Depression and Relapse Prevention

At some point I’m going to cover preventing relapse of depression in more detail. But for now we’re going to just consider two important aspects. In this post and the next we’ll learn how mindfulness and acceptance helps prevent depression relapse by disrupting vicious cycles before they can get started. Then we’ll look at how we can change negative core beliefs that make us vulnerable to depression with CBT.

MBCT and Depression

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was originally developed as a relapse-prevention treatment for depression. I have a whole course on MBCT, but these one aspect in particular we’re going to talk about here. The Parable of the Two Arrows teaches us that the way we respond to unpleasant experiences determines how they affect us, and that pain doesn’t need to lead to suffering.

This video looks once again at the interrelationships between our thoughts, feelings and emotions, behaviors, and physical symptoms. But instead of focusing on how unpleasant experiences pull us into vicious cycles, we learn how to react to these negative or painful experiences in ways that prevent vicious cycles from forming.

The Difference Between Pain and Suffering

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them on the YouTube video page.