Depression Getaway with Wendy Love

Getting the most out of good memories requires remembering in detail. Getting the most out of therapy requires sharing in detail.  Detailing memories is a great depression strategy and might be a super depression getaway for you and for me. There is only one way you can do this memory retrieval well and that is to write it down in detail! These notes, these details could save your life! They could also save a lot of grief for the loved ones who have to put up with you!

A car 'detailer' has an important job. If they didn't do their job a brand new car would not be worth its value would it? It is the final touch. So, it's all in the details is it? I love watching the decorating shows. They all agree on one thing, the details bring a good design together. Details are important, sometimes. And if we are going to do some recalling of good times, to enhance our antidepressant regime, we apparently have to do it in detail . I have been taking an online course called 'Bipolar IN Order'(no longer available. I cannot recommend it - yet. I am still trying to figure it out. The author, Tom Wootton , recommends that we analyze and record our moods in great detail. This is a problem for me. I don't want to think about my moods. I want to ignore them. I just want them to go away! It is hard enough to cope with the moods let alone think about them in detail, over and over again. But, this is what is required if I am going to atte...

Why do details matter so much?  The artist who created this didn't do it in a day. Why the laying out of the design alone would have taken weeks. Then a few more weeks for the base colours. And after that, months, even years on the details. The details make it! Last week I shared some theories about over generalizing in the way we recall good memories. Psychologists have suggested that we who are challenged with depression tend to do that. And if they are right, then we are missing out on the opportunity to remember in detail what once gave us pleasure and apply those good memories in continuing to find pleasure, thus alleviating depression!

Memories and depression - it is not only what we recall but how we choose to recall it that can affect our depression, in a good way or a bad way.  Recent research has suggested that depressive biases in personal memory may be due to an inability to progress beyond a general level when trying to retrieve specific positive memories.  This study produced further evidence of this phenomenon. When trying to access specific hedonically toned memories, depressed patients more often responded with a general memory and, especially for positive cues, were unable then to progress to a specific memory, even after prompting.  The implications for cognitive therapy for depression are discussed.

Memories and depression. You may be thinking that there are some things you don't want to remember, maybe things which you believed led to this old depression . But that is not the point I am trying to make this week. Apparently we depressed folks tend to overgeneralize when we remember. This overgeneralizing works against us. At least that is what this Oxford study suggests.

Summer is just about over. The teacher in me tends to start new projects in the beginning of September. It is an old habit that is hard to break. Another habit that is hard to break if you are depressed is recalling bad experiences - sometimes ruminating about them, which means dwelling on those negative memories and thinking about them over and over again. I have done a little bit of remembering this summer on this blog. It was sort of an experiment to force myself to recall some good times. I did it as a writing exercise and as an antidepressant. But I learned some interesting things during the process which I would like to share with you. Have you ever been in a deep depression and tried to recall something pleasant? It is almost impossible when you are in that stage. But it is in that very stage that it might be helpful to do that. Have you ever been in a deep depression and tried to recall something pleasant? It is almost impossible when you are in that stage. But it ...