"If our thinking is simple and clear, we are better equipped to achieve our goals."

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Hello, my friends. Welcome to my blog

When I was diagnosed with clinical depression, I understood virtually nothing of what I was being told. Still, I was somewhat relieved to know that there was a name and explanation for what was happening to me. The first thing I understood was that depression was not my fault, it was an illness I had no control over; that it depended on what was happening in my neurons and that I needed medication to regulate the abnormal behavior of my brain. I wasn't "crazy", but I couldn't do much to control my emotions either. That was the first thing I was told.

Every psychiatrist and psychologist I saw made me understand that depression was something I could not control. And that's partly true. I even once composed a sentence that attempted to describe what depression was, dedicated especially to those who told me to "do my part." This is the phrase:

"You can tell a paralytic to change his mood, and he can do it. You can ask a depressed person to change his mind and it's like asking a paralytic to walk".

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But it turns out that yes, it was clear that I could do my part; however, I understood that over the years. Rather, I wanted to understand it and when that happened and I was willing to take a more proactive attitude, then I stopped hiding behind the "I am not to blame for being like this"; and I began to recognize that I could and should do my part if I really wanted to completely get out of this pit in which I found myself.*

To "do my part," I had to exercise my will. One of those ways I could do it was with a tool that the author of the sentence that opens this post, Aaron Beck, had developed: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and with it I could overcome the Cognitive Triad, one of the most characteristic and difficult symptoms of depression to cope with. In the following post I will be explaining what it is all about.

That's all for now, we'll keep reading.