Are you upset??

There is a rumble going on in the area of how to treat depression… and its coming from the positive psychology practitioners who strongly believe that it offers a counterbalance to psychiatry’s traditional focus on how to treat psychological issues and mental health disorders, including depression.  Positive psychology is a method of emphasising your strengths rather than your weaknesses, to channel positive messages and thoughts, an essential part of problem solving.  So, if this is a new way to combat mild to moderate depression and anxiety, how can you use it to improve your sense of well-being?

Positive psychology incorporates a variety of techniques that help you to identify and develop your positive emotions, thoughts, experiences and character traits.  Developed to foster well-being and optimal functioning in healthy people, the techniques are now being used to complement other established forms of therapy.  Martin E. P. Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, described the core philosophy of positive psychology as a “build what’s strong” method that augments the “fix what’s wrong” approach of more traditional psychotherapy.  He identified 4 areas of strengths, or qualities, that can help people to thrive: curiosity, zest, wisdom and courage.

Psychotherapy tends to focus on negative emotions, such as anger and sadness, and many standard psychiatric text books used by professionals dedicated hundreds of pages to anxiety, depression, terror, shame, guilt, anger and fear, but few pages talk about hope, joy, compassion or love.  Many coaching and counselling strategies focus on the aspects of positive psychology; here are some of the techniques.

Well-being therapy is an aspect of positive psychology and tries to promote recovery from depression, and other disorders, by focusing on and promoting the positive, whilst reducing the negative aspects of life.  Developed by Giovanni Fava, M.D., at the University of Bologna in Italy, it is based principally on 6 tenets: mastery of the environment, personal growth, purpose in life, autonomy, self-acceptance and positive relationships.  It is a bit like cognitive behavioural therapy and patients are encouraged to keep a journal to track and thereby recognise the positive events.  The aim is to eventually change the way you think from negative to positive.

Dr Seligman and colleagues wanted to do more than just treat depression by reducing the negative symptoms, and developed positive psychology to do just that; helping you to build positive emotions, character strengths and a sense of purpose.  Some exercises in positive psychology include:

• Signature strengths – identifying your top 5 strengths and aiming to use them in some new way on a daily basis.  A questionnaire developed by Dr Seligman measures 24 character strengths.

• Three good things – every evening, you are encouraged to write down 3 good things that happened that day, and think about why they happened.

• Gratitude visit – write a letter to someone explaining why you feel grateful for something they’ve done or said.  Read the letter to that person, either face-to-face or over the phone.

In terms of using positive psychology with more traditional methods of psychotherapy, here are some examples of how professionals may put it into practice.

• Reverse the focus from negative to positive – rather than dwell on the negative events or emotions, focus on the more positive aspects of life.  Your therapist may ask you to think about the good things that happened in the day, and may even ask you to write down an “I did it” list, not a “to do” list.

• Develop a language of strength – although it is sometimes more difficult if you do suffer from anxiety or depression, your therapist will encourage you to talk about and identify your positive qualities, emotions and personal strengths.

• Practice your strengths – use your strengths regularly and you should function better in life.  Your therapist may ask you to identify one key strength, and then use it at least once a day.

• Balance the positive and negative – identify and promote the positive in yourself and others to gain a balance, such as mixing praise with criticism when evaluating an employee to encourage their growth.

• Build strategies that foster hope – fostering hope in others can potentially increase the odds of them successfully dealing with problems and overcoming challenges.  Cultivate hope by reducing the size of the problem; break it down into smaller parts which can be dealt with individually, similar to cognitive behavioural therapy.  Also identify and practice coping mechanisms that you can use when you come up against a difficult situation or challenge.

Whichever method you used, as well as medications, one thing that all professionals and researchers do agree on is that being negative and sceptical doesn’t help; building positive thinking, strength, hope and resilience are of great importance and significantly help you in dealing with and overcoming depression.