ABSTRACT

Major depression is a disabling emotional disorder, affecting all aspects of functioning. Negative thinking pervades the depressed person's views of the past, the self and the future; lack of interest and anhedonia reduce engagement in activities that used to be enjoyable; and physical symptoms, such as lack of energy and poor concentration, undermine the capacity to deal with everyday challenges. People experience depression as painfully discrepant from their usual (and desired) state, and struggle to escape it. Paradoxically, their attempts to overcome it often, in fact, keep it going. In particular, repetitive ruminative thinking, intended to help the sufferer to resolve the problem, actually contributes to further deteriorations in mood, establishing a vicious circle in which mood and thinking reciprocally feed each other.