“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
– Dr. Wayne Dyer
It’s easy to look at things in such a way that it makes you feel more depressed and anxious. And one way to change the way you feel is to change the way you think.
When We’re Depressed, We All Think Alike
Dr. Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalysis creator and talk therapy grandfather, had many influential theories about the mind and human behaviour that are used to this day.
For example, Freud theorized that depression was anger turned inward. Depressed people, he believed, were dealing with angry feelings, but rather than express them outwardly in a socially appropriate way, they turned it on themselves. And they became depressed as a result.
In the 1960s, a psychiatrist named Dr. Aaron Beck wanted to do a study that supported Sigmund Freud’s view of depression. Because Freud’s analysis method relied heavily on dream interpretation, Beck hypothesized that depressed people should have similar dreams since they all shared the same diagnosis.
But Beck discovered the opposite: depressed people all had very different dreams. No two depressed people dreamt the same.
Instead, Beck noticed something else. He noticed that people who suffered from depression all had similar thinking patterns. That is, they all had very negative and biased thoughts. There were three types of negative thoughts that Beck discovered in his depressed patients.
He called it the negative triad: Depressed people had negative thoughts about themselves, their future, and the world.
Biased Thinking Leads to Uncomfortable Feelings
Freud’s theories led to a whole school of thought about human behaviour known as psychodynamic theory. Psychodynamic theory emphasizes early childhood relationships and unconscious forces to explain and understand our behaviour as adults. I still use some of these theories to understand why a person might behave as they are.
But I also find that cognitive theories, which started with Aaron Beck, provide an excellent source for changing and correcting the experiences that our past has on our present.
Thoughts are Just One Part of Mental Health
I’m a big believer in the power of positive and balanced thinking. Whenever I face a challenge, I try to look at my situation and circumstances differently by changing my thoughts and self-talk. These changes in thinking patterns usually lead to a change in my emotional core.
But I also know that our thoughts aren’t the only thing that helps us to change and feel better.
Having a conversation with a friend, going for a walk through a park, hitting the gym and pushing ourselves to exhaustion, or maybe a good night’s sleep. These activities can also change how you feel and improve your mood.
You can’t change what’s happening in another part of the world, nor can you change what might happen to you tomorrow. But you can change how you perceive, interpret, and think about the present moment. And at the end of the day, that’s the best you can do.
Richard