Loving Someone with Depression

Post by chris_st » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

tduberne wrote: post #281

chris_st wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have recently read through the book, "Feeling Good" by David Burns, which is regarded as one of the better books on CBT. It helped me a lot, in particular in dealing with thoughts something like what the OP's partner apparently had. It has great strategies for first recognizing, and then dealing with such thoughts. They're not "just feel better" ideas, they're specific things to do which help. Highly recommended.

I read it as well, and also listened to his podcast (which is where I learned about "TEAM-CBT", his supposedly highly effective new approach). The concepts and arguments in the book (and podcast) make total sense to me, but the _way_ it is presented is sounds more like snake-oil marketing than science, which is why I am interested in learning about its effectiveness on severe forms of depression from independent sour…

Post by etripe » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:01 PM UTC

R0b0t1 wrote: post #292

r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's not just cyclical major depression (and there's no "just" to major depression either, but that's another rant). The diagnostic criteria for bipolar is that you have had at least one extended episode of mania or hypomania alongside a depressive episode, so you're not going to have the diagnosis unless you've been manic or hypomanic at some point. Although it may not be a major or dominant part of someone'…

It seems very dangerous to diagnose as such. Perhaps someone gets depressed every three months near end of quarter when their hours get cut? Once someone demonstrably has issues with mania, yes, sure, I understand wanting to prevent it, but in a lot of cases I see very little separation from actual mania and "I felt good one day" (which if someone were depressed may feel very weird). There's also strong arguments tha…