Eight Steps To Eradicate Depression

I am the Positive Depression Doctor, and I am positive that you can win the battle against depression. Here are eight steps you can take to eradicate depression from your mind.

1. Realize that you have a problem.
2. Reestablish command and control .
3. Recognize your cognitive distortions.
4. Reject your cognitive distortions.
5. Renew your mind with new thoughts.
6. Reprogram your mind with a positive operating system.
7. Radically shift your focus.
8. Repeat these steps.

Just because you think negative thoughts doesn't mean you are depressed or that you have a problem with depression. You may simply be a pessimist who sees the cup half empty rather than half full. A less than optimistic point of view isn't always pathological. A pessimistic outlook may make your life harder than it needs to be, but that doesn't mean you have clinical depression. Negative thoughts are common when you live in a state of chronic overload, and your mind is overwhelmed by fatigue. Even though you are not clinically depressed, there are plenty of negative thoughts to go around. Fortunately, when you get rested and relieve the overload, the negative thoughts quickly disappear.

If you clearly have a problem with depression, there are lots of things you can do to win the battle for a positive mind.

The first order of the day is to reestablish command and control. That means you take command of your mind, and you control the thoughts that you find there. Some people require the use of medications to regain command and control, and others do it without medications under the care of a qualified professional.

Reestablishing command and control does not happen in an instant, and there are important things to do while you sort out your command and control issues. You need to get a handle on your cognitive distortions. The depressed mind is a factory that effortlessly manufactures twisted thoughts and distorted emotions, and then dumps them into your stream of consciousness. If you buy what your depressed mind is selling, you will lose the battle. But if you focus on your cognitive distortions and call them out by name, the war for a positive mind will shift in your favor. It is absolutely essential to recognize your cognitive distortions, because until you identify them, you will not be able to eliminate them.

Recognizing your cognitive distortions is not enough. You have to go one step further and reject the congnitive distortions that hold you captive. As each congnitive distortion rears its ugly head, you decapitate it with the truth that sets you free. You reject your cognitive distortions thought by thought.

Getting rid of the negative does not automatically make you positive. You must put positive things into your mind if you want to become a positive person. You have to renew your mind with positive thoughts and fill your mind with positive things.

Reprogramming your mind with a positive operating system comes next. God designed your mind so that it would function most efficiently under the influence of positive beliefs. You need to have a positive operating system up and running all the time, and if one isn't present, you need to install one.

Next, you must shift your focus away from yourself and from your depression. You have to organize your life around a center, and depression is clearly the wrong center. The most important choice you will ever make is the center around which you organize your life, because that becomes your mental focus. Depressed people have the wrong focus, and they will never leave the Land of Depression until they shift their focus in a healthy direction. They need a positive focus, and they need real power.

God's love is real power. His love is the most powerful force in the universe, and when you organize your life around his love, healing begins. His love points you in the right direction and gives you the power to make the trip. When God's love gets inside your heart and mind, you get a new way of thinking and feeling. You actually become a new person with a new life.

The final step is to repeat the preceding seven steps again and again so that you regain the high ground in the battle for a positive mind.

I am positive that you can win the battle against depression.

If you want to learn more about the eight steps to eradicate depression, read Zero Tolerance to Negative Thinking. And if you want to learn how positive spirituality can help you develop a healthy heart and mind, read Real Power: Maxing Out on God's Love.

If you want to have a mind free from depression, nobody can stop you.

Only The Truth Can Set You Free

Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

To the extent that spiritual belief helps unravel the twisted thinking and distorted emotions associated with depression, to that extent, spirituality has a place in the treatment of depressive illness. Only the truth can set you free from the cognitive distortions associated with depression. The truth really does set you free.

God designed your mind so that it would function best when it is under the influence of his love. When your mind is full of thoughts consistent with his love, your thoughts are healthy, and your mind is exactly the way God means for it to be.

God designed your heart so that it would experience healthy emotions when it is dominated by his love. When your heart is full of emotions that are consistent with his love, your emotions are healthy, and your heart is exactly the way God means for it to be.

A healthy heart and mind free from twisted thinking and distorted emotions are the holy grail in the treatment of depressive disorders.

It's impossible to be depressed when God's love controls your heart and mind. The reason is simple. Twisted thoughts and distorted emotions wither in the presence of God's love. They literally cannot survive when your heart and mind are full of God's love.

God designed your mind so that your thoughts create your emotions, and that's why cognitive therapy is so effective. When you striaghten out your twisted thinking, your distorted emotions naturally disappear.

Nothing is more powerful than God's love. When all else fails, when the hand of flesh falls limp, God's love remains unfettered and unstoppable. When his love comes in the front door, misery, despair, and depression head for the emergency exit.

God's love has enough power to heal your heart and transform your mind. Nothing can do what God's love can, and nothing can do it as well. Furthermore, the positive effects last for eternity. You have a new mind and healed emotions, and the cure lasts forever.

God's love isn't a pipedream that promises one thing and delivers another. The final test of all forms of treatment is whether it works. And it must work on the hard cases just as well as it does on the easy ones.

When all therapies have failed and fallen by the wayside, God's love endures. It never gives up and never surrenders to despair. Nothing is too hard for God. He created the human heart and mind, and He knows everything that can go wrong. He doesn't need to do research or ask anyone for advice. You don't have to wait for someone to discover the cure. God already has the cure for what ails you. He is the powerhouse of unconditional love and has an endless supply that will restore health to your heart and mind. Real power is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. All you need to do is max out on his love.

When twisted thinking and distorted emotions threaten to take over your life, read Zero Tolerance to Negative Thinking and follow that up with Real Power: Maxing Out on God's Love. Those two books will point you in the right direction and give you the power to make the trip.

If you want to have a mind free from depression, nobody can stop you.

Dr. Dave