cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Share your quitting journey

DEPRESSION FIGHTERS

JonesCarpeDiem
0 2 5
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Depression: How to Challenge Negative Thinking
                                                                    
SHARE IT: Facebook Twitter
                                            


If you or a loved one is among the 9 percent of Americans struggling with depression, you know that it can be a complicated condition. Finding a path to healing — and turning negative thinking to positive thinking — often takes more than just medication.

Depression can be so challenging, in part, because it alters your general way of thinking. Although a person who doesn't have depression will have a normal mix of positive and negative thinking each day, having depression tends to make you filter the world through negative thoughts to the point that it distorts reality and your overall outlook on life. Instead of seeing the glass as half full, you may see it as empty.

This type of negative thinking can be overwhelming. The problem is that people with depression get caught in a dangerous spiral, where depression leads to negative thinking, and negative thinking makes them even more depressed.

And putting a stop to negative thinking isn't as simple as just shutting off a switch. Over time, these patterns get so ingrained that they become your normal, everyday way of thinking. And negative thinking often becomes a defense mechanism to rationalize feelings of depression.

Read on for strategies that can help you overcome negative thinking.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/health-report/major-depression-resource-center.aspx?xid=salesnl_6062_2...

2 Comments
About the Author
Hello, My name is Dale. I was quit 18 months before joining this site and had participated on another site during that time. I learned a lot there and brought it with me. I joined this site the first week of August 2008. I didn't pressure myself to quit. HOW I QUIT I didn't count, I didn't deny myself to get started. When I considered quitting (at a friends request to influence his brother to quit), I simply told myself to wait a little longer. No denial, nothing painful. After 4 weeks I was down to 5 cigarettes from a pack a day. The strength came from proving to myself, I didn't need to smoke because I normally would have smoked. Simple yes? I bought the patch. I forgot to put one on on the 4th day. I needed it the next day but the following week I forgot two days in a row I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself that I would slap it on and wait an hour rather than smoke. It rode in my wallet my first year.There's nothing keeping any of you from doing this. It doesn't cost a dime. This is about unlearning something you've done for a long time. The nicotine isn't the hard part. Disconnecting from the psychological pull, the memories and connected emotions is. :-) Time is the healer.