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

Profile: Calmriver18
Calmriver18 on Apr 23, 2018
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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! 😁😁🌷🌷
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Profile: Anonymous
Anonymous on Aug 4, 2015
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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
Profile: WGlasser
WGlasser on Apr 4, 2017
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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.
Profile: Anonymous
Anonymous on Mar 9, 2015
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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. :)
Profile: Anonymous
Anonymous on Oct 30, 2017
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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.
Profile: Adoreebrendaa
Adoreebrendaa on Mar 9, 2015
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You forget the positive things in your life and achievements when you are depressed because you tend to lean more towards negativity .
Profile: Eluna
Eluna on Mar 25, 2015
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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.
Profile: Anonymous
Anonymous on Apr 30, 2015
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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.
Profile: CarpeDiem123
CarpeDiem123 on May 8, 2015
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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 :)
Profile: Anonymous
Anonymous on May 10, 2015
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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.
Profile: hopefulPower94
hopefulPower94 on May 31, 2015
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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.
Profile: Anonymous
Anonymous on Jun 7, 2015
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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.
Profile: Scarsquid
Scarsquid on Jun 12, 2015
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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.
Profile: Dreamz
Dreamz on Jun 22, 2015
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Depression is a state of mind that often makes everything seem gloomy. When depression hits, you often cannot find the good.
Profile: PlayStar
PlayStar on Jun 30, 2015
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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. :)
Profile: lovelyOcean15
lovelyOcean15 on Aug 4, 2015
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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.
Profile: Anonymous
Anonymous on Nov 30, 2015
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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
Profile: sunnyOcean31
sunnyOcean31 on Apr 18, 2016
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Because depression makes our brain think differently. That is why exercise. .support groups and a healthy diet can reduce the negatively thoughts about ourselves
Profile: Remina
Remina on Jul 11, 2016
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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.
Profile: Millichidulinas
Millichidulinas on Jul 12, 2016
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'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.
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