today i'm going to be talking about depression
and the role that thoughts play in causing and maintaining depression
hi everyone in today's video we're going to be talking about thinking and the role that
thinking can play in the onset and maintenance of depression and
difficulties with low mood but before i get into that just a couple of disclaimers to go over
i'm a registered psychologist in the province of british columbia canada and this video is for
informational purposes only it is not intended as a substitute or replacement for advice from
your doctor or mental health professional now with those two things out of the way
let's start talking about thinking and depression now in a previous video i talked about a model for
understanding depression a model that discussed the interrelationships between behaviors thoughts
and emotions what you do how you think and the impact that they have on how you feel and i talked
about it kind of like a triangle where each side of the triangle influences the other side of the
triangle now today what we're going to be focusing on is the thought emotion side of that triangle
and the way that thinking has an impact on how we feel now the way we typically experience emotions
is that something happens situation occurs and that causes our emotional reaction
so i have a fight with a friend and that triggers me to feel really distressed or upset
i make a mistake at work or i get reprimanded at work and i feel really down and really upset about
what happened and the mistake that i made so we usually experience it as it's a situation that
leads to my emotional reaction but what we know is that it's actually more complicated than that and
that what causes our emotional reaction is the way we interpret the situation the way we think
about it and in that sense our thoughts are the key determining factor in determining how we feel
so to explain this let's imagine a scenario and the scenario is that i have a lunch date
planned with my friend jimmy now it's been a while since i've seen jimmy i'm really looking forward
to this lunch date because we haven't had a chance to catch up in a really long time
so i'm getting ready to go to leave my house for the lunch date and just as i'm about to leave
the front door i see that there's a sticky note that's been left for me and all the sticky notes
says is that jimmy had to cancel the lunch date no other explanation no other details or context
all it says is that jimmy had to cancel so let's imagine try to think of what are the possible
reasons what are the possible explanations for why jimmy had to cancel the lunch date
well it could be that you know maybe jimmy just got really busy with work and just got overwhelmed
with work and he just can't get away from work for the lunch date so that's one possibility
maybe another possibility is that jimmy's just a bit flaky and a bit absent-minded and he he forgot
about our lunch date and double booked himself and so he can't make the lunch date because
he uh he has to do something else because he'd forgot about the lunch date
maybe jimmy was involved in a car accident and is really hurt and had to go to the hospital
and that's why he had to cancel the lunch date maybe jimmy got a better offer
he got an offer from someone he likes more to go for a lunch date and so he's cancelling my
lunch date to go out with the other person really jimmy or maybe jimmy's cancelling the lunch date
because jimmy actually doesn't like me and jimmy's never really liked me and he only agreed to go
on the lunch date because it was kind of a pity thing and he didn't know how to say no at the time
and so we agreed to go on the lunch date never really wanting to go on the lunch date because
he doesn't really like me and so that's why he cancelled the lunch date so there's all sorts of
reasons why jimmy may have canceled the lunch date but let's imagine now that i find out afterwards
the real reason why jimmy canceled the lunch date and to think about what is the likely emotion i
would experience in that situation so suppose i found out that jimmy canceled the lunch date
because he just got overwhelmed with work well i i'd probably be a bit disappointed because
i was really looking forward to going on the lunch date with jimmy but i understand that sort
of thing happens so it's a bit of disappointment that's probably the most likely emotional reaction
in that situation now suppose i find out that jimmy canceled the lunch date because
jimmy's flaky and he forgot about the lunch date and double booked himself well
i probably feel a bit annoyed you know jimmy tends to do this a lot and it's starting to get
uh pretty annoying just how flaky jimmy is so annoyance would probably be the most likely
and reasonable emotion in that situation imagine if i found out that jimmy canceled the lunch
date because he was in a car accident well i'd probably be concerned and really anxious about
jimmy worrying about whether he was okay or if he or if he was seriously hurt in the accident
if i found out that jimmy canceled the lunch date because he got a better offer from someone else
