Depression affects thinking in a unique and particular way-it make everything seem terrible. Every memory is a bad one. A depressed person can’t think about the happy times in thier past. They can’t recall the good things that happened to them. They have difficulty focusing on anything positive. Depression has a specific impact on the memory systems in the brain. Those systems which store every event of a lifetime are altered in such a way that they can only recall the negative events of a person’s life.

The thinking (cognitive) effects of depression cause people to view life as an endless series of pain and struggle. Over time these thought patterns make a person belive life is hopeless and that they are helpless in changning thing for the better.

This sort of thinking pattern is dangerous because it can lead to thought that life isn’t worth living.

If a person thinks that life isn’t worth living they soon enough belive they would be better off dead. These thoughts become pervasive and place the person at great risk for self-harm or suicide. At the very least they cause a person to wish they were not alive.

Depression is more than a mood disorder-it is a thinking disorder as well!