Exercise 1: Do psychological reinforcement in time and put aside the prejudice of depression.

Denying oneself is the most common psychology of depression or patients with depression. Psychologists suggest that self-reinforcement can help alleviate this negative emotion and help people with depression to find their self-confidence better.

Many patients with depression have a certain prejudice against depression, which will bring them double pain and make it more and more difficult for them to face the reality. Even the negative emotions and behaviors of patients with depression will continue to aggravate the condition, and the result is just the opposite. We should know that there are many causes of depression, which are the result of multiple factors, and a single event is often the fuse of depression. Therefore, in daily life, we should constantly do psychological strengthening work, strengthen our positive emotions and behaviors in time, and reduce the components of depression until it finally disappears.

(1) Adhere to normal daily activities.

People with depression are not completely unable to work, such as going to work, doing housework and other daily affairs can still be carried out. However, if the patient stops all activities because of depression, it will not benefit the condition at all, but will only increase the sense of helplessness.

And guilt. So, as long as you can persist, don't let your mood get even lower.

(2) Affirm yourself in time.

No matter what you (depressed patients) have done this day, you should give yourself affirmation in time. Don't embarrass yourself everywhere and don't touch negative things. If you can, you can also keep a diary and keep all the good things in it. Stick to it every day, and life will not be boring.

(3) Never talk about negative topics to people around you.

The most taboo of depression is negative things. Don't mention them yourself. If someone mentions them around you, you should stand up and leave rationally at once.

(4) Make a realistic plan for yourself.

Think about tomorrow's plan before going to bed, or you can write it in your diary, but the plan should not be higher than reality and beyond your ability, but it should not be too low. A plan that can increase your confidence is the best.

Exercise 2: Recall the happy past with the "trajectory method"

The study found that if people with depression can stay away from negative emotions and be fully infected by positive emotions, they will effectively improve their depression and relieve their symptoms through specific details of self-affirmation. And this method is to arouse some positive memories by guiding benefactors.

Dr Tim Dalglish of the Cognitive and Brain Science Group of the British Medical Research Council and his colleagues believe that the "trajectory method" can help depressed patients recall many good things smoothly. This "trajectory method" was originally used by people to strengthen memory, that is, to associate vivid pictures in memory with some specific signs. A "trajectory" is a place or place. The parties only need to choose a familiar route, and then record the road signs that appear in this route in order. When practicing memory, they can put the things they need to remember in turn at the road signs. In this way, as long as people can recall the signs that appear in turn on familiar roads, they can successfully remember what needs to be remembered.

The experiment also verified this discovery-psychologists from the Cognitive and Brain Science Branch of the British Medical Research Council conducted a "trajectory method" experiment to help depressed patients recall happy past events, thus improving their depression. The main method is: patients with depression need to recall the places where happy events happened, and then connect the things that need to be recalled with similar places, and then naturally recall those happy past events when recalling some specific places.

During the experiment, patients with depression were divided into two groups. The first group was asked to use "trajectory method" to establish a connection with their own memories, and the second group was asked to use "rehearsal method" for association training, that is, to find similar memories according to similarity. These patients who accepted the experiment recalled in their own way and tried their best to recall fifteen positive memories.

The results show that the positive emotions obtained by associating happy past events with "trajectory method" are better than those obtained by "rehearsal method", and the emotions of depressed patients are quickly relieved.

Exercise 3: Develop a positive attitude

It can be seen that positive emotions are a valuable asset to help patients with depression recover soon. Therefore, psychologists call on patients with depression to do their best to cultivate an optimistic and positive attitude.

It is found that the thinking mode of patients with depression generally has three characteristics, namely stability, immanence and generality. Stability means that patients always think that no matter how hard they try, things can't be changed; Intrinsic refers to the patient's self-blame, blaming many mistakes on himself; Generality means that the patient's depression will affect all aspects of life. But this does not mean that people with the above characteristics must be depressed patients.

