Beliefs Cause Depression

Cognitive Triad of Depression: 

Depressed individuals have negative views of themselves, the  environment and their future, and tend to:.

o   View self as worthless, inadequate, unlovable and deficient.

o   View environment as overwhelming, presenting insuperable obstacles that cannot be overcome.

o   View the future as hopeless, doomed. 

Cognitive Distortion Mechanisms

• All or nothing thinking - e.g., it is perfect or a total failure.
   

• Overgeneralization - single negative event coupled with "always" or "never."
   

•  Mental filter - discounting the positives and dwelling on the negatives

  • Magnification - Exaggerate the importance of one's liabilities, and minimize the importance of one's assets

• Jumping to conclusions

  •  Mind reading - The belief that you know what other people are thinking - e.g., "She thinks I'm . . . ."

  • Fortune telling - The belief that you can predict the future - e.g., "She is going to . . . . "
     

• Emotional reasoning: assume emotions reflect reality

  • "I am terrified to go, so it must be dangerous."

  • "I feel angry therefore I must be being treated unfairly."

  • "I feel so inferior, therefore I must be inadequate somehow."
     

• Personalization and blame - attributing responsibility totally to persons     
                      

•  Should statements (Musterbation)

  • Directed against self leads to guilt and frustration

  • Directed against others leads to anger and frustration
     

• Labeling - you are not what you do. 

  • There is no such thing as a "fool" only foolish actions

 - Shakespeare

Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued, it must ensue.  The path that leads to this goal begins with achieving control over the contents of one's own consciousness.

- Victor Frankl