today i'm going to be talking about behavioral activation which is one of the most effective ways
of overcoming depression hi everyone in today's video i'm going to be talking about something
called behavioral activation which is a tool that you can use to increase your behavioral activity
level even if you're experiencing symptoms of depression and one of the things we know about
depression is that it tends to sap a person's motivation and energy and so today we're going
to talk about how you become more behaviorally active how you do more things and how you resume
doing those activities that you used to enjoy doing even if you're feeling depressed but before
i get into that just a couple of disclaimers to go over i'm registered psychologists
in the province of british columbia canada and this video is for informational purposes only
it is not intended as a replacement or substitute for advice from your doctor or mental health
professional now with those things out of the way let's talk about behavioral activation
so as i mentioned in a previous video one of the things that tends to drive depression
is that people don't engage in activities that they enjoy doing when they feel depressed
they may stop doing recreational activities they may withdraw socially they may not be getting
exercise they may not be doing uh things that they know they should be doing like
cleaning the house or uh or doing sort of chores around the home or getting work done
so the question becomes if you're feeling depressed how do you get the energy how do you
get the motivation to do these activities if part of the reason why you're doing these activities
is because you're feeling depressed and one of the things that can often trip people up is that they
fall into what i call the trying harder problem and i've talked about this in another video as
well where depression is actually maintained and driven by a person's desire to try harder to try
and do things and try and do to achieve goals that they just don't have the energy and motivation
to achieve and so the thing with depression is that when a person's feeling depressed they know
the things that they ought to be doing to feel better so this doesn't come as a surprise when
we talk about what are some of the things you should be doing if you're feeling depressed
to feel better so i should be getting more exercise i should be socializing with friends i
should be getting work done i should be eating better so people know what they ought to be doing
but the challenge is if i don't have the energy and motivation to live up to those goals
then i'm going to continue to fail at achieving those goals and that's just going to make me feel
worse and make my depression worse in the long run and so what i want to talk about is how do
you set goals to increase your behavioral activity that you can actually accomplish and so today's
video is really about setting goals to increase behavioral activity now when you think of the
the term goals when i if i were to ask you what are some of your goals oftentimes my clients will
say things like well my goal is to be successful at work my goal is to have a family my goal is to
feel better now the problem with those goals is that while they're they're things to strive for
there's no clear sense of how exactly i'm going to get there how exactly i'm going to achieve
those goals and so what i want to talk about is kind of a different way of thinking about
goals and this may seem as a very artificial way of thinking or considering goals but what i find
is that if you can set goals using these criteria that i'm going to be talking about
you're going to be able to achieve pretty much every goal that you set for yourself and so when i
talk about goals goals have to meet four criteria and i'm going to go through each of these criteria
and if you can like i said if you can be setting goals that meet these criteria
you're going to be successful at those goals and what we know is that succeeding at achieving
a goal helps build motivation and energy and that's how you come out of depression
so the first feature of goals is that the goal has to be specific in other words do i know
exactly what i need to do to achieve this goal now people say okay yeah goal has to be specific
that's pretty obvious and then i'll ask a client to set a goal and they'll say something like
my goal is to lose 10 pounds well that seems like a pretty specific goal you know
at 10 pounds losing 10 pounds it doesn't seem like it gets all that more specific than that
the problem is setting a goal like that doesn't give you any sense of direction for
how to achieve that goal so how am i going to lose 10 pounds am i going to lose 10 pounds by
taking up running am i going to join a gym am i going to be eating more salad
am i going to hire a personal trainer am i going to take up hiking i don't know
i don't really have a clear sense or plan for how to achieve that goal and if i don't have
a clear sense of or plan if i don't know exactly what it is that i need to accomplish that goal
then i'm less likely to be able to do it and i'm less likely to succeed and i'm going to be
more likely to fail which is just going to drive my mood down so the goal has to be specific and
what i mean by that is i need to know exactly what it is that i need to do to accomplish that goal so
rather than a goal of my goal is to lose 10 pounds the goal is my goal is to start taking up running
the second feature of goals is that the goal has to be defined in terms of my behavior
not how i feel doing the goal so sometimes i'll have clients set goals like my goal is to go for a
run and feel really good after the run or my goal is to go to that party and really enjoy myself
at the party well do you see the problem with those goals they almost have two components to
them one is the behavior that i'm actually doing so my goal is to go for a run okay that's fine but
the problem is the second part of it which is my goal is to feel really good after doing the run
we don't have direct control over how we feel if we did then no one would ever feel depressed
we would just choose to feel good all the time we would just choose to feel happy so if i set a goal
of going to the party and really enjoying myself what happens if i go to the party and i don't have
a good time what if i i feel uncomfortable and i i don't feel like i've connected with anyone at the
party will i have achieved my goal no i wouldn't have achieved my goal because my goal wasn't
to just go to the party my goal was to go to the party and have a really good time but i don't have
control over having a really good time and so i'm setting a goal that i'm likely to fail at
especially in the context of depression where what we know is that in depression people can
experience something called anhedonia which is a loss of pleasure or enjoyment
in activities so if i my goal is go to the party and have a really good time but the anhedonia is
preventing me from having a really good time i'm going to the party but i'm still failing
