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Why do I forget all the positive things of my life and my achievements when I am depressed?

28 Answers
Last Updated: 05/23/2022 at 2:40pm
1 Tip to Feel Better
India
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Jui Shankar, Ph.D

Psychologist

My worldview offers a systems perspective that values diverse clients and their struggles. I believe supportive and nonjudgmental therapeutic relationships empower clients.

Top Rated Answers
Calmriver18
April 23rd, 2018 4:10am
Depression is not picky. Men, women, rich, poor. No one is immune to it. Unfortunately depression fuels itself through negative thoughts and pretty soon you are not just thinking about what triggered you, now you are spiraling, going round and round in your head about every other thing that has ever gone wrong in your life. Depression Monster wins again. Recognizing that deppression fuels itself through negative thoughts can help us fight off some of those bad thoughts. But some action is required because sitting in your room, staying in bed, not going to work, laying on the couch, isolating, pulling the covers up over your head…these are the things Depression wants you to do. Because when you give in to it, more and more negative thoughts spin round and round in your head and instead of feeling better, you feel worse; even about things you weren’t even thinking about in the first place. SOLUTION🤔🤔? Get out of your head. Get out of your bed. I know you don’t feel like it but changing scenery, getting new air, distracting yourself, will help reset your mind and thoughts. Some people say imagine hitting the PAUSE button. Stop those negative thoughts. When you feel like closing in, giving in to that feeling actually makes it worse not better. Some simple ideas: • Get in the sun, vitamin D helps • Go outside for fresh air, breathe • Take a warm shower, relax • Exercise. Causes the chemical endorphin to release, natural medicine. • Write it down, type it up. This uses a different part of your brain and the process moves it out. • Seek medical help like a therapist • Talk to someone. Just like above, the venting gets it out. • Help someone. Focusing on someone else can help reduce your over-thinking • Pray, take a deep breathe, visualization • Watch a HAPPY or FUNNY 😁 movie; go to a movie, read a book. Allows you to get into a story line, shifts gears. Never give up trying to fight this battle. Depression often feels like a loss of control, powerlessness, and one way to fight back is to find things you CAN be in control of and take charge. Don’t feed that Depression Monster, let’s starve him out! 😁😁🌷🌷
Anonymous
August 4th, 2015 12:03pm
because sadness take all over our energies and by sitting down and get more depressed you will not have anything left to be positive about, unless you got out and appreciate the bless of having legs to walk and hands to exercise, eyes to see the wonderful sky and stars, all you need is look again to appreciate your blesses
WGlasser
April 4th, 2017 9:32pm
This is a very common "thinking error" discussed in CBT. Specifically titled Minimizing, Discounting the Positive, Filtering. I recommend a google search of "thinking errors" to get you started. CBT can guide you toward identifying, challenging, and fixing thinking errors in order to optimize thinking and relief depression.
Anonymous
March 9th, 2015 10:25pm
Remember, depression is not a choice. When you feel depressed, you find the need to justify your depression, so you focus on the negative things in your life in order to do so. Many people do not realize they do this because it is almost subconscious. When you are depressed you feel as if you need a reason to be, otherwise you think that people will think that you are faking. I have seen it happen in people. It is perfectly normal. Because of this, trying to remember the positive things in your life and your accomplishments is rather difficult, but it is not impossible. Stay strong. :)
Anonymous
October 30th, 2017 5:03am
Because depression is an all-consuming, jealous mistress. Depression doesn't like to share happy thoughts. Nor does depression wish for you to have hopes and dreams. When depression shows it it's all about her and her wants. Her needs. There's no room left to tend to yours anymore. When depression is on the scene, there is nobody else.
Sharuhisereneworld040
May 23rd, 2022 2:40pm
It happens we tend to look at the bad side of life when we are depressed that veiling all our past achievements and positive things. We must remind ourselves how fortunate we are and what is our potential. Every time make it a rule to write down why are you depressed and what is the cause of depression what can you do immediately and long term. Think about these things thoroughly and believe in your potential and life gives chance to Restart every time so whenever you feel dejected or depressed take it as an opportunity to look back and learn and start fresh .
Adoreebrendaa
March 9th, 2015 5:23pm
You forget the positive things in your life and achievements when you are depressed because you tend to lean more towards negativity .
Anonymous
January 10th, 2022 10:32am
When you are depressed you can say that certain hormones in your body are playing a role, and when there are a lot of one specific hormone in charge of depression, it can make it feel as if there is nothing positive in your life and everything else in the world is feeling down. This can be a normal part of feeling depressed, which is why it is important to seek out help and ask for help. Speak with friends and family and don't fall off the chart. Look into trying to get into therapy if that is something you are into (like talking with people) or atleast talk to friends if you are feeling up to it.
Anonymous
April 21st, 2020 6:32pm
As someone who has also experienced depression, it is not your fault that you cannot see the positive things in your life. Depression makes it hard for you to see things in a positive light because all you can focus on is the negativity. It helped me to write positive notes for myself and remind myself of the things I do like about my life. I worked on "thought challenging" with my therapist, which helped me take negative thoughts and ask myself if they were really true. Most times, they were not, so not only did I learn how to combat negative thoughts but I learned the reason as to why I had difficulty remember the happy moments in life.
