Dr. Bill Knaus, Ed. D., PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, July 23, 2012
When you feel depressed, your mood is the headline. However, the story of melancholia normally includes multiple negative emotions. Does shame shadow you? Do you feel straddled by apprehension? Is your tolerance for frustration low? Do you fume over little things?
If you have depression, the chances are that you’ll have at least one other unpleasant emotional condition. About a 40% -60% of the time, people with depression had anxiety first. When depressed, you may also experience anxiety. Between 30% – 50% of the time, anger accompanies depression. Shame, guilt, and low frustration tolerance are common.
You can use Albert Ellis’ ABC method to overcome harmful, negative, emotions. Let’s look at mixed anxiety and depression.
The Rational Express
What bothers you the most? Is it an unrecoverable loss? Is it a series of setbacks? Is it the unpredictability of when depression will come again? Is it depression itself? If so, you may experience a lack of controllability over these conditions. That doesn’t mean that you have no control over yourself….