Let’s look at managing depression. There are limited choices to treatment the two most commonly used are medications and talk therapy. Together they can be very effective. Yet many people are concerned about side effects of meds and are sick of digging up the past with different therapists. What else is there?
What I want to talk about is The Upside of Down! This is a researched to be effective treatment tool I use with the people I support after doing therapy with individuals for 25 years. Living with my daughter & wife who have depression has also taught me invaluable lessons for managing depression and the wisdom of learning The Upside of Down.
What is the Up Side of Down? Click here if you would like to see my book Picture Your Life that helps people work this process.
Let’s first look at what it is not….
- It is not Pollyannaish thinking
- Depression sucks so let’s not try to make it positive
- The absence of depression does not make us happy there is much more
This is what The Up Side of Down is…
- Dealing with thinking that is a lie
- Dwelling on the good as best we can
- Looking for how the depression may have helped us to be a better person…more kind and understanding for example
If you would like some support for managing depression I would love to help
We need to think about things in a clear real way. Why live a lie?
If we have been sexually abuse it is not our fault. It does not make ALL men jerks. These thoughts maybe totally false or only somewhat true. We need to make sure what we think is not making our depression worse. This is a great tool for managing depression.
We need to dwell on the good. Talking about how to manage our sadness helps but the research tells us that thinking about it {rumination} only makes things worse. We need to see the light to get out of the dark. More on this in a later post. {See overcome depression go to file under and click on depression}
Has there been lifelong learning with the depression? Depression is awful! Yet it may have helped to shape us and some of the growth from dealing with adversity can be a positive thing. We do not want to wear dark glasses. We need to see the light!