Video: Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts

Hi, Therese,

I really liked that one. Very educational, and it's SOOOO important that people with a mood disorder change their "stinkin' thinkin'" as they say.

Not only are convictions more rational, but they force one to think and act charitably toward his- or herself. Condemnations are the opposite, they make us angry with ourselves, and if left unchecked can lead us into a major depressive episode.

Convictions are tools in the war against negativity/depression.

No matter what therapist one goes to, we are with ourselves 100% of the time. That means we have to educate ourselves about the triggers and the solutions.

If I start getting upset about myself and my fears, I sometimes quote the Scripture over and over, "For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but faith, love and a sound mind." That can help me to go in another direction with my thinking.

Strategies to cope ... so important ....

Thanks so much for another outstanding video!
God bless you!

Renata

ANOTHER WONDERFUL remindr. Thanks, Therese. I think I've discussed here before the important work I did with my own therapist post stroke learning to differentiate between accountability and blame. My critical inner self was working overtime and pulling me ever deeper into thesnake pit to the point where my depression assessmenys at my psychiatrist's appointments were measuring off the scale. Those of us with low self steem born of constant finger pointing during our childhoods have a difficult time understanding hese subtlties, and, at least in my own case, that lack was making my life even more difficult than it needed to be a I stuggled to adjust to my new reality. Martha finally reached me by pointing out that she was sure I knew others who, like myself, had made some unhealthy lifestyle choices like overeationg, smoking and not getting enough exercise who had NOT had strokes, which, of course was/is true Therefore, according to the work we did, it was important, evenCRITICAL, for me to understand that the "Blame Game" served no good purposebut was rather a holdover from my role as family "scapegoat" in the big picture of the alcoholic family. Her lesson was that blame implies intent whereas accountability does not. Since I had not set out to give myself a stroke, blame, then became moot. Accountability, conversely, is a more positive cousin of blame. I am accountable for those choices that contributed to my stroke rather than to blame for the stroke itself which is WHY I know others who have lived similar lifestyles without ending up with hemiparesis or the brain damage that is now a daily part of my struggle. Looking at it that way frees me to make healthier present choices rather than dwell in the past and shake a mental finger in my own face. which, at BEST, is counterproductive; same philosophy as condemnation versus conviction. Coming t understand that there were certain genetic predispositions that also played a role (i.e. a family history of diabetes) that my primary care doc had more or less ignored allowed me to find a way out of the web of blame that was only making matters worse in terms of my recovery(both physical and emotional) It was unbelievably freeing to be able to tell my critical inner self to go thake a jump in the lake! Little "tricks" like the one you shared today are essential for those of us who deal with depression as a constant in our llives. I hope othes who suffer from this kind of faulty thinking can embrace this lesson sooner than I did and thereby avoid at least SOME time curled up next to the reptiles that await us when we give in to childhood conditioning that has become a part of our individual comfort zones.

Therese

Thank you for discussing condemnation and conviction. At the moment my subconscious seems to be in condemning mode. When I sleep I have dreams where I am working and my depression is being ignored. There is an uncaring boss whose every word is condemnation and in dream land, the real "me" doesn't have much power to make the dream lucid and I end up trapped in that true nightmare.

I am still digesting the video and will have to watch it another time or two as I am sure that there is more in me related to this subject than I picked up on the first time.

Richard