Self-Management of Depression

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...

People with depression often have negative or irrational beliefs, which continue to fuel their depressive thinking. According to the cognitive model of depression, the emotions in depression such as sadness, guilt, hopelessness, worthlessness, helplessness, anger, frustration, and anxiety are triggered by a dysfunctional thought process. This dysfunction involves misinterpretation or misattribution of situations, past events, memories, and even feelings leading to irrational thoughts – also called cognitive distortions – that in turn perpetuate depressive symptoms. These irrational thought patterns are described below: 1. All-or-None Thinking: This type of irrational thinking is also called black-and-white thinking or dichotomous thinking. This is thinking in extremes or absolutes with no consideration for any alternatives in between the extremes. For example, if you get a below-average performance evaluation and feel that you will never get a good performance evaluation in th...