness to be directive if needed?

Request info from NIMH.  www.depression.org.  www.nami.org.

CBT= cognitive behavior therapy.

IPT+ interpersonal therapy.

Psychodynamic therapy refers to belief in unconscious motivations and reactions, a therapy which is better than medication in the long run.

The Mindful Way Through Depression with CD of guided meditations is recommended.

There is no specific self-help group for depressed people.

Go to sleep focused on happy events that day.  It grows new neurons!  Happy ones!

Engage in creativity.  Do not be seduced by stagnation.  The choice is to grow or die.

Practice self-constructive behavior.

Lots of recommended reading.

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