The amount of worry and anxiety some people have in regard to their problems (say, health or financial problems) might not be healthy at all, and might lead to depressive moods. And yet, avoiding those problems by avoiding to think about them would be really bad.
Rumination and worrying are a habitual, unmindful and irrational type of thinking. They are just replaying cached thoughts, and that shouldn’t even be dignified by being called “thinking”. It’s not good for depressed people, for anxious people or for anyone else. I absolutely agree that one shouldn’t dwell on such thoughts. I’m just saying that instead of automatically stopping your thoughts, or doing anything automatically, one should have at least one good look at those thoughts and think. And I mean think mindfully, rationally and critically. I’m not saying one should necessarily think about the “problem”, but rather about the thoughts themselves. Are they rational? How would I think about that if I weren’t depressed? And no, don’t feel depressed about being depressed or worry that you will never stop worrying ;-). Once that’s done, you can let that thought drop, but not before.
Thanks for the clarification, I see what you mean. The distinction between repetitive, droning thoughts and actively reasoning about the problem makes sense.
May I make a comment? So first let me say you are right, it’s bad to avoid negative thoughts. I think you made a very valid counterpoint and I updated on it. So I (now) think this is something one has to be careful with.
However, at times in one’s life these depressive thoughts can be so overwhelming that none of them get the attention they need because the person just doesn’t have the energy for them. So this has at least given me the chance to start fixing these thoughts, one at a time, instead of all at once.
The amount of worry and anxiety some people have in regard to their problems (say, health or financial problems) might not be healthy at all, and might lead to depressive moods. And yet, avoiding those problems by avoiding to think about them would be really bad.
Rumination and worrying are a habitual, unmindful and irrational type of thinking. They are just replaying cached thoughts, and that shouldn’t even be dignified by being called “thinking”. It’s not good for depressed people, for anxious people or for anyone else. I absolutely agree that one shouldn’t dwell on such thoughts. I’m just saying that instead of automatically stopping your thoughts, or doing anything automatically, one should have at least one good look at those thoughts and think. And I mean think mindfully, rationally and critically. I’m not saying one should necessarily think about the “problem”, but rather about the thoughts themselves. Are they rational? How would I think about that if I weren’t depressed? And no, don’t feel depressed about being depressed or worry that you will never stop worrying ;-). Once that’s done, you can let that thought drop, but not before.
Thanks for the clarification, I see what you mean. The distinction between repetitive, droning thoughts and actively reasoning about the problem makes sense.
May I make a comment? So first let me say you are right, it’s bad to avoid negative thoughts. I think you made a very valid counterpoint and I updated on it. So I (now) think this is something one has to be careful with.
However, at times in one’s life these depressive thoughts can be so overwhelming that none of them get the attention they need because the person just doesn’t have the energy for them. So this has at least given me the chance to start fixing these thoughts, one at a time, instead of all at once.