In order to not be depressed you have to think like people do who are not depressed, you have to believe what they believe.As you begin to adopt the beliefs of non depressed people, you will realize that a lot of what you learned growing up may not be very useful. You may not have received some of the best advice, lessons, beliefs and habits you could have adopted and used. It’s not your fault. The society we live in makes it difficult for us to not pick up on these not so useful beliefs and habits.
Along with the poor thinking patterns we may adopt from our families, we are bombarded with information stating that depression is genetic, in the family, there’s nothing you can do about it but take medication for life, and so on. There are actually no studies that definitively prove that depression is genetic. There are some medical reasons for depression such as endocrine disorders, hormonal disturbances and head injury but these are not the majority of depression cases that we see.
But beliefs can be changed. You’ve done it before I am sure. It takes courage to be willing to look at your current beliefs and then decide whether they serve you or sabotage you, whether to keep them or get rid of them.
And yes, it takes consistent rehearsal and repetition, until your brain “gets it”. Maybe we’ve been conditioned from day 1 to believe that our feelings or happiness are not that important. Maybe that it is selfish or wrong somehow to want to be happy and satisfied with life. Yet the entire world around us seems reasonably happy and it is in our face bothering us so it must be important!
This is one of the biggest myths parents teach their kids. And it’s the reason that so many of these kids grow up to be depressed adults.
So today, if you are depressed, start to question the beliefs you hold surrounding your depression. I find clients become very hopeful and relieved when they find out they may not be depressed for life, that they may not be genetically disordered for life and that there are ways to overcome it using their own minds and resources.