Geral Blanchard, LPC, is a psychotherapist who is university trained in psychology and anthropology. Formerly of Wyoming and currently residing in Iowa, Geral travels the world in search of ancient secrets that can augment the art and science of healing. From Western neuroscience to Amazonian shamanism, he has developed an understanding of how to combine old and new healing strategies to optimize recovery, whether from psychological or physical maladies.
Depressed Cognitions
Geral T. Blanchard • December 9, 2021
A slow slide into depression is often accompanied by a surreptitious change in our thought processes. Our cognitions, namely the way we think, often become inaccurate and distorted.
It is during a time of depression that no major life changes should be made because our judgment might be errant. A bona fide depression will almost surely impair our judgment, coloring it with emotions.
Thirteen of the most common thinking errors I have noticed in my private practice are the following:
1) SELECTIVE ABSTRACTION
This is when we focus on one or two facts that are disconnected from the whole, to the exclusion of many others, lifting them out of context, and drawing flimsy conclusions from them. EXAMPLE: My husband routinely talks to the neighbor lady, I suspect they are engaged in a sexual affair. After all, lately we haven’t been very sexual.
2) MAXIMIZING NEGATIVES
Much like selective abstraction, this involves the tendency to magnify the salience of an unsettling fact or event while filtering out positive information. EXAMPLE: There is a tornado watch in effect for tonight; I can’t handle one more tragedy.
3) CATSTROPHIZING
Blowing events out of proportion. The expectation that a current problem – one that most people regard as serious, but not emergent-- will escalate into a major calamity. EXAMPLE: If we don’t impeach the current president now, democracy will be lost forever and I’ll have to move back to Canada as fast as possible.
4) POLARIZED THINKING
Seeing things all one way or all the other. Events are regarded as black and white with little gray room for mistakes or deviations. With it, there is a tendency to label people and events dichotomously; they are right or wrong. EXAMPLE: A Hispanic woman killed an Iowan; all nonCaucasians must be put in internment camps.
5) OVERGENERALIZATION
Making a broad conclusion based on a single event or situation. EXAMPLE: My wife was unfaithful to me in the past year of marriage and, as a result, I have learned a lot about the unreliability and infidelity of women. They can’t be trusted.
6) EMOTIONAL REASONING
When the brain’s deep limbic system is revved up, the prefrontal (good judgment) center shuts down, much like a circuit breaker effect. Solid logic gets left out of decision making. EXAMPLES: I have this strong feeling that things are only gonna get worse from this point forward. Or, I trust my gut and I’m feeling quite down-in-the-dumps about my situation. It’s hard to feel like anything is ever going to get better.
7) PROJECT EMOTIONAL CONCLUSIONS
Believing something is wrong because I am feeling uncomfortable emotions. This often applies to what others are thinking and feeling. We often project our fears and worries onto others and rush to errant conclusions. EXAMPLE: I could tell by the way my boss looked at me that she was terribly disappointed in me and my days at the company are numbered.
8) PERSONALIZING
It is all about me, totally my fault. I must apologize – and maybe apologize for apologizing so much -- as I know that too annoys people. EXAMPLE: If only I had visited my mother more before she died, especially in that last year, life for her would have been less painful, and for my siblings too. I’ll never be able to make things right for them.
9) FATALISTIC PERSECUTION
The depressed person may think of themselves as a victim of others, or of life in general. They feel like their fate is in the hands of others, or outer forces. Some believe everything happens for a reason. EXAMPLE: There were too many gays living in New Orleans and that is why Katrina struck that area so hard. I submit to the Master Plan.
10) BLAMING
With an agitated depression grumpiness can show up as excessive cynicism, judgment, shaming, and blaming. The world can become an enemy. EXAMPLE: If there were fewer ignorant people on this planet maybe there would be helluva lot less crime.
11) SHOULDA/OUGHTA
I must do this. I ought to try that. Life is a prescription waiting to be filled. Ironclad rules apply to much of life. And the power source originates outside of me. EXAMPLE: I must go to Mass every day and pray for forgiveness before my life will get any better.
12) FALACY OF CHANGE
We need to focus on changing others so that our happiness can be achieved. EXAMPLE: I’m pushing my husband to go to AA meetings and to see a counselor; that will eventually give me the peace I seek.
13) FAULTY COMARISONS
Believing your situation is substantially worse than other people’s without a full inquiry. You may discount the positives while rely heavily on “should” statements. EXAMPLE: I think my lot in life has been shortchanged; everyone else seems to be so much happier than I am.
REMEDY: One possible intervention during a depressed period is to imagine a Wise Elder or Wise Advocate, perhaps a loving and very candid grandpa or grandma, someone who has always wanted what is best for you. What would they say about your current predicament?
If a person immediately popped up in your mind, acknowledge that calming presence still resides in you and can be accessed. Imagine asking them (actually your historically informed self) to remind you of the big picture and to name missing factors from your equations. Do this out loud as it helps guarantee sensibleness when we hear our own words. This process allows you to step out of the depressing predicament for a moment and entertain another person’s way of thinking. Their seasoned judgment, matched with compassion, can gently nudge you in an old and more accurate way of appraising your situation. And when you get there thank yourself, out loud, for redirecting your previously errant thinking.
While using the Wise Advocate one patient would say to himself: “I know that this is one of those deceptive-brain-message feelings and it will go away within an hour or within the day, but definitely, it will go away.” The more you take the Wise Advocate out to exercise, the stronger it becomes. This literally rewires your brain with time and your brain becomes a better ally.
The process is like standing back, detaching a bit, and observing your thinking more clearly. In a way, this is self-compassion in action. And another result is that we come to a greater trust in ourselves to resolve difficult issues.
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Additional Reading:
You are Not Your Brain by Jeffrey Schwartz
Other Topics
Basics of MDMA
Rituals and Ceremony
Brain and MDMA
Trauma
Heart
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Quantum Physics
Native Cosmologies
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Spirituality/Enlightenment
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Books written by Geral T. Blanchard
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