Thanks for input. Since it is helping me, I wanted to get the word out so to speak so others might have it work for them.
I think a key to overcoming depression is to have a way to truly address and feel better about our fears and negative feelings. It helped me to write them down, see the distortions in them and then write more accurate descriptions of the situation.
Optomist, I guess you can figure out on here I love to give my opinion. lol, I come here twice a day and find it very helpful. when I come here I not only post, but I work on my sessions. It's what prompts me to do the "paperwork" so to speak.
I recently had an experience with journaling; a severe crying spell where all these thoughts kept coming through my head - I did journal that experience. I think you are on to something. I need to make journaling a part of what I do when I come here. I found coming here prompts me to do what I need to do re: CBT. I don't know if that makes any sense or not. I think I may journal regularly to see how it goes. The frustrating part of that; it is just adding one more time consuming thing that I do to combat depression on a daily basis. However, on the positve side, maybe I wouldn't have to work so hard at some other things if I journaled and got it out of my system (head). It's worth a try. I used to journal all the time, I've tried to start and don't succeed, I think I should add it into one of my visits here - I do stay focused with this on my computer screen. lol, whatever works right?????
Thank you for your honesty and for sharing your experience and what is working for you. Journaling is a key part of your success as it can help sort out feelings, as well as pinpoint areas to work through.
Members,
Come and answer optimist's question and share with us!
Hello again, Optimist here. I want to share with this group something I have observed about overcoming my depression. I will write more on this and hope other will speak to this directly, too.
It really helps me when I write down my fears and negative thoughts, then look at them in the context of common cognitive distortions I have learned through David Burns and then most importantly writing down why these beliefs are really not accurate. I am by no means cured and still think some terrible things, feel ashamed of my behavior, overwhelmed by having too much to do and can be very negative. I am still struggling to move my life in a more positive fashion by avoiding self-defeating behavior. Frankly most of my life I have had a low self-esteem, a feeling of not deserving to be happy, and a negative point of view on a lot of things. The gut wrenching major depression only started this summer.
It will take time and hard effort to overcome these feelings and behavior.
My point is I want to share with all of you that by taking action to write down my fears and negative thoughts and then really thinking about why these thoughts aren't completely accurate, and writing that down, I do feel better, not immediately always, but later in the day or the next day. I encourage all of you to try it. I think it works because it shows us that we are not being fair to ourselves. What do you think?
