Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

How to Get Out of a Depressed Mood

23 snips

Jul 22, 2024

Exploring various interventions for dealing with depression, distinguishing between normal sadness and major depressive disorder, importance of social support, benefits of sunlight on mood, mindfulness practices to counteract rumination, techniques for transitioning to a more positive self-concept, and the significance of self-compassion in navigating through a depressed mood.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Depression's Self-Sustaining Cycle

Depression saps energy and motivation, making usual positive interventions seem out of reach.
It alters perception, reinforcing negative thoughts and maintaining the depressed mood cycle.

INSIGHT

Hallmarks of Depressed Mood

Depression episodes often involve loss of pleasure and quick fading of positive emotions.
Depressed mood also flattens the learning curve, reducing growth even from positive experiences.

INSIGHT

Biopsychosocial Model of Depression

Depression arises from the interplay of biology, psychology, and social factors.
This biopsychosocial model offers multiple intervention points since causes vary by individual.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

About 30% of people will experience depression at some point in their lives, and most of us know what a depressed mood feels like. Because depressive episodes are common, there’s no lack of good advice out there. But depression is so challenging in part because it attacks our ability to do anything about it. Depression saps our energy, is demotivating, and makes it difficult to actually put that good advice into practice. In this episode, Dr. Rick and Forrest explore what we can do about this, and how we can break out of an episode of depressed mood.

They start by talking about what causes depression, introduce the biopsychosocial model, and identify an overall framework for most depressive episodes. Rick and Forrest then explain the vicious cycle of depressed mood before focusing on what a person can do practically to break the cycle. Topics include identifying mindsets, changing how we interpret information, fully experiencing our emotions, rumination and ruminatory processes, taking in the good, and creating openness to possibility.

You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

2:15: Distinguishing a depressed mood from MDD

7:25: Causes of depression

12:00: Absolutist beliefs and self-compassion

17:45: The paradox of motivation, and small ways to break the cycle

24:20: Fully experiencing your feelings, and emotional release

30:05: Discerning between thoughts and experiences

38:30: Rumination, finding evidence of positive change, and interoception

42:50: Recognizing what you don’t know, being receptive to love, and simply being

52:00: Recap

I am now writing on Substack, check out my work there.

Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.

Sponsors

Trust your gut with Seed’s DS-01 Daily Synbiotic. Go to Seed.com/BEINGWELL and use code 25BEINGWELL to get 25% off your first month.

OneSkin focuses on delivering more than superficial results for your skin. Get started today with 15% off using code BEINGWELL at oneskin.co.

Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!

Connect with the show:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices