The Hidden Weapon Against Depression: Behavioral Activation Explained
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Depression can create a vicious cycle of inactivity, deepening the feeling of isolation and worthlessness. But there’s a powerful intervention that often goes overlooked: Behavioral Activation. Dr. Tracey Marks, a seasoned psychiatrist, delves deep into this transformative approach to battling depression. Discover the intricate relationship between mood and activity, understand the science behind the benefits of staying engaged, and gain actionable insights to help reclaim your life. Whether you’re struggling with depression or know someone who is, this guide offers practical steps backed by science. Don’t miss out on the essential tools and techniques that can help pave the path to recovery. Plus, gain access to exclusive resources, guides, and support to further enhance your journey towards mental wellness.
Disclaimer: All of the information on this channel is for educational purposes and not intended to be specific/personal medical advice from me to you. Watching the videos or getting answers to comments/question, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship. If you have your own doctor, perhaps these videos can help prepare you for your discussion with your doctor.
43 Comments
Great vid dr.
In my experience CBT has an extremely narrow range of efficiency. Its for people with no serious issues, and overall healthy. Physically and mentally.
If you have a hormonal imbalance, a real pressing issue, trauma, a genetic problem, or environmental issues like CIRS (mold) or chronic fatigue and or inflamation; CBT could be counter productive. Since you're already very low on energy and will power, it will suck the little you have and let you feeling shameful and helpless.
Love your channel Dr. Will continue to watch I hopes to find something that works for me. Writing things down sounds feels exhausting and exercise doesn’t always make me feel better. Rephrasing: exercise is therapeutic but it never relieved depression. Are there other ways to push pass the darkness? But again ❤❤❤ 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾Thank you for sharing
Thanks💕
Is it possible fro someone to be suffering with major depression but then have euphoria when singing/dancing if that's something they love doing?
Oh wow! This was a great video!,ive been down that deep dark rabbit hole a few times – its a long road back i agree even the smallest achievements are stepoing stones on your way back to finding yourself again i went with anything that brings you joy & listening ti motivational soeakers like Prem Rawat his channel on yt us "words if peace" that goid mans words saved me! At least 2 different times he fkew himself to universities worldwide to speak his words make you think & reinvigorate you to be grateful also started going to groups like reiki circles drumming circles each thing was another stepoing stone but when id get home id tend to fall flat again my atmosphere was not what it should be & actually still isnt but like you said small tasks made me feel a sense of accomplishment every little thing added up & i made my way to the light at the end of the tunnel – i think this is my favorite video ive seen from you definetely saving this one!! Thank you Dr Tracey!!❤
Brushing teeth, taking a shower/bath is actually something to track depending on level and duration of depression. After a severe series of.. breakdown, severe isolation brushing teeth and bathing becomes major mountains to climb despite the rational mind knows otherwise. Never thought I'd be in this space, thanks crappy US mental health care FU, but I have later in life am at a place that the most basic actions are challenges. If I can just remember to brush my teeth is a major accomplishment and I congratulate myself for it. Oh the "joy" of single life when no one else calls you out on this…. yes, that is twisted self sarcasm.
Ur videos is helping, how can one deal with unwanted thoughts everyday?
Love the first sentence. Toooooo true.
Lesson learned. If you really need help, don't write a comment. It'll get auto deleted.
A lot of depression can be that deep down you don't feel proud of yourself. What has *helped for me is deciding to be a good person. Stop lying, deceiving, start helping people, say and do nice things etc. Don't kid yourself about being comfortable or even reveling in being a bad person. That's just cope for weak moral fortitude and personal integrity.
And I do have a check list of short and long term goals. Checking those things off gives a similar chemical rush to being told by someone you admire and look up to "I'm proud of you". Never date a girl who's last three boyfriends always seemed like they just got finished crying and have PTSD. Exercise. Even a walk around the block if you've never done anything before. You don't need to go full ADHD and watch every AthlienX video while taking notes to put together a workout plan.
Mine is SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER. I have tried vitamin D, Light Therapy, eating foods rich tryptophan, try to go for walks. Nothing. I don't want to go on a pill. It has been happening since November. I almost feel like hitting the bottle 😞 Great video Dr. Im hard on you sometimes Dr. Marks and I apologize. My psychiatrist put me on meds without telling me how hard they were to get off of. Now I think most Doctor's are pill pushers 😢❤
Depression for me is so self indulgent but in a negative way. I know if I don’t get out of bed straight away I won’t be able to get out.. I have a weekday routine that keeps me going but the weekends are a nightmare because my structure of work/school is gone. Knowing the feeling of depression is the what makes me do what I need to do. (I have moderate cyclical depression, not on meds, using TMS and supplements)
Good advice
The link to the free planner doesn’t work. Help plsss
I think i just realized i may have depression😮…
The poor guy in the rain who got struck by lightning took me out. 😂
I’m kinda proud of myself around new years I started spreadsheets for my finances and I don’t worry about finances anymore which used to always overwhelm me and make me avoid all finances for months. And just recently I started doing the same for daily tasks and also my dieting. It’s helped a lot. When everything is stuck in my mind it gets too overwhelming and I just stay in bed with a rain cloud over my mind but once I see it’s all out i can release it off my mind and it gives my mind so much mental clarity and peace. Even with my finances although I haven’t made more income just seeing it all out has helped me manage it and without realising or even trying I’ve managed to save a lot and don’t stress over it anymore
Depression is definitely a physical illness, it caused my body and brain to develop 2 different chronic almost-disable diseases . Still trying to survive
This plan and all of the things it requires made me feel incredibly overwhelmed. Those trackers would add to the clutter in my house, gathering dust and making me feel worse. I do better when I limit my goals to 3 things a day, and some days those do include little things like self-care and grooming.
