Negative thoughts

You can have negative thoughts which are closely linked with sadness. Everyone who is suffering from depression has negative thoughts such as:

• "I'm not good at anything"
• "I'm hopeless"
• "Nobody understands me"
• "Life is unfair"
• "I have deserved that everything goes wrong"
• "I deserve to be punished"
• "Death would be a liberation"

Perhaps you feel that you don't live up to your own or others' expectations. You may feel that you are bad at or unsuitable for the work you do. You may also feel that you are lazy, indulgent or too hard on your family. Or perhaps you label yourself as a bad person.

Feelings of guilt

You may also have feelings of guilt over things that you have done. These feelings can also be related to things that you have done or they can be related to things that you ought to have done.

Your negative thoughts can contain real substance. But your feelings of guilt are exaggerated. Sometimes they are completely unrealistic. Here is an example of such exaggerated feelings of guilt:

When a man of about 50 years of age became depressed, he referred time and time again to his youth. He was employed in a big company then. The company distributed work clothes to the staff. The man had at some point taken a pair of work trousers home with him. He could not really explain whether he had stolen the trousers or not. Perhaps he had just forgotten to take them off as he went home.

Now, approximately 30 years later in his depression, he was full of guilt about taking the trousers. He was adamant that the trousers event was proof of his bad and thieving character. He felt that he ought to go to the police and receive a harsh punishment.

A psychotic depression requires admission to hospital and can take a while to treat. But the man ended up getting well again.