HOW OUR MEMORIES INFLUENCE THE WAY WE SEE OURSELVES AND THE WORLD [ MEMORY AND DEPRESSION]Article 1,2

Article 1

MEMORY AND DEPRESSION

Showing the way we think when we are depressed .Our thoughts and beliefs tend to be negative , as if we are seeing everything through dark glasses . The themes in our thinking typically involve loss , failure and defeat. We also looked at the part played by negative thinking in maintaining low mood . We saw that there is a vicious circle involving negative thinking and low mood, and that both make the other worse. We also saw that when we are depressed we believe in our negative thoughts and don’t question them , and that we can become very withdrawn and hopeless as a result.

When we talk about ‘thinking’ we mean a combination of a lot of mental activity. Sometimes thinking means thoughts in words , but sometimes it can mean mental images. – pictures in your mind. These images can be of events that we think might take place in the future and also of things that have happened in the past -our memories.

Article 2

Your images and memories may carry important meanings , and may influence the way that you feel about yourself , the world and the other people. If these meanings are overly negative or distorted they too can play a part in maintaining depression.

Many people who suffer from depression frequently recall memories of perceived failures , losses and other tragedies. Often our most painful memories concern our families, our work and romantic relationships.

Sigmund Freud once said that ‘Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness ‘ and difficulties in our working life or in intimate relationships can sometimes result in stress and depression.

Memories of difficult times can come back to haunt us when our mood gets low. However, it is not just the memories that are important in depression, , but the meaning that we give to them .

For example, Maggie had experienced many illnesses and losses throughout her life ( including severe illness in childhood , and the death of her sister in a car accident ) . Maggie felt that the losses in her life meant she was cursed, and that there was no point trying to make life better , or to overcome her depression , because she was likely to attract more disasters in the future .

It is clear that thinking in this way made her depression much worse than if she had believed that these events were terrible things that might have happened to anyone , and that there was nothing unusual about her that meant they would happen again.