Someone has the cure for depression!!!

Someone sent me a link to a Facebook post. To summarise, the poster had proclaimed that the way to beat depression is not to think negative thoughts.

Wow! What a revelation!

Except it isn’t. That is exactly how you beat depression¹.

Simple, don’t you think?

Just like the way to get to the moon is to build a rocket. Or the way to get a gold Olympic medal is to win a race at the Olympic Games.

If it were really that simple, then why do people bother with counsellors, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, even Mindfulness? Why is depression costing the economy so much?

Because the reality is our thoughts are not always our own. If someone who has trained in psychotherapy and counselling, Mindfulness based cognitive therapy, as well as being visiting professor of mental health nursing at the University of Surrey², still struggles with depression, then how can the rest of us just stop thinking bad things?

It takes a lot of effort.

Conscious effort.

It is easy to slip, but we try to persevere anyway.

I’ll leave you with another thought from Facebook:

‘Fear the Illuminati?’

You should fear the Ignorati.

They do more damage, and there’s more of them.

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Notes:

1. I said beat depression, not cure. Like diabetes, it’s something you have to manage for the rest of your life.
2. Ruby Wax, OBE, is Visiting Professor of Mental Health Nursing at the University of Surry, and has a Master’s Degree in Mindfulness based Cognitive Therapy.