Anonymous
April 6th, 2020 3:28am
Depression squeezes a lot of things from your life. There just isn't a lot of room for happiness or passion or love when depression moves in. It tints our understanding of the world, coloring it gray so that everything, even joy, becomes muted. It's easy to give yourself over to this way of thinking because depression is self-confirming. You feel bad, you see things in the world that are bad, you forget all the positives in your life, and so the cycle continues like a self fulfilling prophecy. But you can break the cycle with small but strategic changes. Make time for something that you used to love. Commit to devoting a small amount of time daily to this. Even if you don't feel the same way about it, continue to engage in the activity. Once you make room for a habit, it can take root and thrive on its own.
Yonatan9632
February 24th, 2020 4:38pm
Anonymous
January 30th, 2018 5:08pm
Because when you're depressed, it's difficult to focus on the positive. But that's what I'm here to help you do! :)
saturnsaic4
May 1st, 2017 8:35am
Sometimes it can be very difficult to focus on what really matters when we are feeling low. However, making a list of things you love and make you feel good is a good way to remind yourself there are great things in your life and you can read it when sad!
LovelySoul94
November 15th, 2016 9:17pm
It's normal. Welcome to the "depression world". Right now you see everything black, but from your question I understand that you KNOW you have done positive things and achieved goals in your life and this is already a great thing! Try to make a list of these things and focus on it: if you did it in the past, why shouldn't you be able to do it again?
Millichidulinas
July 12th, 2016 12:21pm
'Beacause when you're depressed it's really hard to find positive things and thinking about them it's really hard. That's why I'm here. To help you to find the positive things in your life.
HopieRemi
July 11th, 2016 11:56pm
Sometimes when a person is depressed, it's easy to forget all the good things in your life. Depression makes the negative thoughts seem louder so you have a hard time focusing on everything that is good.
sunnyOcean31
April 18th, 2016 2:18am
Because depression makes our brain think differently. That is why exercise. .support groups and a healthy diet can reduce the negatively thoughts about ourselves
Anonymous
November 30th, 2015 8:55am
It's the fact of depression. We feel low and lonely and forget about the past achievement in life and start focusing on the negative thoughts and other things that are out of our control
lovelyOcean15
August 4th, 2015 3:58am
That's normal that we would forget everything positively when we are depressed. Because we may learn helplessness and lost, but most importantly how we stand up and face to problem.
PlayStar
June 30th, 2015 11:21am
Sometimes, depression triggers very powerful automatic thoughts, When all seems lost, it feels like all our achievements are worthless, our life is a lie. It's like we look at the world wearing a pair of shades that make everything seem dull and sad. All we need to do is get up, pick ourselves up, remove the shades that block our minds, our hearts to the beautiful world around us. :)
Dreamz
June 22nd, 2015 8:44pm
Depression is a state of mind that often makes everything seem gloomy. When depression hits, you often cannot find the good.
Scarsquid
June 12th, 2015 3:32am
Sometimes we get so caught up on the bad that we forget to focus on the good, when we should be doing the exact opposite.
Anonymous
June 7th, 2015 11:15pm
when there is bad things in life, we attend to give it all our attention because we just want that situation better or that awful feeling gone. Even though it's very hard, I've notice if I try to find good in every day even if's itty bitty it helps my mood and recovery.
hopefulPower94
May 31st, 2015 5:10am
When people are in the throws of depression, all they can see and remember is the bad things. Also, our depression voice tells us that the good things we have done don't matter, and thus this can cause us to forget those good things.
Anonymous
May 10th, 2015 11:09pm
Depression is a nasty illness that tricks the mind into thinking negatively, therefore any good thing seems lost forever and the future seems bleak. CBT can help with this.
CarpeDiem123
May 8th, 2015 11:18am
I think depression is like drowning. Imagine you are at the beach playing in the sea with your friends, you are happy and you are truly enjoying yourself, the world is a great place. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a wave comes and you go under. You are not thinking about your friends anymore, or the positive things in life..you are panicking. You can't get any air, you can't think straight, you are trying so hard to survive and reach the surface...but nothing works. I've been in this situation a lot. One day, during a good day, I decided to write down all the positive things in my life, my achievements, the important people in my life etc. Then when I felt like I was drowning I looked at the list and I managed to get myself to the surface for air. Try it :)
Anonymous
April 30th, 2015 10:21pm
Depression is a tricky thing to battle. In my experience it tends to put all the focus on failures or insecurities rather than all the good in life because it makes it seem like the spot light is on that topic. Because it's the one thing you don't want to focus on you focus on it even more and it can further bring down your mood. Staying busy, or a soothing hobby maybe something art related can often help to aim focus in a more positive direction and allow someone to express their emotions through a different outlet. Letting the emotions out is really important, keeping all your feelings to yourself tears you up from the inside out.
Eluna
March 25th, 2015 5:57pm
Let's make a connect, imagine a road on a foggy afternoon- it's hard to see the roads, right? That's depression. It's really hard to see whats in front of you and behind you until you get really close to it or until the fog lifts. It's just that the fog, depression, is so thick that it's hard to see what you need to see.