« Thank You Ron Reagan - for your speech on Embryonic Stem Cell Research | Main | Focus Of Catholic Sexual Abuse Suits Now Includes Nuns »
August 02, 2004
Excerpts From Books - Continued
To Develop A Sense of Self-Esteem: You don't have to. You don't have to do anything especially worthy to create or deserve self-esteem; all you have to do is turn off that critical, haranguing, inner voice. Why? Because that critical inner voice is wrong! Your internal self-abuse springs from illogical, distorted thinking. Your sense of worthlessness is not based on truth, it is just abscess which lies at the core of depressive illness. When you are upset!
1.)Zero in on those automatic negative thoughts and write them down. Don't let them buzz around in your head; snare them on paper. 2.)Read over the list of ten cognitive distortions. Learn precisely how you are twisting things and blowing them out of proportion. 3.) Substitute a more objective thought that puts the lie to the one which made you look down on wourself. As you do this, you'll begin to feel better. You'll be boosting your self-esteem, and your sense of worthlessness (and of course, your depression) will disappear.
Do - Nothingism - How To Beat It: You can substantially change the way you feel by changing the way you act. It's an approach to mood elevation that is enormously effective. There's only one hitch - when you're depressed, you don't feel like doing much. One of the most destructive aspects of depression is the way it paralyzes your willpower. In it's mildest form you may simply procrastinate about doing a few obvious chores. As your lack of motivation intensifies, vitually any activity appears so difficult that you become overwhelmed by the urge to do nothing. Because you accomplish very little, you feel worse and worse. Not only do you cut yourself off from your normal sources of stimulation and pleasure, but your lack of productivity aggrevates your self-hatred, resulting in further isolation and incapacitation.
An explanation for self-defeating behavior. 1.) Your're lazy, it's just your nature. 2.) You want to hurt yourself and suffer. You either like feeling depressed, or you have a self-destrucive drive, "a death-wish". 3.) You're passive-aggressive, and you want to frustrate the people around you by doing nothing. 4.) You must be getting some "payoff" from your procrastination and do-nothingism. For example, you enjoy getting all that attention when you are depressed.
#3 - can be explained on the basis of "internalized anger". Resentment can sometimes contribute to your lack of motivation. You fear displeasing family members. #4 - Reflects more recent, behaviorally oriented psychology. There is a grain of truth in this; depressed people do sometimes receive substantial support and reasurrance from others who want to try to help them.
Posted by Nealus at August 2, 2004 08:11 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
