I chose to teach how thoughts are related to mood because I believe is true, and also because I can relate to it. I have been dealing with depression and anxiety most of my adult life. The coping strategies used by people with depression, like myself, often make things worse. We spend a great deal of time thinking about negative past experiences, mistakes, pains, and problems, or worrying about possible future pains, mistakes or problems. When these thoughts take over our minds we tend to isolate ourselves, so we can avoid distressing situations. I know that by changing the coping strategies and maladaptive thinking patterns we can alleviate some of the depression’s symptoms, …show more content…
All my previous anxieties and fears about the project were becoming true and I couldn’t stop myself. We took a break, as suggested by my classmates, and I got the strength to resume the exercise, which allowed me to continue. I decided it to correlate what happened to me with the very subject that we were discussing, and I shared how my negative thoughts affected my mood, and my behavior. Then, we did an exercise that was suggested by a manual of cognitive behavior, in which the members of the group had to write some their thoughts when they feel depressed and some thoughts when they feel happy. Senai was the first to share her answers, she shared how lonely she felt, and how her family was in Ethiopia, and for a while she seemed fine, and I thought she was role playing, but then she began to cry, so we paused the discussion for a little bit, and Senai went to the bathroom with Debbie. Meanwhile, I tried to finish the assignment by focusing on KC and Danny, who were sharing their stories and answers. I was worried about …show more content…
I was not ready psychologically to facilitate the topic of depression, when I was feeling so anxious and distress about the assignment that day.
In 1994 I was diagnosed with hepatitis C, Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety, all at the same time, it was a traumatic experience at the time, because people didn’t know about the subject as we do nowadays. Two days before the assignment, I started taking Harvoni, a new medication that can cure Hep C. All the memories and feelings about my past came anew. I had treatment before with interferon, in 1994, which is a medication with a lot of side effects, and moreover, it didn’t work for me.
Harvoni is milder, yet, side effects are headaches, foggy brain, depression, dizziness and other symptoms especially the first two