Thought for the Day: It's Tuesday and time for a Psychology Trivia Question. Somewhat like yesterday's Motivational Monday's blog post, this one was inspired by a question I responded to on HealthTap. A person who has been suffering from depression for 8 years asked whether their monotone voice on the phone could be hurting the family business that they help run. I encouraged them to practice a more positive phone voice, like an actor does for a play.
Here's my question:
Can pretending to be upbeat and happy fight depression?
What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for the person worried about how their depression is impacting on their business. I'll post my answer on Thursday.
2 comments:
I think it depends on the person.
I know someone, not me, who really was very depressed at home and made life miserable for his family. Escorting this man to the doctor every week, as a nurse, he told jokes and acted upbeat.
The doctor was a resident who bought into his "happy-go -lucky" act.
After months of sitting there at the appointment I finally had to speak up with my observations. the guy said, "Well, you know you have to make other people have a good day."
In reality, he was in denial that he had a problem. (His depression was related to ahead injury.)
The doctor realized the guy needed more help than what he was getting.
Thanks for sharing this story Malika, I hope it's ok to include it in my post tomorrow with my answer and thoughts on the subject. It is an insightful commentary on this complex question. I tend to bring "trivia" questions that are by no means trivial!
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