Self-Management of Depression

Have you ever found yourself staring at the ceiling at 2 a.m., replaying a conversation from years ago or questioning your reactions in certain situations? This moment of reflection can either propel you forward or keep you stuck. The difference lies in understanding whether you are engaging in productive introspection or falling into unproductive rumination. Recognizing this distinction is the key to breaking free from emotional stagnation and unlocking genuine personal growth. Introspection: The Upward Spiral Introspection, also called self-reflection, is the process of examining your own thoughts and feelings with a sense of curiosity and purpose. Think of it as being a mental explorer. When you introspect, you ask "what" questions: What am I feeling right now? What triggered this reaction? What are the steps I need to take in the future to do a better job? According to Trapnell and Campbell (1999), introspection is often driven by a healthy interest in the self. It is ...

Have you ever felt like a fraud in your own success story, despite your achievements screaming otherwise? Welcome to the world of impostor syndrome, where even the most accomplished individuals second-guess their abilities and fear being exposed as a ‘fake.’ Emerging from the shadows of self-doubt, this phenomenon affects both men and women and is often rooted in early family dynamics and personal perceptions of worth. But it doesn't have to define your journey. Here, we explore seven strategies that can help you break free from the grip of impostor syndrome and embrace your true capabilities.  1. Name your inner critic: The voice of impostor syndrome is your inner critic, sowing the seeds of self-doubt. This inner critic, like a broken record, irrationally makes you underestimate your capabilities. Although it may seem to be arguing in your best interest, it thrives on fear-based, unrealistic thinking. Label your thoughts or feelings sparked by your inner critic as they occur. Be ...

There are some social rituals that we cannot avoid, especially when interacting with people we don’t know, and nothing is more universally disliked than the ritual of small talk. Small talk is a fine art that balances the use of some better questions to open the conversation and then navigate the talk without lingering on obligatory foundational topics about how one’s weekend was or discussing the weather. If you find yourself avoiding social interactions because you're uncomfortable and embarrassed about small talk, here are eight ways to improve at it and avoid making it awkward or superficial (Duhigg, 2024; Haupt, 2023; Lee, 2025). 1. Ask better questions. To facilitate conversation, avoid conversational dead-end questions that can be responded to in a single word, such as "How was your weekend?" or "How are you?" Also, avoid fact-based questions like "Where do you live?" Instead, ask questions that invite people to elaborate on their experience...

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most proven psychotherapies for depression and anxiety. It involves identifying, challenging, and replacing irrational thought patterns, also called cognitive distortions, with rational thoughts. However, not everyone is successful in doing so. A key reason for this is when one harbors deeper irrational thoughts, called core beliefs, which are harder to change as they sit at a subconscious level.   While identifying your superficial irrational negative thoughts, also called automatic thoughts, as a part of CBT, you may realize that some of these thoughts can be lumped under common themes. These underlying thinking patterns are called core beliefs or schemas. Whereas automatic thoughts are at the surface of your awareness and more straightforward to recognize, core beliefs are not that readily accessed or easily articulated. Core beliefs or schemas represent a set of attitudes, assumptions, conceptions, preferences, goals, and va...

Procrastination is putting off tasks for another day or doing unproductive things as an excuse for not doing what is essential. While some procrastinate in certain situations, it becomes a habit for others. They leave dishes in the sink, don’t respond to e-mails, don’t pay bills, put off completing paperwork, finish assignments just before the deadline, or ask for extensions. In the latter group, procrastination becomes a form of avoidance. Psychologists consider avoidance as a maladaptive coping style that relieves one from the mental and/or physical effort of doing a task, reinforcing this behavior. Procrastination can be driven by irrational thought patterns, and sometimes, these are associated with depression and anxiety. The common irrational thoughts that foster procrastination include: “Nothing works.” “This is boring.” “I don’t know where to start.” “I can’t do this.” “This is too hard.” "I am not cut out for this." “I don’t have the time to do this.” “I don’t have th...

Extensive scientific literature has recently been published on impostor syndrome, also known as  the impostor phenomenon . Most popular psychology descriptions of this condition, which impairs professional performance and leads to burnout, tend to frame it as a syndrome of perceived fraudulence or fear of being seen as fake. However, the fact is that people with impostor syndrome describe a myriad of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and none of the existing scales capture all the facets of this complex and multifaceted syndrome (Mark et al., 2019). Also, contrary to popular belief, impostor syndrome is not limited to highly successful individuals. It depends more on how people respond to specific achievement tasks when they are appraised.  The six facets that define this phenomenon are discussed below: (Bravata et al., 2019; Clance & Imes, 1978; Walker & Saklofske, 2023). 1. Fake: This attribute is the closest to the original conceptualization of the impostor ph...