Environmental helplessness and inner hopelessness are important causes of depression. People who easily feel hopeless always think that they are about to face great and inevitable misfortune, and they can't control it or get help from others. When bad things happen, they always draw bad conclusions to themselves, such as "I am really useless, I am really worthless!" " If this bad thing is related to another recent event, they will also fall into depression.

In this case, from now on, pick up a pen and paper to record the beauty in your life, and then tell yourself, "This beautiful thing has my credit, but without me, it may not be so perfect." "This good thing will bring more good things and more good luck in the future. I made this good thing happen." I believe that in the near future, the negative mentality can be reversed and developed in a positive direction.

Exercise 4: Avoid misunderstandings about depression.

In the 1970s, Aro T Baker, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, organized an emotional research group. They conducted in-depth research on the cognitive experts behind the emotions of patients with depression and found that patients are prone to emotional cognitive impairment. They think that when they feel depressed or anxious, they are actually thinking in an illogical and negative thinking mode, which will inevitably lead them to fall into a misunderstanding and act in a way that inhibits themselves. Therefore, they put forward cognitive therapy to help patients better understand themselves and the forbidden zone of their thoughts, so as to better improve their mood and find psychological methods to relieve depression.

(1) perfectionism misunderstanding.

People with depression are good at evaluating themselves in a very extreme and black-and-white way. If you are excellent, you should be the best; If it is not good, simply abandon it completely; Don't get everything if you don't get it all. This kind of thinking is actually based on perfectionism, which makes them afraid of the imperfections brought by all mistakes, and even thinks that they are useless and ignore many beautiful parts.

In fact, is there an absolutely perfect person or thing in this world? Perfection does not exist. If you pursue it too persistently, you will only make yourself more depressed and stay depressed. Because many of your ideas are not completely in line with reality, you lose confidence in yourself.

(2) Abandon the negative thinking mode.

Many people with depression always tend to turn some unpleasant, neutral or even positive things or experiences into bad, derogatory and negative cognition. This is a derogatory positive behavior, which will destroy many beautiful things, and what has always prompted patients to have this derogatory mentality is actually a low evaluation of themselves.

(3) Cut off the chain of emotional reasoning.

For example, when people with depression feel remorse, they will infer that they must have done many unnatural things, or when they feel weak, they will infer that they need to go back to bed. Psychologists believe that this inference is completely wrong logic, but it exists in almost all the symptoms of patients.

The best way to overcome this kind of psychology is to turn them all around. When you feel weak, this inference is completely wrong-when you insist on mopping the floor or shopping, your state becomes better.

(4) Don't put all the responsibility on yourself.

Being responsible for yourself is one of the most obvious psychological characteristics of patients with depression.

(5) Don't ask others with "should".

If you think you "should", it will inspire you to some extent, but if you apply this "should" to others, you will usually feel disappointed and put pressure on yourself invisibly. For example, you think that "my family should be the most considerate person, and my lover should be the one who loves me the most". But in fact, they didn't do the "most considerate" and "favorite" you expected. At this time, your heart will inevitably feel wronged and even full of resentment.

In life, this practice of asking others with "should" often brings us emotional impact, because your behavior standard has not been realized in reality, and "should" or "shouldn't" at this time will make you hate yourself and even feel ashamed and sorry; Once others can't meet your standards, you will feel pain.

This is the origin of depression, which stems from dissatisfaction with the outside world. If you want to change this situation, you'd better lower your standards and stop asking others "how to do it", otherwise, you will always be influenced by others' performance.

(6) Tear off the label.

Appear; And a person who labels himself is undoubtedly attacking and denying himself.

The study found that when a person labels another person because of one person's mistake, it means that you are hostile, and labeling them negatively because of another person's mistake means that you have established a "cradle" of negative emotions for yourself. If you use this "label" to examine all his or her behaviors, you will never be satisfied. Over time, the two sides will have contradictions.

If you label yourself based on a personal mistake, it means that you have created a completely negative self-image, and you will start to describe and introduce yourself with this label. You know, your ego can never be equated with anything you do. You judge yourself with a mistake so unilaterally.

It is an extreme behavior, which will make you really become that person in the end and will also aggravate your pessimism.

