One week in my support group, our therapist handed out a sheet at the end of the class with the heading in big black letters, “Ten thinking errors in Depression.” I stuck it in the back of my book and thanked the therapist. Today I picked it back out of my book and gave it a few minutes of my time. I shook my head and said, “right.” I don’t have any of those things. I can’t imagine having any of those things. Who does he think he is giving me this crappy paper? And besides that, the paper is taken from some MD from 1980. Yeah, right, over 21 years ago. We don’t think in those terms anymore, do we?

Well, I decided to give it a fair go of it, so I took a better look at it.

Error number one. All-or-Nothing. I look at everything in absolute. Black and white categories. Well, I did share something about black and white categories last time in group, so okay, that’s legitimate. There is such a thing as all or nothing thinking. I guess I do that when I’m depressed. Yes, when I’m depressed I see in black and white, not so much in colors, but my life is either yes or no or black and white. Yes I am feeling good or no I am miserable. Yes the food is great or no it is bad. There are two chapters in the workbook that deal with errors in thinking. I don’t get a lot out of reading about my problems as far as thinking goes. I would rather learn by doing.

The second thinking error on this sheet is over-generalization. It means seeing a single event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. I can relate to this. My personal example is like when I write a good story, well, an excellent short story that I think will sell big time, but it’s rejected by some idiotic publishing house, and it comes back to me. I think to myself, well, I might as well give up on my writing because I’m never going to sell anything. That’s a fallacy. I need to keep on trying. I’m eventually going to be selling everything I write because I will be a noted and much sought after writer once I am discovered and once it is known how rare my writing is. I haven’t even started to be the person I want to be yet. I’ve just noticed the roses. I’ve just discovered the high road. I’ve just discovered colors. You know what I mean? (That was 2001, and it is now 2008, and the information is still the same as far as I’m concerned.)