Do you have negative thoughts?

إضغط هنا للإطـلاع باللغـه العربيـه

When you are depressed you have all kinds of negative thoughts about:

• Yourself - "I'm a bad person. I never do anything right. I'm not good enough."
• Others - "I can't rely on anyone. No one likes me. They're just out to get me."
• The world and the future - "The world is evil and there's nothing we can do about it."

It's very important that you realize that these negative thoughts have nothing to do with reality. Negative thinking is a symptom of depression. Your negative thoughts result in low spirits and negative feelings. These feelings manifest themselves in many ways:

• You may be unhappy or anxious
• You may also feel pain, sorrow and anger

How do you think?

Throughout life you will develop certain ways of thinking. As such your thoughts will actually follow a defined pattern. We call this your personal pattern.

Your personal pattern plays more of a role than you think when it comes to major life events.

Take, for example, the break-up of a significant relationship. This will trigger former patterns and ideas - even if you developed them a long time ago, e.g. during childhood. Should you trigger negative thoughts, there is a risk that they will draw you into a vicious circle of negative and depressive reactions. The following are examples of negative thoughts:

• "The relationship fell apart because I'm not good enough"
• "I'm worthless"
• "I'm unlovable"

Although this vicious circle becomes a trap, you can learn to break it by stepping out of the circle. Break the circle by changing your thoughts and feelings. You are actually in the fortunate position of being able to play an active role in overcoming your illness.

The vicious circle of depression

Break the circle!