What are Self-affirmations? When going through a rough patch, we have all been reminded by our well-wishers to use positive self-statements such as, “I am okay" or “I can do this.” Known as self-affirmations, these statements demonstrate one’s adequacy usually through writing positive statements about one’s core personal values (Cohen & Sherman, 2014). When things don’t happen as planned or when you have setbacks, self-affirmation statements provide you with a tool to defend your positive self-image by bolstering your self-image (Critcher & Dunning, 2015). Self-affirmations work by enhancing your self-integrity – an image of oneself being able to control important adaptive and moral outcomes in one’s life. Self-affirmations broaden your perspective beyond a particular stressful situation by reminding you of your other strengths and resources that are not limited by the situation at hand (Cohen & Sherman, 2014). This in turn helps you put things in perspective, disengag...

The word "acceptance" has been thrown around as a coping style, especially in situations one cannot control. However, what needs to be clarified is that acceptance comes in all sizes and shapes, ranging from radical acceptance to practical acceptance. This is where mindful acceptance , as propounded in the evidence-based  Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) , offers a more structured way of putting acceptance into practice. Mindful acceptance is a self-management style that helps you accept your thoughts and emotions at face value without doing one of these six things that your idle mind is programmed to do during downtime: Dwelling on your thoughts or emotions Analyzing or overanalyzing your thoughts and emotions Judging yourself or others Avoiding situations that remind you of specific thoughts and emotions Suppressing your unhelpful thoughts and emotions by forcefully trying to push them out Trying to get rid of negative thoughts and emotions by distraction or other in...

Technology allows you to multitask – you are in a meeting but also watching for incoming texts from your spouse, or you are finishing a document while keeping an eye for incoming emails. Some workplaces expect you to be on top of your in-box at all times of the day. And then there is playing catch-up with the “likes” and “profile updates” on the social networking sites. One study found that the more people engaged in media multitasking, the higher their depression and anxiety levels tended to be (Becker et al., 2013). Use of social networking sites has also been associated with lower life satisfaction and worse mental health. This may stem from detraction from face-to-face relationships, reduced investment in meaningful activities, increased sedentary behavior, internet addiction, and erosion of self-esteem through unfavorable social comparisons (Shakya & Christakis, 2017). In addition, individuals prone for depression, while using social media sites, are more likely to negatively ...

The oversaturated, hypermarketed, and superadvertised space of mindfulness and meditation apps makes choosing techniques that are actually helpful a daunting task. In this context, the three-minute breathing space offers a proven and simple mini-meditation comprising of three steps, each step lasting about a minute. It is one of the core practices of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), an evidence-based psychotherapy (Williams et al., 2007). The purpose of this exercise is to allow you to step back from a stressful situation, which helps you discern newer perspectives and alternatives that may not have been that apparent. It is hypothesized that mindfulness rewires our brain toward resilience and is considered a cornerstone of resilience (Graham, 2013). Although this exercise is called the three-minute breathing space, you can use it for shorter or longer duration depending on your comfort level and the situation. The steps of the technique are as below (Neff, 2011; Williams et...

What is overthinking? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines overthinking as "to put too much time into thinking about or analyzing (something) in a way that is more harmful than helpful." Surprisingly, even a non-psychological lexicon considers overthinking more harmful than helpful. In psychological jargon, overthinking usually involves misinterpreting or misattributing situations, past events, memories, and even feelings. Some common types of overthinking patterns, also called irrational thoughts or cognitive distortions, include all-or-none thinking (always/never thinking), jumping to conclusions without substantial evidence, disqualifying the positives, magnifying things out of proportion, catastrophizing (assuming the worst-case scenario), taking things personally, using negative self-labels (e.g., “I am a loser”), and should/must thinking (imposing rules on yourself or others). While we all engage in these overthinking patterns periodically, sometimes these irrational...

Anxiety tends to be pervasive and it can interfere with your daily life. A helpful technique to prevent worry from distracting you from the task at hand is to create a fixed daily “worry time” and postpone your worries to that time (Lewinsohn et al., 1986). The purpose of this activity is not to avoid thinking about the things that worry you, but to let you decide when the best time is to focus on the worries. Individuals with anxiety, especially generalized anxiety disorder, have excessive worry about many different aspects of their daily life and this lack of a specific trigger for anxiety makes it harder for these individuals to gain control over their worries. Worry time offers a way for these individuals to gain more control over their anxiety through a psychological process called stimulus control. When people with generalized anxiety disorder worry throughout the day, the worry becomes associated with many places, times, and/or situations. Over a period of time these places, tim...

What is Mindfulness? If your notion of mindfulness is a practice starting with a phrase like, "Take a deep breath and close your eyes," then you have mostly bought into the myth that the only effective way of practicing mindfulness is guided meditation .  However, if you know what mindfulness entails, you can incorporate it in your daily routine in an informal way without relying on popular apps that have commercialized a practice known to humans for thousands of years.  Mindfulness-based interventions are well-validated treatment approaches that not only promote well-being and resilience but also have been found to be effective in anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and substance use disorders (Wielgosz et al., 2019). Mindfulness has two components: (a) orienting one’s attention purposefully to the present moment, and (b) approaching one’s experience in the present moment with curiosity, openness, and acceptance (Bishop et al., 2004). The state of mindfulness is described as ...