Depression symptoms can drag your attention away from the moment, making it hard to focus on experiencing life.
Brain fog can make it hard to make choices, and hopelessness and exhaustion can sap your will to participate. Irritability and emotional volatility can make it hard to focus on what you’re doing and can also interfere with your ability to get along with others, turning everyday encounters into a minefield of emotions and difficult interactions.
Depression can distract you from living life
How many experiences has depression distracted you from, making it hard to participate or enjoy the moment?
Does this sound familiar?
When you’re distracted, you’re often emotionally overwhelmed, feeling empty, and wanting to isolate yourself from others. It can feel nearly impossible to focus. Instead of engaging with what’s going on around you, you can get stuck ruminating—focusing on worries, what-ifs, and old memories. Emotional overwhelm can lead you to react, trying to release your feelings through an outburst so you can get some relief.
When depression traps you in rumination or reactions, keeping you from enjoying that family moment, that holiday, that day with friends, or that work project, what can you do to reclaim your time and redirect your attention?
How does mindfulness help with depression?
Research has shown that mindfulness is a very helpful tool for managing depression. As you may know all too well, depression drags your attention to anywhere but the present moment and brings along loud, negative, judgmental thoughts and feelings. The emotional dysregulation and distraction of depression can sour happy moments and make tough days that much harder.
Developing the ability to mindfully engage with the moment, observing how you feel and focusing on what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, can help you overcome depression symptoms and participate more fully in your life.
With mindfulness, you can learn to let go of thoughts and feelings, reducing emotional dysregulation. You can let uncomfortable emotions and thoughts happen without acting on them, keeping you from disrupting your day through reactions. Finally, you can learn to take charge of your attention, intentionally directing and redirecting your focus to the present moment, engaging with your life even when depression is trying its hardest to distract you.
How does DBT apply mindfulness as a part of intensive depression treatment?
Mindfulness is a practice, often a lifelong one, and there are many ways to use it. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) offers two specific skills that guide you in using mindfulness to manage depression symptoms in the moment: the What and How skills.
The What DBT skill
The What DBT skill guides you on what to do when depression is drawing your attention away from the moment.
Observe
Start by observing your thoughts and feelings, your bodily sensations, what you’re doing, and what’s happening around you in the moment. Just notice; don’t try to change anything.
If you notice you’re trying to stop a feeling, you’re ready to react, or you’re focusing on specific thoughts or emotions, try to slow down and focus on the moment. You may have to refocus again and again; this is normal! Mindfulness is an active practice, not one that just happens.
Describe
Describe to yourself what you’re experiencing and what’s happening around you. Stick to the facts of the moment by naming thoughts and feelings, describing them without adding meaning or interpretation to them. Try to notice judgments without taking them as facts. Having a feeling or a thought isn’t good or bad; it just is.
Participate
Now is the time to take action, but do it with all your attention. Notice how things feel, what things look like, and think about the action you’re taking right then. Focus on what you’re doing and stay responsive to what’s happening in the moment, without planning ahead or thinking about the next activity. Try to direct your attention toward the activity and participate as fully as you can. If you notice your focus moving elsewhere, redirect it.
The How DBT skill
The How skill guides you in choosing how you engage with the present moment, including the mindset you adopt and the choices you make.
Non-judgmental
Let go of labeling thoughts, feelings, or experiences as “good” or “bad”. Focus on the facts, and remember that experiencing a feeling is a fact, but that feeling may not fully reflect the entire truth of the moment.
One mindful
Focusing your entire mind on the moment. When you notice your mind wandering, whether it’s toward negative thoughts from depression or even just tomorrow’s grocery list, redirect your attention to here and now.
Effective
Choose what will get you what you want out of the experience. Don’t worry about who is “right” or “wrong”; focus on actions that lead to the best outcome based on your goals and values.
Using What and How: a real-life example
With the What and How DBT skills, you can stop unpleasant experiences from derailing your whole day.
Let’s say you just had a big family dinner, and some comments from an aunt brought up a lot of hard feelings for you. Depression is trying to drag you into another rumination cycle, where you agonize over what was said. Instead of rehearsing confrontations and focusing on judgmental thoughts, you remember what you’ve learned about mindfulness from THIRA Health, so you try this:
Observe: Notice that your face is feeling hot, your stomach is slightly upset, you’re thinking about the passive-aggressive comments you heard at dinner, and you’ve stood up while everyone is clearing the table.
Describe: You name your emotions, angry and sad. You notice thoughts of the past and fears that you’re worthless and unlovable. You feel frozen in the moment, and you’re watching the room clear out.
Participate: You choose to wash dishes instead of joining your aunt in the living room. You notice how the water feels on your hands, and as you scrub, you make sure the dishes are really clean. When your cousin brings up a joke, you listen and laugh at the punchline, staying present.
Non-judgmental: When you notice self-judgment or judgment of your aunt, you observe the thought, say to yourself “that’s a judgment,” and let it pass by. Consider facts of the matter without adding interpretation or jumping to conclusions.
One-mindfully: You carry dishes to the kitchen and carefully wash them, focusing your attention on the task at hand. When difficult thoughts or feelings try to snag your attention, you redirect to the task, dishes.
Effective: Instead of continuing the difficult conversation from dinner in the living room, you choose to wash the dishes because you know you’ll be able to focus, and it will help you regulate much better than an argument. After you’re more regulated, you can enjoy your family without re-engaging with your aunt.
How can our DBT-based Seattle depression treatment program help you?
Depression can hold you back from fully engaging with the moment, making it hard to feel like life is worth living. Using mindfulness, through DBT skills like What and How, can help you overcome depression symptoms and bring you back to the moment, even when depression is at its heaviest.
THIRA Health takes a holistic approach to mental wellbeing, using DBT as a cornerstone of intensive depression treatment. Our expert therapists have seen firsthand the progress people make in lifting depression symptoms through practicing DBT skills, first in individual and group therapy, then in everyday life.
Using mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness skills. DBT can help you participate more fully in the moment when depression is interfering with living your life the way you want. If you’re ready to get started on intensive depression treatment, connect with us today to learn more about our programs and to get started on a life truly worth living!