Very helpful. Thank you 🙏🏾
This explains everything!!
I want to order Dr Marks workbooks & more info on a membership
Dr. Marks I really love your channel you're very soorhing and so inspiring!!!!! ❤❤❤
Write down everything, including brushing your teeth and showering. I tend to lose track of time and spend days neglecting myself, but writing down the most mundane things helps me to get out of the fog and return to reality
“Move a muscle , change a thought”
“Act your way into right thinking”
Thanks for the reminder.
Anhedonia is a real thing.
May GOD continue to bless you Dr. Tracey Marks. GOD Guided me to you a month ago and now I am here standing on my own two feet with GOD by my side. Can you make a video on how effective your religious beliefs plays a role in mental health. Thank you
🎉
Thanks for the invaluable insights.
I keep a journal for my home studio. Recording, mixing and mastering, getting CD's manufactured. It's boring to anyone except perhaps another home studio owner. 😂 It's a great confidence boost when I look back through the projects I've completed. Having a hobby will save your life, you don't have to be a "pro".
Psychedelics are just an exceptional mental health breakthrough. It's quite fascinating how effective they are against Suicidal, depression and anxiety. Saved my life.
Wow she said the exact words that is being in my thoughts for the last 10 years but i couldn't articulate it none the doctors , they are prescribing medicines which is making my brain slow and i slept way to much sleep that my brain hurts. U are an exceptional person ma'am i hope their are more doctors like you out there. Iam still suffering from depression its persistent fir the last 3 years. I dont know how long iam going to survive like this
This woman is a treasure
Who would have thought that the way out of depression is bureaucracy and filling in forms?
Fun aside, my therapist tried this with me and it went horribly wrong. I did more and more stuff, and got more and more exhausted. I put on weight, I never got any feelings of reward or accomplishment out of the things they just felt like hard work. They said, it would become easier and would enable me to do even more, no it just became harder,
After about 9 months I completely collapsed. It was nothing but pressure to do things and never feeling any satisfaction.
Yeah turns out it's not depression. It's very likely (childhood) CPTSD.
The reasons I could not get things done was because nothing felt safe, I was in survival mode and even the most simple things felt like a massive risk. And If I did them I just felt like I had barely survived, and usually angry, never elated.
But here in Germany therapists are not interested in a proper diagnosis, they are behind the science by at least 20 years and they will always try the same useless tricks because thyts all they know.
I decided that my way forward is to create a fortress, physical and mental. A place and space where I feel safe, whenere I can rest. And behold, when I have rested enough, when the world has not been out to get me for long enoughj, I start to perform, I get stuff done. At least I am exhuuasted again.
That is ma rhythm now. It's a very very slow way of life. But it works for me.
So basically if you are depressed, then FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT, don’t stay in bed or isolate urself like depressed people, keep doing whet you used to do before, remember your worth, and so on.
Someone once told me that depression happens when your brain and heart aren’t aligned…
By that I mean that your responsibility and goals aren’t aligned with your values!
I write “wake up” on my to do list, because I can check it off. Some days my depression is that bad.
Hopefully people aren’t just “going to the bathroom” regardless of if they’re lying in their bed or not. That would be next-level ‘bed rotting’, and more like ‘bed shitting’.
I lost my mind on how much your drink, sippy cup costs.
I dread going to the gym. I enter depressed, in a bad mood, and I force myself to get on the treadmill. I start walking, and play with the speeds, as the session progresses I noticed i feel better, and when I come out of the gym i am fine again. But I have to do this at least every day. Activity is an antidepressant, but for me the treadmill effect lasts me 2 days at least. Then I have to do it all over again.
I appreciate what you're trying to do here. Im also grateful for your dedication to this field, I deeply respect you and value you. But: Ive had all the therapies, I plowed through the books and was desperate to live again, ALL of them (accept electro shocks). I followed harsh programs for long weeks in clinics, under strict supervision. It's just that the physiology is something that might block all initiative. It MIGHT work to try to work through a restart program. But "not being able" is not ignorance, laziness etc. It is a neurophysiological deficit which you cannot just ignore by manning up, or soldiering through. Trying to push a car with a blown up engine won't start that car. It's excruciating when people try to apply what is being illustrated in the video, without the damage (physiology of different brain regions) first being fixed enough. It is hard to be faced with the disbelief of your surroundings when this strategy doesn't work. Use nuance, tell the whole story: some people have harder to fix engines. Initiative is like a chemical, if you don't have enough of that chemical, the energy and motivation is gone. The "just do it" attitude is worthless, and damaging. You cannot judge from the outside. Frustrating for the environment I understand. Please work this in your story somehow. I understand you don't want people to play the victim. But It's just not always possible to force yourself out of a major depression. Please for the sake of people who are already suffering and must also undergo the humiliation of being seen as weak. I am now out of the hole and totally alive and kicking. My thinking has changed. It was not a voluntary, conscious effort. Medicine and titration save my life literally put my thoughts on the right track again. Something physical was not working, only when the meds came I climbed out of the hole. I wish everybody could experience that. The biology is at least as important as the psychology.
A lot of what your saying is also exactly the role of dopamine in adhd and why we procrastinate and don’t have motivation.
I wish there was a dopamine pill as not getting a sense of accomplishment for anything from doing the dishes to getting 100% on my diploma essay and broke a tonne of track records and win awards. But sadly even when my depression is gone my neurodivergent brain struggles with that.
I just love my ADD
wow. Im tesring up because I realize the reason school was so hard fir me wasn't because I was stupid. I was depressed, anxious and overwhelmed for YEARS
"Even the smallest things feel really hard" – so true, and there are SO MANY little things constantly piling up.