Break the cycle of repeated depression

Have you been lucky enough to go through your life so far without suffering a serious depression? asks my That's Men for You column in today's Irish Times. "I do not mean the occasional bouts of the "blues" that we all experience from time to time," it says. "What I mean is the sort of depression that has you on the floor, so that getting out of bed in the morning, eating, dressing and normal day to day activities seem impossible." The column is part of The Irish Times' premium content so I can't reproduce it here.

However, it points out that we are in danger of falling back into depression if we misinterpret one of three symptoms as heralding its return: fatigue, low mood and negative thoughts. Any one of these can and does occur on its own. All three occur together in a major depression. Where a person who has had a major depression later experiences one of them in isolaton (a dip in mood, for instance) he may wrongly assume the depression is back. This may lead him to engage in negative thinking and, perhaps, stay in bed in the mornings which leads to fatigue. This, then, brings back the depression.

The article cautions readers against jumping to the conclusion that the depression is back when a single symptom occurs. Instead, when you experience one of the three symptoms of fatigue, low mood or negative thoughts, be careful to avoid falling into the other two - just get on with what you are doing and allow the symptom to pass.....