Brilliant Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, 2nd Edition

Maintaining factors in depression

In order to maintain these depressive assumptions, depressed people tend to use a broad repertoire of characteristic cognitive distortions including polarised thinking, filtering, personalisation and generalisation (see Chapter 3 for details).

When explaining negative events depressed people tend to hold themselves responsible – even when they are not necessarily to blame. Any mistakes they do make are magnified and taken as examples of engrained character flaws rather than a function of particular circumstances. Needless to say they see little hope that the situation will improve.

As in Duncan’s case the behaviour of depressed people only tends to reinforce the cycle of negative thinking. Because depressed people ...