I’m not suggesting that someone suffering from depression will be able to climb out of it. Rather, to be very specific, that by noticing the cognitive biases caused by depression, as they’re happening, they are (we know from research and clinical experience) typically able to gain cognitive distance, which often leads, especially with practice, to a reduction in the intensity of certain symptoms. That works both for “low mood” and, to some extent, for clinical depression. I mentioned at the start of the article that I’m a cognitive-behavioural psychotherapist, working with clinical depression, and the strategies I’m describing are, in fact, derived in part from research on depressive disorders.
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