CHAPTER 5-3  

                      OVERCOMING DEPRESSION


     Traditional psychotherapy for depression was founded upon 
the assumption that people are irresistibly disturbed by the 
remnants of their past experiences.  This implies that people 
cannot change their emotional life simply by changing their 
current patterns of thinking.  Recent tests have shown, however, 
that this assumption is false, and the wisdom of the ages is 
correct.  People can indeed overcome depression by changing their 
current thought patterns.  That is, though you may have been 
disturbed by events in your past, you now (in Albert Ellis's 
phrase)  disturb yourself by your current mental habits.   
     Modern cognitive therapy -- which fully coincides with the 
traditional wisdom on this point -- begins with the assumption 
that we have considerable control over our own thinking.  We can 
choose what we will think about, even though following through on 
the choice requires effort and is not always fully successful.  
We can select our goals, even though the goals are not infinitely 
flexible.  We can decide how much we will agonize over particular 
events, though our minds are not as obedient as we would like 
them to be.  We can learn better ways to understand the data of 
our objective situations, just as students learn to gather and 
analyze data scientifically, rather than being forced to accept 
the biased assessments we have tended to make until now. 
     As of the 1990s, a depression sufferer usually can get 
relief with active cognitive psychotherapy, or with tested anti-
depressant medications, or with both.  The U. S. Public Health 
Service summarizes as follows:  "Eighty percent of people with 
serious depression can be treated successfully.  Medication or 
psychological therapies, or combinations of both usually relieve 
symptoms in weeks."1, old 1  Both kinds of treatment have been shown in controlled experimental research to 
benefit a large proportion of depression sufferers, within a few months or even weeks.  Sometimes cognitive therapy even produces 
instant recovery, as happened to me.  All this is good news indeed for depression sufferers.  
     The operational question, then, is: How can you manipulate your mental apparatus so as to prevent the flow of negative self-
comparisons about which you feel helpless?  There are several possibilities for any given person, and one or more device may be 
successful for you.  Or perhaps some combination of devices will prove best for you.  The possibilities include:  changing the 
numerator in the Mood Ratio discussed in the previous chapters; changing the denominator; changing the dimensions upon which you 
compare yourself; making no comparisons at all; reducing your sense of helplessness about changing the situation; and using one or 
more of your most cherished values as an engine to propel you out of your depression.  Sometimes a powerful way to break a logjam 
in your thinking is to get rid of some of your "oughts" and "musts", and recognize that you do not need to make the negative self-
comparisons that have been causing your sadness.  
     In this book you come across many of the ideas of cognitive therapy, especially the types of thinking that are characteristic 
of depressed persons, in several other contexts.  The distortions of thought common to depressives are much the same, though with 
different names, as a) the obstacles to sound scientific knowledge faced by researchers, b) the logical fallacies that have been 
pointed out by philosophers through the ages, c) the devices used by propagandists to influence audiences, d) the causes of bias 
in estimates of probabilities, and e) many of the sources of faulty decision-making in business and other organizations.  Once you 
recognize the similarity in these contexts of thought schemes, each one illuminates the others, and the overall scheme gains in 
generality.       
     Many fallacies of thought (see Chapters 4-5 and 4-6) may be found in the thinking of depressives.  But this does not imply 
that fallacious thought accounts for all depression, or that depressives always think less clearly than do non-depressives.  
Research shows that depressives may be more accurate than non-depressives in assessing various kinds of phenomena; non-depressives 
tend to be biased in an optimistic direction.  Though I am sure that truth and accurate information may have a greater value than 
distortion for the human community, in general and in the long run, it may be that in at least some kinds of shorter-run 
situations ("shorter" not necessarily being less than a person's lifetime) distortion is better, much as I hate to believe that 
this may be true.  Perhaps this kind of bias has been programmed into us by genetic or cultural evolution for its survival value. 
     Does this mean that I advocate having an optimistic bias unwarranted by the facts? I could never do that, partly because a 
bias that might serve you well as an individual might cause you to act in ways that are damaging to other people. 
     The fight against depression best begins by learning which negative self-comparisons the sufferer habitually makes.  The next 
step is to determine why the person makes those particular negative self-comparisons; this requires an understanding of the 
psychological structure that is related to such negative self-comparisons.  You should also ask yourself why you feel helpless to 
change your circumstances or the goals that you set, and why you feel that you must make the particular self-comparisons that you 
do make.  Though it is possible to get rid of the sadness-causing negative self-comparisons even without understanding why you 
make them, the understanding often is valuable and effective.  
     Next you should formulate a strategy for attacking the depression.  Improving the numerator in the Mood Ratio, by improving 
the accuracy with which you assess the actual state of your life, often is the best place to begin.  If this tactic does not 
suffice, you may next attempt to change the denominator, the benchmark state against which you compare your actual state of 
affairs.  If this still does not suffice, you may consider changing the dimensions on which you commonly compare yourself, away 
from dimensions on which you compare negatively and toward those dimensions on which you compare positively.  Still a further step 
is to reduce the number of self-comparisons and self-evaluations you make, by immersing yourself in work or altruism, or by 
recourse to meditation or related devices.  A combination of several intervention devices, including an effort to reduce the 
feeling of being helpless, may be best. 
     A powerful new (though also very old) cure for some people's depression is Values Treatment.  When a person's negative self-
comparisons - no matter what their original cause - are expressed as shortfalls between the person's circumstances and her most 
fundamental beliefs (values) about what a person should be and do, Values Treatment can build on other values to defeat the 
depression.  The method is to find within yourself other fundamental beliefs and values that call for a person not to suffer but 
rather to live happily and joyfully, for the sake of God or for the sake of woman and man - oneself, family, or others.  If you 
believe in the superordinate value of a belief which conflicts with being depressed, that belief can induce you to enjoy and 
cherish life rather than to be sad and depressed. 
     Practical exercises are important, especially the exercise of recording your negative self-comparisons followed by analysing 
and demolishing them.  And don't forget to plan and carry out lots of pleasurable experiences, an important part of therapy for 
depression.  
                             SUMMARY
     In a nutshell: understand the key role of negative self-comparisons.  Then inquire how you developed the propensity to 
construe your numerator or your denominator in such a manner that the self-comparisons are negative, and why you make self-
comparisons as frequently as you do.  Then decide what changes in your thinking you intend to make.  Then develop the habit of 
thinking in these new ways which will reduce or eliminate your depression. 
     These are the possible tactics: (1) Improve the numerator in your Mood Ratio, by getting rid of misconceptions about 
yourself, or by learning that your capacities to influence events in a desirable direction are greater than you thought.  (2) 
Alter your denominator to make it less formidable, by changing the benchmarks against which you compare your actual state of 
affairs.  (3) Change the dimensions on which you habitually compare yourself.  (4) Re-train yourself so you seem to yourself more 
competent and less helpless.  (5) Reduce the number of comparisons you make each day, by immersing yourself in work or altruistic 
activity, or by recourse to meditation or related devices.  (6) Examine your basic values to learn what is important to you that 
may influence your wanting to be depressed or wanting not to be depressed.      
     The next chapter gets down to the nitty-gritty of overcoming depression. 
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