Behavioral Activation: A Help To Get Out Of Depression
Suddenly something happens and sadness begins to creep into your life. You feel bad, very bad. Everything generates such pain in you that you do not want to do anything more. And you don’t do anything. You lie down on your bed and watch life go by. And the time comes when it’s not that you don’t want to move, it’s just that you just can’t move.
And you get used to this lack of activity. It even seems to do you good. You convince yourself that leaving your home would only make the situation worse. Because the fact of not moving gives you a stability that you ended up supporting… No! Take action, take back the reins of your life and start feeling better! There is still a long way to go, but the first step must be taken … Behavioral activation can help us with this. Are you walking with us?
“A sad soul can kill faster than a bacteria.”
-John Steinbeck-
The need to treat depression
Even though we don’t talk much about these topics, the reality is that 13% of the world’s illnesses are mental. In view of their high prevalence and the associated risks that they bring, such as suicide, depression, these are very very important diseases. They are not only main and frequent reasons for consultation but also involve a health problem that makes you unfit because depression has the power to weaken our entire body.
The prevalence of this type of illness exceeds the rates of various physical illnesses, such as cancer and cardiovascular problems. In addition, the number of this type of disorder is expected to be much higher by 2020 if prevention strategies and treatments, such as behavioral activation, are not implemented quickly.
In addition to the fact that many people suffer from them, these diseases are very burdensome for patients, whether on a personal, social or economic level. On the other hand, depression is often associated with other illnesses, physical or mental. It is a disorder that becomes chronic if left untreated or improperly treated, and can even become extremely serious.
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-Jean-Jacques Rousseau-
Why use behavioral activation in depression?
Behavioral activation is a tool for overcoming depression that focuses on the behaviors that cause this depression in patients. Thus, the application of this therapeutic instrument starts from the analysis of what the people who receive this diagnosis do. When we analyze all this, we find that depressed people have few activities and as the depression progresses their numbers are reduced further.
When we are depressed, we reduce our activities: we reject new projects when the ones we had in progress end and we even abandon some of them. Behavioral activation acts on these avoidances and abandonments. What this technique tries to do is make the person gradually increase the things they do and undertake.
“I expel pain and sadness when I dance, and I attract happiness and rhythm.”
-Igna Muscio-
But it is necessary to take this into account. It’s not about doing things in order to do things. The goal of this treatment is precisely, for the patient, to carry out more and more activities which are important and which have meaning for him / her. It can be many things such as reading, playing sports, reconnecting with friends, dancing and even traveling or going for a snack in your favorite café. Everything must be done little by little. It is therefore a question of taking back one’s life in hand even if one is badly, in order to be able to find a path towards happiness.
Benefits of behavioral activation
Behavioral activation has been studied extensively, so its benefits in the treatment of depression have been well defined. The most important thing is that it is presented as an alternative or complementary technique to the classic treatment of psychotropic drugs, and increases the positive impact of work, shortening the recovery period and reducing side effects.
Concretely, it has been shown that behavioral activation is at least as effective as the use of psychotropic drugs in the management of depression. But not only because it really has a plus compared to drugs: it has no side effects, whereas pharmacological treatment does.
Behavioral activation is a technique that is effective in treating this health problem. This does not mean that it should be implemented in isolation in the therapeutic process. On the contrary, it is precisely one more tool to take into account to regain good health and well-being. It should also always be designed, adjusted and checked by a professional.
Images by Frank Marino, Volkan Olmez and Austin Schmid.