Therefore, it is unwise to label others negatively or label yourself.

(7) Don't make wild guesses.

Depression can only be caused by a hypothetical fantasy, or it can be some unfounded predictions.

Exercise 5: Escape from the gloomy fields and look for hope.

Most of the patients' emotional depression experiences come from despair, feeling in a gloomy area, unable to extricate themselves, unable to look up at the light and hope, and will become suffering and torture every day. Why are optimistic people always so happy and positive? That's because they have expectations for themselves and the future, and what they see is always a bright sky.

Therefore, it is very important to guide patients with depression out of the gloomy area and see the light again. Here are some suggestions from psychologists to patients with depression:

(1) Accept the reality and establish positive self-awareness. Plans can never keep up with changes, so don't jump to conclusions. Even if you already know that you are suffering from depression, don't worry and fear. Believe that you are fully capable of overcoming psychological barriers. Don't always belittle yourself. You're not that bad. Think of you in the past, with so many advantages and attractions. In order to let you know yourself better, take out a pen and paper now, list your advantages one by one, and record the lovely and interesting things that happen every day. Always looking out of the window, don't you want to go out for a walk on those sunny days? The days when you used to travel with your lover (relatives, friends, children, etc.). ) are so happy and happy. ...

(2) Tell the people closest to you. When you know that you are prone to depression or suffer from depression, don't bear it alone. Tell people around you honestly, don't worry that this will affect your relationship, because you have to believe that he (she) also wants you to be good and ask him (her) for help! Also give yourself a spiritual support. You work together to get rid of depression, go to a psychologist for help when necessary, and actively cooperate with the treatment. I believe that you will find your old self soon.

(3) express understanding for yourself. You should know something about depression and know your current state correctly. When you are troubled by depression and can't finish your task normally, don't blame yourself or feel guilty. Be kind to yourself, comfort yourself and understand yourself.

(4) Create a hope for yourself. The world is very big. In fact, depression is not only you, but also an incurable disease. Many celebrities, such as Lincoln, Churchill and Cui Yongyuan, the famous host, have also experienced depression. Didn't they all succeed in the hard struggle against the disease? So you should have confidence in yourself and give yourself a hope.

Exercise 6: Establish positive beliefs and prepare for repeated illness.

The study found that 80% patients with severe depression will face the challenge of recurrence, and half of them have four or more episodes of depression. Therefore, if you are a patient with severe depression, don't let your guard down after the first treatment has achieved results. You should be fully psychologically prepared and adjust your life state to the best for a period of time before recurrence.

(1) Actively cultivate hobbies. After the condition improves, the patient will feel that the color of life is different, and it is no longer the gloomy state before. In order to maintain this good state, we might as well cultivate some positive hobbies for ourselves, do more meaningful and positive things, and keep our mood in a happy state every day, which will naturally shut out depressed emotions.

(2) Continue to maintain drug therapy to prepare for future onset. For patients with severe depression, if the drug is stopped immediately after the first control of the disease, depression is likely to recur soon. Because after the drug loses its effect, the neurochemicals secreted by the body are not enough to maintain its own balance, leading to repeated illness. Therefore, don't make your own decisions. You should stop taking medicine with the doctor's permission. In addition, we should actively adjust our mentality, correctly understand the illness, make repeated preparations for the future illness, and sum up experience from the first onset.

(3) Re-recognize yourself in the process of anti-depression. Research shows that one of the biggest killers behind college students' collective suicide is depression. A comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of this group shows that they are in the transition period of physiology and psychology, and they have not been exposed to many practical problems in their previous living and learning environment. At that time, they only needed to care about their academic performance. However, in college, it is different, and various tests follow. For some college students with fragile psychological quality who are not ready to change, the emotional ups and downs will be even greater.

However, depression is not necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, it can help patients to see themselves quickly, establish self-identity, and finally form a cognitive state of "I am me, the original me". Therefore, people who have gone through an antidepressant course should understand that you are you, not you, and set a goal for their own life so that the real you can have a better life again.

Refer to the Encyclopedia of Psychology.