​​​​Am I Depressed Or Not?

Unfortunately, if you’re struggling with depression, it can be common to see yourself as depressed.

Even though this is certainly understandable, it’s not a good thing to do, because this type of a negative view of yourself only makes you more depressed.

Right now, you’re going to learn more about why it’s so important to see yourself and your situation in the most positive light that your mind can comfortably and honestly accept, and to see yourself as depression-free as soon as possible.

What happens when you think: “I am depressed”?

It might seem harmless or even irrelevant to think a thought like “I am so depressed right now”. After all, you might just be stating the truth, right?

However, this thought contributes to your depression. For this reason, it’s important to stop thinking this way as soon as possible.

Immediately, you can see that when you think of yourself as depressed, you’re not seeing any positive value in your life to enjoy. Instead, you’re ruminating and dwelling on negative value, which naturally keeps you depressed.

Furthermore, when you think a thought like “I am depressed”, your mind then naturally asks questions like “Why am I so depressed”?

To answer this kind of a question, your mind searches for signs and evidence of depression, and tries to identify all sorts of negative things that are contributing to your depression. For example, you’re irritable, anxious, can’t sleep, have no friends, lost your job, and so on.

In such a way, you rapidly descend in a negative downward spiral in your mind, and this cycle of negative thinking makes you more and more depressed.

Focus on becoming depression-free, not depression

On the other hand, when you think a true, valid, positive thought like “I can get out of depression and become depression-free”, you’re thinking in a way that benefits you and helps you eliminate depression.

Immediately, you can see that when you think this way, you’re seeing positive value in your life to enjoy, you’re more confident, and you feel better and happier about your future. All of this naturally helps lift you out of depression faster and easier.

Furthermore, when you think a thought like “I can beat depression and become depression-free”, your mind then naturally asks questions like “Why can I beat depression and become depression-free”?

To answer this kind of a question, your mind searches for signs and evidence that you can eliminate depression, and tries to identify all sorts of positive things that are helping you overcome depression.

For example, you’re in a better mood, you’re more calm, you’re improving your thinking, and so on.

In such a way, you rapidly ascend in a positive upward spiral in your mind, and this cycle of more positive thinking makes you feel better, happier, and less depressed.

The more positive you see yourself, the better

As you can see, just a little change in thought about yourself and your situation can make a big difference in how you feel, and strongly affect whether you struggle with depression or not.

Hopefully, this comes as no surprise to you by this point in the course. After all, you have learned that what ultimately causes depression is your thinking, and you’ve learned how the placebo effect for depression proves that just one little change in thought can help you stop being depressed.

Right now, the key insight is that the more positively you see yourself and your situation, the better off you are. So, for this reason, always see yourself and your situation in the most postive light that your mind can comfortably and honestly accept.

5 ways to view yourself more positively

Instead of seeing yourself as depressed, here are 5 better ways of seeing yourself and your situation:

  1. I can become depression-free
  2. I’m becoming depression-free
  3. I’m depression-free
  4. I’m happy to some degree (even if it’s just a little) and depression-free
  5. I’m very happy and depression-free

Choose a positive view right now

Out of these views, pick the most powerful view of yourself that you can comfortably and honestly accept as valid or true.

Under no circumstances lie to yourself and try to force yourself to adopt a positive view that feels false.

For example, if you’re feeling miserable, don’t try to force yourself to think “I’m very happy and depression-free”, which will naturally feel phony and artificial to you, and which your mind will reject as false.

Instead, pick the most honest, positive view for yourself at this point in time.

See yourself as depression-free as soon as possible

The name of the game is to see yourself as depression-free as soon as you can comfortably and honestly accept this as true. Do not wait for a psychologist or psychiatrist to declare you as depression-free, before accepting this view, because it will never happen.

Here’s why: even if you’re feeling like the happiest person in the world, they’ll tell you that you’re not exhibiting any symptoms of depression, but that you could still somehow have depression.

This is absurd and also very destructive. After all, if you adopt this view, you will never feel completely depression-free, and you will always feel worse about yourself and your situation, which makes it more likely for you to struggle with depression.

So instead of going this route, make sure to see yourself as depression-free the moment you can comfortably and honestly accept this as true. This positive perspective will benefit you in so many ways that helps you remain depression-free.

For this reason, if you can accept this perspective right now, or in the next 24 hours, do it. After all, the “right time” to do it is as soon as possible.


Next: How To Handle Negative Emotions With Confidence →


You are here:

Section 6 Lessons:

  1. Why seeing symptoms of depression makes you depressed
  2. Does depression ever go away?
  3. Is depression a disease?
  4. Is depression genetic?
  5. Is depression a disorder?
  6. Am I depressed or not?

Next Section In The Depression-Free Course:

Section 7


About the author

Hi, I'm Dave Fonvielle, the founder of Always Greater. On this website I teach you step by step how to be happier and more successful achieving your goals, whether it's completing a small personal to do task, like doing the dishes, or a large business goal, like launching a new product. Get my free 3 Tiny Habits for Being Happier & More Successful training for all of this right here.