It has long been known that with depression, memory worsens. Rather, nothing happens to the memory itself. Her decline is apparent. When a person is imprisoned for performing memory tests, then he performs them very well. A little worse than healthy, but still within normal limits. But in everyday life ... a person forgets everything, loses it, does not remember what the recent conversation was about, etc.
For a long time, this phenomenon was explained by the fact that with depression, the pace of thinking slows down, and a person, as it were, does not have time to remember. However, they have now found out what’s the matter.
It turned out that depressive thoughts were to blame. They are constant, intrusive, always running in circles and emotionally saturated. Well, if you think about the bad, so that it would be completely bad. There is shame, and guilt, and the ideas of their worthlessness and insignificance. There are so many of them that all the brain powers are occupied by them. There is literally not enough space in the head.
They, like a traffic jam on the road, interfere not only with memorization, but also with the process of remembering events.
As a result:
- A person loses control (cognitive) over the connection of internal and external environment. Those. he is always in himself and external conditions are little delayed and fixed in memory. He can put the keys somewhere, but this moment flies by. And when the keys are already needed, their location is completely unknown.
- A person hardly distinguishes between similar experiences. Those. something already happened recently, somewhere it already was. For example, a person has parked a car, and then cannot find it in a parking lot. No “identification marks” such as poles, buildings opposite or the approximate distance from the entrance to the parking lot say exactly nothing to him.
- The person does not recognize the details that he has already seen. If a student was preparing for the exam yesterday, then the next day for him all the material that he read the day before? like brand new. As if he had never seen him.
These features are intertwined and give the very same memory loss. The phenomenon with well-executed tests is connected with the fact that a person thinks about the task and the head is temporarily cleared of depressive experiences. Based on these facts, it was found that the "stupid advice of psychologists" to "think about the good" not only makes sense, but can actually help. Of course, they do not replace the treatment, but as a supplement they are quite useful to themselves.
The point is to occupy the brain with something else. Allow other zones to activate the “power” of the depressive machine. So “thinking about the good” and recalling good and happy moments is one of the options for such treatment. And yet, comedies, walks in the fresh air, chatting with friends and “having a cat or a dog” are also effective. And, of course, another annoying customer advice: "have a hobby." The thing in the hands is a wonderful distracting maneuver that still gives a positive result.
And this is not only for memory. Repeated obsessive negative thoughts are currently considered one of the main damaging factors in depression and contribute to its deepening.