Depression

• Behavioural

  • Reduced levels of energy, becoming lethargic.
  • Disruption to sleep: May experience insomnia or hypersomnia
  • Eating may increase/decrease leading to weight gain/loss
  • Aggression and self harm: Physical aggression to others or against
• Emotional

  • Lowered mood: Profound feelings of sadness and melancholy
  • Lowered self esteem: Like themselves less than usual
• What is over-generalisation?

  Making a broad assumption
• What is selective perception?

  Attaching greater weight to failure
• What is magnification?

  Focussing on the negative
• Therapies for depression:

  • Identify the negative and irrational thoughts through discussion with the therapist. Eg. Thinking that everyone at work hates you
  • Challenge these thoughts by ‘hypothesis testing’ Eg. smiling at someone in the workplace and see if they smile back
• Therapies for depression:

  • Involves ‘patient as scientist‘: testing the negative thoughts and evaluating the evidence. Eg. If someone in the workplace and see if they smile back
  • Keeping a diary. Eg. Record and monitor situations where negative thinking occurs and can be tested
• Therapies for depression:

  • positive thoughts which emerge can be reinforced via cognitive restructuring. Eg. Working out that the evidence suggests people at work do not actually hate you