i'd probably be pretty mad i'd probably be pretty angry at jimmy because
you don't you don't do that to people that's not really uh polite or respectful so i'd
probably be pretty angry at jimmy if that was the reason that he canceled the lunch date
now suppose the reason that jimmy canceled the lunch date was that he doesn't actually like me
and that it was kind of a pity acceptance when he said he'd go to lunch with me but
he never wanted to go to lunch with me and has never really liked me well the emotional state i'd
probably have in that scenario is one of sadness and feeling pretty down and upset about it so
notice this one sticky note on my you know near my door just as i'm about to leave uh for this lunch
date could mean a variety of different things and my emotional reactions are very dependent on
how i interpret that note to determine how i'm going to feel now the emotional reactions
in each of these scenarios that i talked about aren't abnormal pretty much anyone would probably
feel that way if that was the particular reason that jimmy canceled the lunch date so
if anyone found out that their friend had to cancel a lunch date because they were involved
in an accident most everyone would probably be worried and concerned about their friend
so it's not so much the emotion that's the problem the problem is
the interpretation if our interpretations are inaccurate if the way we think about a situation
is inaccurate it's going to lead to an emotional response that is perfectly normal based on that
interpretation but if the interpretation is wrong then the emotional reaction is going to be
inappropriate or inconsistent so for example if the real reason that jimmy canceled the lunch date
was because he got overwhelmed with work and couldn't make it
but i interpreted that the reason jimmy canceled the lunch date was because he didn't like me
i'm gonna feel really down and really sad in that situation even though
the real reason he canceled the lunch date has nothing to do with not liking me
and this is sort of what happens in depression that when someone's experiencing the depression
they tend to interpret situations in overly negative ways and based on those negative
interpretations it leads to a depressed state it leads to feelings of sadness so we often think
about depression as a mood disorder whereas i would suggest that it probably has more to do with
a thought disorder or inappropriate thinking rather than inappropriate
emotions the emotions are absolutely appropriate if the interpretation is accurate but if the
interpretation isn't accurate the emotion is an exaggeration it's overly negative when it doesn't
need to be now one important thing that tends to happen in depression that makes this process worse
is that negative thinking tends to hook you into even more negative thinking so
for example i see the sticky note about jimmy cancelling lunch and i think to myself well
jimmy canceled lunch because he doesn't like me and he's never really liked me
my thinking probably isn't going to stop there i'm probably not gonna
have that thought and then think oh what am i gonna have for lunch anyway
i'll probably start to think in even more negative ways i get hooked into this negative thinking
spiral where one negative thought leads to another and leads to another so i think to myself
jimmy canceled lunch because he doesn't like me maybe he's never liked me
maybe other people don't like me is there something wrong with me that people keep doing
this to me is there something maybe inherently unlovable about me maybe no one will ever
like me maybe i'm flawed at my core maybe i'm destined to be alone and that there's just
something inherently wrong with me now notice that negative thinking has spiraled down and so
what started out as a single sticky note that said that said my friend canceled lunch with
no other explanation has now become me thinking about myself as inherently unlovable and flawed
the negative thinking tends to hook into even more negative thinking
and the worse i feel the more likely it is i am to think in negative ways
and the more i tend to think in negative ways the worse i tend to feel and the cycle
continues so that's one of the ways that negative thinking can really contribute to
causing maintaining and and making depression and feelings of depression a lot worse
now in future videos i'm going to be talking about some tools and skills that you can use to
better identify some of these overly negative thinking patterns and to begin to change some
of these overly negative thinking patterns but i just wanted to give a bit of a background a
bit of an understanding of how thinking plays a role in depression so i hope that makes sense i
would love to hear your thoughts and ideas about this so please leave me some comments
in the comments section down below if you've been enjoying my videos and want to see more
please hit that subscribe button and notification bell and you'll be alerted every week
when i post a new video so that's all for today's video as always
thank you for making it all the way to the end of this video and i will see you in the next one