Comment on Calibrate your self-assessments

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:45:56 GMT

I agree with you that care needs to be taken that exercises intended to increase cheer have a low risk of decreasing cheer, but my experience with depressed people is that experimenting until you find something that works for them is fairly low-cost. They're already trapped in a spiral of negative thoughts; what matters is the difference between the old thought and the new thought. If the old thought was -5 and the new thought is -6, not much has changed; but if the new thought is a 2, then things are looking up.

The obvious solution to any mood problem is "stop it," and the obvious approach to self-loathing is "don't do it." Pointing those things out is not particularly helpful. (That is how I interpret your criticism of Yvain's statement; the implicit proposal is "instead of giving them a non-rigorous reason to not hate themselves, don't give a reason.")

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