As If…

As a word, ‘depression’ is used to describe so many states of mind that it’s almost meaningless.  It covers everything from feeling fed up, having the blues, reacting normally to painful or difficult events all the way through to maladaptive reactions to events and full scale clinical depression.  The way we deal with our particular depression is of vital importance of course.

This is about a very useful, practical and effective approach.

Depressed people make depressed decisions.  These decisions come out of the depression itself and depressed ways of thinking.  “I can’t be bothered.”  “It won’t work anyway.”  “What’s the point?”  “They don’t want to see me.” etc…  Naturally, these thoughts create more depressed feelings.

What if you think, make decisions and act AS IF you were fine.  Not depressed – happy and confidant.

Easy to say you may think.  But, actually, even easier to do.

Everyone who has even the thinnest sliver of imagination can imagine how a happy and confidant person would think and so act.  If you’re extremely depressed you may only be able to imagine how the happy person would think through comparing yourself negatively, but, none the less you can imagine it.

From “If I felt OK I would be bothered.”  “I would feel excited about X”  is just a small step to “I  believe it will work” “I want to see them.” etc…

So – what if you ‘pretend’?  What if you think AS IF you’re fine – happy and confidant.  Repeat these thoughts (rather than the old, negative, ones) to yourself until you believe them (instead of the old ones.)  Then notice how you feel that you can do these things – you can follow through and act AS IF all these strong confidant thoughts were true.

And, of course, they will then be true.

I’m not saying that, hey presto, that’s it!  End of depression.  But it may be in some circumstances.  In others it’ll be an invaluable tool to start turning things around.

The world is what we think it is.

Have a wonderful October and you are, of course, welcome to contact me.

Suzanne