Negative Thinking Behaviors Can Cause Depression

Negative ThinkingHave people around you ever accused you of being negative? Or how about grumpy?

I heard once that someone referred to me as being grumpy.

Being grumpy in my late 20s (at the time) doesn’t sound flattering does it?

But I was definitely negative, no question about it.

Negative thinking behaviors are one of the common causes of depression. They were in my case.

It was previously thought in the medical community that depression was partly genetic, and that it could be passed on from generation to generation. Now it is generally believed that it is not passed on with the genes we inherit, but from patterns of behavior that we learn from those close to us.

(The exception to this is bipolar depression, where I think a genetic link was identified or remains strongly suspected.)

It was difficult to accept that I was a negative person. It felt like a personal attack being called grumpy. I was angry.

But it was the truth, and I had to start changing in order to fight my condition.

It’s hard to enjoy life that way.

So what do we do to change these behaviors?

Like any habit, it takes effort and commitment to change. But consider this. Much of what happens in the world is beyond your control, so its what you do and how you react to it that will determine how much you enjoy your life.

Have you ever wondered how some people can be happy no matter what happens to them? I’m sure you can think of at least one person. I know a few.

These people used to annoy me. I would think they were naïve or even stupid. Pretty negative isn’t that? Now I’m happy for them.

Now I know that I’ve recommended this to you on a few occasions here, but Conquering Stress is a very good book to read if you want to change your patterns of negative thinking.

It teaches you valuable techniques to deal with stress effectively. Most of us with depression react to stress negatively because that’s what we learned to do.

Reading Conquering Stress will help you change these behaviors to help you start reacting to the world in a positive way. This was an important step for me.

Another great book worth checking out is James Gordon’s Destroy Depression System.