IS IT TRUE THAT DEPRESSED PEOPLE SEE RATIONALIZATIONS MORE THAN SOLUTIONS?
Since the purpose of depression is to remove people from the race, there’s a loss of energy, of drive and ambition. There’s also a tendency, therefore, to feel helpless and not to seek solutions. Depressed people often retreat into rationalization as a way of justifying their failure to do anything. I recall a patient who was in a severe depression and as a consequence could not do his work properly. Instead of finding solutions, he sat there giving me elaborate explanations for why he couldn’t get his work done. When I pressed him to write out four or five action steps that would help him be productive, he resisted strongly. Such resistance is a natural result of the depression. One just lacks the energy and drive to be action oriented. TO WHAT EXTENT SHOULD A DEPRESSED PERSON TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DEPRESSION? You don’t need to take responsibility for a depression before you can resolve it. The depression itself doesn’t restore the loss. But you do have to take responsibility fo
