7 facts about depression

Depression is not just a situation of 'feeling sad' often or thinking that life is meaningless. The following are seven facts about depression, which provide some insight into a very common and complex situation.

1. There are no specific goals

People with depression tend to over-generalize and abstract. That's why depressed people tend to have more common goals than those without depression (Dickinson, 2013).

For example, a depressed person may tell himself: 'I want to be happy' , but this does not give any indication of how to achieve happiness.

In contrast, people without depression are more likely to have specific goals such as: 'I keep in touch with my family by calling them once a week.'

Because they are specific, clear objectives, more general goals can be achieved.

2. Thinking

An important symptom of depression is contemplation: when depressed thoughts, frustration repeated in the mind.

Unfortunately, you can't ask a depressed person to stop thinking about things that are depressing; It is meaningless. It is because the treatment of symptoms of depression is partly to gain control with one's attention.

One method that can achieve this is attention (mindfulness) . Focus on talking about living in the present rather than focusing on past regrets or worrying about the future.

A recent review of 39 studies of attention found it beneficial in treating depression (Hofmann et al., 2010).

3. Attentive learning while still a child

Attention is very beneficial in combating depression, so why not teach it to children?

A recent study found that focused instruction in schools reduced the likelihood of future depression (Raes et al., 2013).

If a child can learn to control their attention at a young age, they will get this gift for the rest of their lives.

4. Depression obscures memory / memory

One of the less known symptoms of depression is its harmful effect on memory.

Over the years, studies have shown that people with depression suffer from problems of inductive memory, memory of specific events such as names or places (Porter et al., 2003).

The reason may be that depressed people lose their ability to distinguish between similar experiences (Shelton & Kirwan, 2013). It is the other side of the over-generalization trend.

Depression also obscures other types of memory, including the ability to recall meanings and control over space.

5. Difficult to recall good times

Because of memory difficulties and depression, it can be difficult for depressed people to remember good times.

One technique that can help a depressed person is to create an emotional "castle of memories": a place to keep in mind about specific happy memories to return to when you are in difficult times. .

6. Depression realism

There is some evidence that the way people who are depressed look at the world is more accurate than those who are not depressed: This theory is called depressive realism.

People who are not depressed tend to be a bit too optimistic: they think they perform better in tasks than they actually are and predict better results than they actually achieved in the future (Moore & Fresco, 2012).

In contrast, depressed people rated their performance and performance more accurately.

Therefore, people with depression are more realistic people.

7. Kind of thinking

People often think that depression is caused by big, bad events in life.

This is true, but depression also talks about how people react to these events and the usual stress events.

In one study, participants who had large emotional reactions to relatively small events were more likely to experience depressive symptoms when they were followed 10 years later.

The importance of this type of thinking, in addition to the genetic and living conditions supported by recent research, finds how people think about their problems affecting levels. depression they experience (Kindeman et al., 2013).

The author leads the study, explains Professor Peter Kinderman: 'Although we cannot change a family's history or one's life experiences, we can still help them change their way of thinking and teaching. they are aggressive coping strategies that can reduce stress levels. "