According to medical opinion, until recently depression was caused by biochemical imbalances. In fact, in so-called “endogenous” depressions these imbalances occur that affect neurotransmitter levels. However, these depressions are rare. Most commonly, depressions are caused by significant loss for the person.
In this sense, the cause is not biochemical, but it is also not due to the situation that occurred, so what is the cause of the sadness that usually accompanies depression?
- The real cause of this depressive emotional state is the way of thinking.
- The way the person interpreted what happened.
- It is the thoughts generated by this emotional state that discourage us.
The good news is that while we can’t choose the situations we live in, we can change the way we interpret them and learn to deal with them so they don’t affect us as much. Are we responsible by now and it’s in our hands?change our interpretation of events.
Albert Ellis, the father of rational therapy, created the ABC model for patients to realize that it is not the situation that causes emotional discomfort, but our thoughts and beliefs.
It is necessary to distinguish between healthy and negative emotional states, negative emotions such as sadness, fear, discomfort, are considered healthy because they help us to face what has happened in our lives, help us to act logically and realistically.
However, negative emotional states such as depression, anxiety, guilt or anger block and paralyze us, we have not been able to face the situation and we have entered a ‘vicious circle’, from which it is difficult to get out.
It’s normal to feel a healthy sadness when we lose a job or our partner, but it’s not normal for it to be very intense, frequent and lasting and become depression, what’s wrong here is what you’re telling yourself about this loss.
The ABC model defines A (activation situation), B (my thoughts), C (how I feel and how I react to the situation). B is the real cause of C, not A. We generally think the situation is responsible for how we feel, but that’s not true. It’s easy to see when we see that people living in the same situation react differently to each other.
The ABC of depression can be summarized as follows: there is a trigger (A), which can be the loss of something very important to us and (B), our thoughts on this situation. We feel useless, the world is getting dark and sad, we can’t look to the future because we have enormous despair.
These thoughts flood our minds and we believe they are true, if I believe they are, it is true. In reality it is not like that, but our mind tends to generalize everything, to label it globally, to dramatize it, and it generates such intense suffering (C) that we call depression.
“The emotions that undermine our goals and life’s main goals are destructive and irrational. Is it mainly depression, anxiety and excessive anger and pronounced guilt?.
-Albert Ellis-
The truth is that it does not solve the problem, with these thoughts and emotions we end up inging ourselves, no longer doing what we love and even forgetting our daily routine, is C, an illogical behavior that goes against our goal of life which is to “be good”.
It is not possible to feel good if our behavior is to move away from anything that can help us feel better.
At first, this behavior frees us from the effort of getting up and doing what we don’t want or don’t like, but in the long run, the problem becomes chronic and we feel depressed.
In doing so, we miss the opportunity to get to know ourselves better, to see if our thoughts on ourselves, the world, and the future are true. So the key is to change that negative B that makes you suffer and paralyzes you. Only you have the key to free yourself.