Fighting Depressive Helplessness with the Power of Choice

One of the worst feelings a person can experience in their life is a feeling of total helplessness.  Unfortunately for people who suffer from depression, this is a feeling with which they are all too familiar.  Negative thinking, and the tunnel vision it creates, causes those suffering from depression to view the landscape of their lives as devoid of choices.  A strong way to fight back against helpless feelings is to reclaim the power of choice even when the alternatives are not necessarily good ones.

Practically speaking, when you look at most of the decisions that you make in your life, one choice is the clear favorite.  As a result, you may fall into the pattern of seeing that choice as your only option.  However, there are often many alternatives that you automatically discarded without giving them much thought.  This automatic thought response leaves you feeling as though you had no choice.  For people who suffer from depression, this process often leaves them feeling as though they have little to no control over their lives. 

Often, when battling depression, the smallest changes in thinking can have large impacts.  Much like a stone creating ripples in a pond, shifts in perspective can have much larger scale ramifications.  This shift in perspective gives you the sense that you have a choice in the direction of your life and having choices makes you feel powerful instead of helpless.  I urge people to take back a sense of control over their lives by changing their perspective on choice.  This perspective removes the feeling that life is happening to you and replaces it with a feeling that your life is created by your own design.  When making decisions for your life, no matter how small, consider all of your options.  Do not discard options no matter how undesirable they may be.  The power of feeling like you have actively made those choices could completely change the emotional landscape of your life.