We are used to making the mistake of thinking that, in order to carry out projects or carry out activities, we must always have willpower or be motivated in one way or another, and that if that is not the case, it is better to leave. for another time when you feel more motivated.
This thought is, in the end, a trap, especially for people in a depressive state, because motivation will only appear after continuous activation and not the other way around, that is, the action precedes motivation.
“It is the activity that makes man happy
? Goethe?
This conclusion was drawn a few years ago, in the 1990s, in light of the results of a study on the effectiveness of Beck’s cognitive therapy, and was developed by Jacobson, Dobson and other collaborators.
The most interesting thing was to know that behavioral activation, in itself, was as effective as full cognitive therapy and also as antidepressant medications.
Therefore, from this point of view, having a depressive mood would not be considered a disease, but would be in a negative situation, without reinforcements or stimuli.
The goal is for the person, through action, to show that there are countless people, situations, places, moments, experiences, etc. , who can renew the illusion of life, and return to happiness.
The problem is that the depressed person tends to behave, quite the opposite of what we are proposing, stops going out, performing tasks or activities that were previously satisfactory, connecting, which only contributes to maintaining and increasing sadness and apathy, and therefore confirming her negative thoughts about herself, the world and the future.
Obviously, because I don’t like it or because I don’t want to, I start living by inertia, avoiding enjoying what surrounds me, so it becomes impossible to improve the mood or think more positively about life, because the person does. Do not give yourself the opportunity to know the stimuli of life, which await us.
Realizing that activation is the key to emotional improvement is very important, because it cuts the vicious cycle of depression and pulls the person out of this trap and begins to see that in addition to injustices and adversity, there are also pleasures and joys.
With this, we do not intend that the person with depression goes to parties overnight, the goal is to program daily life with realistic activities that reinforce what the person is able to perform.
There is no point in proposing activities that do not reinforce what they are already doing, because what we are looking for is, precisely, to renew illusions, objectives and motivations.
Later, when the person has already left passivity, activities that require a little more effort will be incorporated and even some that the person has never done, but would like to do.
One of the problems that usually arises during the proposal of behavioral activation is that the person, because of his depressive mood, creates arguments for not performing the activity or abandoning it, because he does not feel able, believes that he will be of any kind. use, or that has no merit.
It also happens that if the person is not able to complete the task perfectly, he feels bad and blames himself.
In this sense, it is important to educate the patient to realize that these thoughts influence their behavior and are the product of their negative vision, so instruction is to continue to activate, despite the negative thoughts and enormous effort it requires, because the reward will be to gradually leave this unpleasant state.
Depression is a vicious cycle in which the person continues to turn until he decides to leave; behavioral activation is seen as an exit from this spiral, a door to rediscovery of well-being and happiness.