Depression
Most people go through periods of feeling down, but when you’re depressed you feel persistently sad for weeks or months, rather than just a few days.
Although everyone is different, and this might not apply to you, but quite often depression is telling you that things need to change – drastically. Imagine you have built a sky scraper (your life) and it worked for a while – you were looking out your penthouse suite getting on with your life. However an earth quake came a long and knocked the whole thing down and left you reeling on the floor next to a load of rubble. You hope maybe a bus will come along and run you over because you have had enough. No bus comes and occasionally you think about building the first floor of your skyscraper again but every time you think of it you just don’t have the will (hope) to do it (get out of bed). And you know what? You’re kind of right as you don’t want to build the same thing again as it came tumbling down (dodgy footings). What you need to do is look at those footings you built the first skyscraper on (Your Life to date). ‘I’m Useless, but if I achieve and do things well then that will make me loveable’ or whatever your dodgy foundations are. You need to dig down, up root those footings and put some better ones down (I’m loveable period and although I like to achieve and do nice things my self worth does not rest on achieving) or whatever you new footings are going to be.
Here’s another way at looking at it. Imagine you have built a Super Computer that has an Operating System, with various applications etc and the whole thing is very personalised to you: that desktop background etc. (your life) and it worked for a while – you were running scripts and programs (apps) that were getting the job down. However a virus came and blew out the Operating System and left you staring at a blank screen with a cursor flashing monotonously. You hope maybe a bus will come along and run you over because you have had enough. No bus comes and occasionally you think about rebuilding your Computer but every time you think of it you just don’t have the will (hope) to do it. And you know what? You’ll kind of right as you don’t want to build the same thing again as it came tumbling down (dodgy drivers). What you need to do is look at those drivers for the motherboard you built the first Operating System on (Your life to date). Driver_1.0: ‘ I’m unimportant and other people are more important than me and I must go all out to do things for everyone’ or whatever your foundation driver/script is. You need to wipe that hard disk clean and start loading some new Scripts: Driver 2.0: I’m important too’ or whatever you new Script is going to be.
Below is a link to an ‘Overview’ of my therapy process. Like the Skyscraper and Super Computer metaphor used above this diagram uses a Gardener that needs to dig down to the roots, pull up the weeds and lay down some healthy roots and soil.
Read the diagram from the bottom up: start with the ‘Core Beliefs’ and then the ‘Intermediate Beliefs’ and then the ‘Automatic Thoughts and Behaviours’.
It will make more sense that way.
The therapy however will tend to work the other way treating your ‘Automatic Thoughts and Behaviours’ that are keeping you stuck and move down to dig out your old roots and lay down some better roots and fertile soil.