Hi dark night,
Thanks for sharing this insight into your depression here with us. Is this a new combination of meds for you? It can take some time to notice improvement with some medications.
If you haven't already done so, you may want to take the time to check out the free ocognitive behavioural therapy program online program offered here to help with how you have been feeling.
In this program we’ll spend a lot of time asking you to think about and explore your feelings. However, in CBT we don’t spend a lot of time trying to convince you to change how you feel. That is because feelings just “are” and they’re difficult to change directly. For example, if you’re feeling sad, angry or frightened those feelings are true for you, and are difficult to challenge. When you say “I’m sad” it doesn’t make a lot of sense for someone else to say “no you aren’t” or “you just shouldn’t feel that way.” Challenging feelings usually doesn’t work very well.
But the good news is that thoughts and behaviors can be tested and challenged. More importantly for depressed people, testing and challenging how you think and behave can change how you feel!
In the “cognitive” part of this program you’ll learn how to identify, understand, and challenge your negative thoughts. By examining your negative thoughts, you’ll learn to stop your negative downward spirals.
In the behavior part of this program you’ll learn how to identify and challenge the behaviors that contribute to your negative downward spirals. You’ll learn to reduce problem behavior such as social withdrawal and increase positive behaviors such as doing things that make you feel good. You’ll also be in control of how you’re going to experiment with new behaviors. And finally, you’ll learn to do behavioral experiments in a step-by-step, structured, and systematic way that works for you.
Please keep us posted on your progress,
Casey
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The Depression Center Support Team
