Possible trigger warning: Depression (if you clicked on this thread, you probably knew that already)
Do the EBT’s mention anything specific about how to deal with the rumination aspect of depression?
I feel this goes deeper than the standard discussion of mind wandering, and working on concentration/meditation to control undesirable thoughts.
I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but when I get depressed, I completely lose control over my thoughts (typically for a few days). A million things flood into my head all at once. I ruminate over what happened, how things could have gone differently, I start to wonder about hidden motivations behind things people say and do… it can get really dark.
During times where I’m not knee deep into a depression, I find it easy enough to monitor my thoughts, and change them if I don’t like where they are headed. Buddhism has given me several tools to do this. I start by focusing on the unwanted thought, examining it to determine that it is suffering, temporary, and not-self. Normally, this works great, and I can move on to whatever I choose to think about.
The problem is when my mind is controlled by depression/rumination, I have a difficult time finding the motivation/energy to even want to control my thoughts. I have tools for dealing with stray thoughts, but when depressed, it feels like too much effort to even bother trying. I feel like someone who is only drowning because swimming sounds like too much work. It’s like drowning in 2 feet of water because I don’t have the motivation to stand up.
How does one find motivation, when my mind/emotions are telling me that the sky is falling, and the world is ending?