Despite the fact that depression refers to the affective, i.e. emotional disorders, cognitive behavioral therapist puts a target for their work, first of all, negative attitudes and a person's thoughts about themselves, their future and about the world around him. These thoughts and the installation is also called the cognitive triad of depression. Participants of this Trinity lead to sustained feelings of sadness, inability to enjoy usual activities, feelings of guilt, worthlessness and anxiety.
however, often misses the treatment is happening with memory and attention of the person with a depressive disorder. If people without depression about equally well remember good and bad events in your life – bad, even worse, in the presence of this affective disorder distorted the memory of his own life. People with depression not only in all the details remember bad events, but sistematizirovat them as evidence of their worthlessness, of failure, of ugliness in the present. For example, it can have a whole bunch of memories about how he flunked out of College, got a waiver at the interview, was late one day on a plane, again and again to remind myself what he is incompetent. With all this, man, as a rule, it is hard to remember something good in your life, especially if it refutes the negative ideas about yourself or the world. These events are forgotten in vain without finding support in the dark routine.
Sometimes good memories can still become relevant, but their perception is distorted. People may downplay their significance, attributing the event to his own achievements, but by luck, the influence of other people or chance. For example, it can remember that had a good career in the past, but to explain it is not their talents, and the fact that it promoted through the ranks naively believing in his colleague.
Very good event may the memories turn into bad, if the person remembers any one negative item and distributes it to all the events as a whole. For example, the wedding day can be remembered as the worst day in life, because one of the guests had been drinking and behaved indecently.
Often part of the details of the events "overwritten". These gaps can be filled fantasies, which give the event a completely different, negative connotation. For example, the period of relationship with the young man the girl seems to be suffering from depression consisting of a continuous quarrels, although, in fact, she can remember a few unpleasant episodes, and everything else that I do not remember, filled with assumptions that "feel" that it was bad.
One of the main roles in remembering the bad events and forget the good plays attention. How is the morning person who does not have depression? He gets up, brushes his teeth, said a few economic points that are worth to do on return from work, begins to think about the upcoming day, worries about the future difficulties, enjoys the evening plans out on the street, complains about the weather, finds the eyes of interesting people, gets to work and plunges into the labour market.
How is the morning person with depression? First of all, given that depression is amplified in the morning, a man already stands exhausted, if the night sucked all the power. Often it feels like he's not slept, and only was in a semi-conscious state, similar to a stuffy room. Negative thoughts start to attack him after only a few minutes after waking up. The surrounding colors seem pale, and that happens – a continuation of the dream. While a person's attention is very selective. If throughout the apartment in order and only in the kitchen not cleaned up, people with depression will definitely celebrate and remember the mess at home. Will find that toothpaste and coffee at the end and remember how he left little money to pay, completely skipping past the perception that the refrigerator is overloaded with products, and all the bills are paid. Leaving the entrance, he sees only a pile of debris on the third floor, not paying attention that the entrance is washed. On the street he will "meet" only dark unsympathetic people, and positive and smiling people he did not even notice. What can we say that labor day will become for him in hell, where he will focus only on the meaninglessness of work, of the foolishness of colleagues and their own shortcomings and futility.
you Can perform a simple experiment. Catch yourself in a good mood and walk through the streets you will see a lot of beautiful and smiling people. And when you have a bad mood – attention isolates, for the most part, ugly and rugged face. Also, as in the second case, is the person depressed, but more totally, day in and day wcreplays in constant unbearable mental suffering.
in addition, it should be noted that people suffering with depression concentration. It is difficult to focus on any activity. Attention slides away, jumps on other things or thoughts, there is a sense of misunderstanding of what is happening, the question often arises: "So what I wanted to do?". All these features do not contribute to the improvement of the relations of man to himself, he starting to blame and despise even more, which leads to a deterioration in emotional state.
the Distortion of attention and memory will inevitably affect how a person explains what is happening with him the events in the present. If it is praised at work, the man, remembering all the failures that gave him negative and selective attention, will find that they want to manipulirovat. If I had an opportunity to go to the countryside, attention will cling only to the negative aspects of the trip and the memory will pop facts about the impending dangers. If they say close to such a person that he needs a psychologist, he, "knowing" about their uselessness, explains their behavior in that they do not want to help him in solving problems and wish to "shake off" his expert.
the Selectivity of attention and memory also has long-term implications. Rigidity of thought leads to the scarcity of the formation of new neural connections in the cerebral cortex, resulting in an overall decrease in the memory and performance memory, which will only improve with age, if depression is to do nothing.
Today, cognitive-behavioral therapy has techniques that help a person with depression to fill their memory a great number of good events. Features of thinking that block access to the positive memories in the process of therapeutic change, and the person begins a new way to remember his life. Changing the very concept of a private life, and many of its facts acquire a constructive significance. Clients sessions cognitive behavioral therapist to learn to manage their own attention: concentration, switching selectivity. Learn to find good in the General field of events. For this purpose, the practice of awareness (Mindfulness), a large number of techniques when working with a therapist and even special applications for smartphones, coaching and positive attention. Ultimately, what one remembers about himself and isolates from the outside world, and determines his conception of himself and his life. Seeing and remembering the good, he comes to the idea of their own well-being and high self-esteem, only occasionally remembering that he was once depressed.
