Posted by Dinah on October 17, 2005, at 19:54:33
In reply to Atypical depression - what to focus on?, posted by orchid on October 17, 2005, at 17:11:59
My guess is that if you aren't going to medically treat, or engage in therapy, that symptom reduction would be the main goal.
Let's see. Oversleeping. That one should be easiest because it's behavioral (though I haven't found it easy). When do you tend to oversleep? What keeps you from oversleeping? Do you need the structure of your job to keep you from slipping into increased oversleeping and depression?
Rejection sensitivity and approval seeking would probably be more difficult. When do these things cause you problems? Do you have the ability to step back and realize that you're reacting disproportionately from the stimulus?
For obsessions, I found the most useful thing non-medically was to develop a sense of humor about them. Obsessions hate to be laughed at, and often slink away. When the obsessions are fairly mild, doing things like singing them in silly songs, or deliberately exaggerating them tend to minimize them in my own mind.
That may work for rejection sensitivity and approval seeking as well, come to think about it.
Unless you react badly to teasing yourself. We all have strategies that work for us that might not work well for others. Humor is a knife edge strategy that can go either way.
poster:Dinah
thread:568224
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20051008/msgs/568309.html