so the idea is to just stick to um what i call the old nike logo which is just do it
just focus on the behavior my goal is to go for a run my goal is to go to the party
it doesn't matter if i enjoy myself on the run it doesn't matter if i have a good time at the party
all that matters is me doing the goal now a second part of this characteristic
of goals is that the goal has to be defined in terms of my behavior not the behavior of
someone else so sometimes clients will set goals like my goal is to go for coffee with a friend
now it seems like a pretty straightforward goal but what happens if you call up your friend
and they would love to go for coffee with you but they're just really busy this week
and they can't make it well have you achieved the goal no you haven't achieved the goal but
not because of anything within your control you haven't achieved the goal because the goal was
partly defined in terms of the behavior of someone else and so the goal requires
someone else to do something and you don't have control over that so a much better goal a much
more effective goal is to set a goal like my goal is to call up my friend and invite them for coffee
so notice it's it's a small change but it's an important one because what defines whether i've
accomplished the goal is whether or not i pick up the phone and call my friend and invite them for
coffee if we end up going for coffee great but if we don't end up going for coffee i've still
achieved the goal because the goal was defined in terms of my behavior something that i was doing
so this idea that goals have to be behavioral they have to be defined in terms of what i'm doing
the idea is to make accomplishing the goal 100 within my control so it doesn't depend on how
i feel and it's not depending on someone else's behavior and so if i can define a goal just by
my behavior i give myself a much better chance of accomplishing and succeeding at that goal
now the third characteristics of goals is that the goal has to have a clear end line in other words
will i know yes or no whether or not i have succeeded the thing is depression loves ambiguity
if it's unclear whether or not you've accomplished the goal that little depression gremlin on your
shoulder is going to tell you that no matter what you've done it's not enough you haven't succeeded
now for some goals this is pretty obvious so if the goal is to pick up the phone and call my
friend if i pick up the phone and call my friend i know pretty clear whether or not i've achieved
the goal but what about a goal like my goal is to clean the kitchen well i could spend say you know
two hours cleaning the kitchen and by the end of the two hours i've done a lot in the kitchen but
that little depression gremlin on my shoulder is going to say to me yeah but you didn't pull all
the all the cups and plates out of the cupboards and wipe down and bleach down all the cupboards
so you haven't fully cleaned the kitchen you see you're just failing again you're not doing
the full job that's what depression is going to tell me and i'm going to feel like i've failed
so in situations like that where there is no clear end line you have to figure out a way of making it
a clear end line of making it crystal clear black and white whether or not you've accomplished
the goal and so one of the things i will recommend for people is to set a time limit so
my goal is to clean the kitchen for 30 minutes start the oven timer i start cleaning when
that oven timer goes off regardless of how much i've done regardless of how much i've completed
i've completed the goal so by setting a time limit what you can do is make it
really clear have i accomplished the goal did i clean the kitchen for 30 minutes or did i not
so that way you can make it really clear whether or not you've accomplished the goal you
make a really clear end line to accomplish the goal
now the final feature of goals is what i like to call the 95 percent rule
am i 95 certain i can accomplish this goal so in other words is the goal realistic
so i could set a goal for example of going to the gym seven days a week and working out for four
hours a day well that's specific i know exactly what it is i need to do it's defined in terms
of my behavior there's a clear end line i'll know whether or not i've accomplished the goal
but it's completely unrealistic and so there's no point in setting a goal
that i'm going to have failed to achieve right that's the whole trying too hard problem i'm
trying to do things that are way beyond what my level of energy and motivation is
and so the idea is to set a goal that you're 95 certain you can accomplish
so if you're only 80 certain you can accomplish the goal make the goals smaller so i might set
a goal of my goal is to go for an hour walk three times a week but i start to think to myself well
i haven't been walking that much lately i'm not sure if i can do it i really want to do it
but i'm not sure if i can well then what i tell my clients is make the goal smaller
you know what if you're not 95 certain you can go for three one hour walks this week
set the goal of going for two half hour walks and if you're 95 certain that you can do those two
half hour walks then do the two half hour walks and make that the goal now the thing with goals is
you can do more than what you're setting as the goal so i may set the goal of going for the two
half hour walks but i end up going for three one hour walks that's great i've accomplished the goal
but even if i don't go for those three one hour walks if i just go for the two half hour walks
that's great as well i've achieved the goal so the idea of goal setting and by
setting goals that meet these four criteria what you're doing is you're
almost guaranteeing the sick the likelihood that you're going to achieve the goal and what you're
doing is you're guaranteeing that you're going to be successful at achieving the goal and that's how
you rebuild that motivation and energy just as depression is caused by the trying too hard
problem and failure sapping motivation and energy as you try to live up to goals that
you can't accomplish by setting goals that are realistic based on your level of energy
that you know exactly what you're supposed to do that you're entirely in control of whether
or not they get accomplished and you're clear whether or not you've achieved those goals if you
can set those goals and succeed at those goals it's going to build motivation and energy and
that's how you begin to start feeling better and that's how you start to overcome the depression
so i hope that makes sense uh i would love to hear some of your thoughts and ideas about this
i would love to hear some of the goals that you're thinking of setting for yourself so please leave
me some thoughts and comments and questions in the comments section down below if you've been
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thank you for making it all the way to the end of this video and i will see you in the next one