Process - Physician - Fraser Health Authority

WHAT CAUSES DEPRESSION?Distorted ways of thinkingUnrealistic, negative thoughtsabout the situation.You see the situation in an unrealistically pessimisticway, emphasizing its negative or threatening aspectsand ignoring more positive or promising aspects.Unfair, negative thoughts about yourself.You think about yourself in a very critical fashion,judging yourself in a harsh and unfair manner.Unrealistic, negative thoughtsabout the future.You anticipate a future that is bleak and disappointing,exaggerating the likelihood of very negative outcomes.Taken together, we call this the Negative Triad: thinkingin an unfair and unrealistic, negative way about yourcurrent situation, yourself, and your future.These ways of thinking often start in childhood. Somepeople grew up in families where only negative andcritical comments were made. In other families,children were discouraged from saying positive thingsabout themselves and rewarded for being self-critical.Whether these negative thinking styles are caused bythe depression or started in childhood, they haveenormous influence on your experience of the world.Not surprisingly, these ways of thinking about theworld increase the negative impact of difficult lifesituations and predispose people to emotional pain.A person with depressive thinking can becomediscouraged or hopeless even when things aregoing well.SELF-CARE DEPRESSION PROGRAM9 ANTIDEPRESSANT SKILLS WORKBOOK