The Healthy Management of Reality - Stanford University

Consider the following example: In working with depressed individuals, oneof the problems I have encountered is a severely negative image of themselves.Depressed people have a hard time coming up with positive adjectives to describethemselves, but have no problems generating a list of negative adjectives. One ofthe tasks of therapy is to help the person achieve a sense of balance: we work oncoming up with a view of the patient that gives her credit for the things she is ordoes which she can justifiably feel proud of. At the same time, we question eachof the negative elements that she ascribes to herself, and attempt to either disprovetheir accuracy, or limit their applicability. Rather than labeling herself as "totallyirresponsible," she might change the label to "procrastinator." And then, we mightpinpoint the fact that she procrastinates only in the area of responding to personalletters, while, for example, she routinely pays her bills on time.However, it would be unwise for a person to take the above example anddetermine that, if thinking well of oneself is helpful in treating depression, thinkingterrifically well of oneself in all areas would be even better. This can lead tounrealistically positive assertions about oneself, which would be hard to maintainfor very long. Also, thinking "too well" of oneself is likely to bring forth negativereactions in others. Finally, beliefs that one could accomplish anything one wishesmight lead to unwise investments of time and resources in projects that are veryunlikely to succeed. All of these reactions are actually seen in many cases ofmanic-depressive illness. During what is called the "manic" phase of this disorder,individuals go to the extreme opposite of depression, and become abnormallyenergetic, believing that they are extremely intelligent, that their ideas are likely tochange the world, and that they have unusual powers and abilities.HMOR.July2005.Muñoz.doc 31