According to members of The Depression Project's community, one of the most common negative thoughts people with depression experience is "I'm never going to overcome depression". And, if you can relate, then in this blog post, we'd like to share with you a free excerpt from one of our cognitive behavioural therapy-based journals that details several reasons why you can overcome depression (that up until now, you may not have considered).
Are you ready?
Free excerpt
Itâs important to note that just because you have a thought, it doesnât mean that itâs true â and in fact, when youâre viewing everything through depressionâs critical, distorted lens thatâs causing you to think much more negatively than you otherwise would, many of your negative thoughts are likely going to be false.
For this reason, then rather than automatically accepting a negative thought like âIâm never going to overcome depressionâ to be true, it can be really helpful to implement a common cognitive behavioural therapy strategy that involves bringing awareness to the evidence which disputes it1.
In particular, evidence to contradict the negative thought âIâm never going to overcome depressionâ could include, for example:
- There is increasingly more and more help available to assist you in overcoming depression â including, for example, increased accessibility to therapy as a result of the internet; progressions in the field of psychology that are creating new opportunities for treatment and improving existing opportunities; more and more depression self-help books being written by experts and published every year; and more and more online courses being made by experts as well. Accordingly, just because you havenât overcome depression yet, it doesnât mean that, with continuously increasing access to help, you wonât be able to overcome depression in the future.
- There are often many, many differences between one therapist and another â including their treatment approaches, their communication styles, and their overall knowledge and âtalentâ as a therapist â to name a few of many such differences. Consequently, even if youâve tried therapy in the past and havenât found it helpful, itâs highly likely that there are other therapists out there who would indeed be able to help you.
- There are hundreds â more like thousands! â of self-help books written by highly knowledgeable and experienced professionals that, in all likelihood, you havenât yet read. And, if you do read them, then you will almost certainly learn countless strategies and techniques that you donât now know which could really help you to overcome depression.
- There is often a âlearning curveâ when it comes to effectively implementing techniques to help you overcome depression. For this reason, even if you havenât found one or more techniques in particular to be helpful in the past, it doesnât mean that, with more and more practice, you wonât be able to find them helpful in the future.
- Yet another reason why you may not have found certain techniques helpful in the past but you may do in the future is because the headspace you happen to be in can determine how effective various techniques are. For example, if youâre so consumed with negative thoughts, so consumed with misery and feeling so exhausted and broken that itâs a struggle to get out of bed for example, then learning and effectively implementing a brand new cognitive behavioural therapy strategy will likely be beyond your present capacity. However, if you try to learn and implement that strategy when youâre in a better headspace, then you may indeed find it beneficial.
- Furthermore, just because you havenât done something yet, or just because you arenât exactly sure how to do something right now (including overcome depression, for example), it does not mean that that something isnât possible â particularly if you try really hard to do it!
End of free excerpt
We really hope you've found this free journal excerpt helpful.
All our love,
The Depression Project Team.
P.S. If you'd like more help coping with and overcoming the negative thought ï»ż"I'm never going to overcome depression",Â ï»żthen please click the button below to learn more about our You Can Overcome Depression journal.