Depression and CBT

[Fallon01]

Hi,

I was diagnosed with depression around this time last year and spent most of 2017 in therapy. I made some great strides and found my lows became less low and I was having more highs, which I hadn't realised were missing so much from my life (I was diagnosed last year but probably should have been many years before that).

I had a very long run of, as I've taken to calling them, good brain days where I've been on top of things and the occasional feelings of worthlessness or despair have been easily controlled. However, the past few weeks, without anything really changing in my life, I've found myself back in the hole I had climbed out of.

I am that annoyingly familiar case of someone whose life is going well but still finds themselves crippled by depression. I'm happy in my marriage and my home life. My job is boring sometimes and interesting other times like most jobs and my hobby of writing is going well. I've won some competitions and joined a writer's group who reacted really well to me and my work. I have a novel written that's currently being manuscript assessed, which is admittedly adding to my stress as I wait for the report to come back so I can edit the book and try and get it published. But that stress is a good stress in the sense that I'm moving closer to a finish line.

I haven't posted on here before but I thought that it might help me to see if anyone had any coping strategies for when those dark feelings hit and it feels like a weight has fallen on them that they can't lift off. I probably need to go back to my therapist but I find that his area tends to be talking about things rather than giving me strategies and I like the talking but I don't like the feeling awful afterwards without the weapons to fight off the feeling terrible.

Any help anyone can offer would be much appreciated, and just to know that there are people out there who might read this and know what its like is reassuring. When you're fighting something this big it's nice to know there are other people who might know how to find its weaknesses.

Thanks,

Sean.

[smallwolf]

Hi and Welcome. Good to hear you are getting better. Outside of filling out REBT forms *sigh*, I have three coping strategies...

(1) Deep breathing exercises. I have to extract myself from whatever is triggering me.

(2) Some sort of guided meditation. I have apps recommended by the psych for this.

(3) If you have read the happiness trap, it says to say "thank you" to your mind. It does mention other ideas such as saying the negative thought in the voice of some silly cartoon character. An alternative to this is the replay the thought in a number of different movie genres as a diffusion (?) technique.

Interestingly, the author of the same book also talks about this... suppose that you have the feeling of a lump in your throat, to focus on that spot and your breath, and feeling your breath going through that spot. It does not remove the feeling of the lump in the throat. The purpose is to recognise that the negative thought is not the "be all and end all" and that is just a feeling or thought. I hope that makes sense. If not, you would have to find the book.

[Guest113]

Mindfulness is still relatively new but can totally be put to practice. MCBT is essentially CBT with mindfulness integrated.

Similar to smallwolf's point, you can learn to ground yourself in whatever current environment you're in. Generally you might find yourself in your worst moods at home - when there isn't the stress of work right in your face. This is the perfect time to practice. It takes time, but hopefully you can get to the point where you're not worrying about the past or future and can enjoy the present. Enjoy the time you have with your wife. Try closing your eyes and focusing on your physical feelings and realise there is nothing around you that can currently hurt you.

Good luck.