srdiamond comments on Attention control is critical for changing/increasing/altering motivation - Less Wrong

174 Post author: kalla724 11 April 2012 12:48AM

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Comment author: kalla724 10 April 2012 10:07:04PM 8 points [-]

At the moment, the balance of evidence supports CBT as the most effective therapeutic approach for depression. And CBT is in large part based on training yourself to pay attention to positive thoughts while ignoring depressive ones.

So, it would appear that you wonder along the right lines here. :)

Comment author: [deleted] 11 April 2012 11:17:53PM 1 point [-]

And CBT is in large part based on training yourself to pay attention to positive thoughts while ignoring depressive ones.

It would seem to follow that CBT causes patients' ability to read the information conveyed by their depressive ruminations to deteriorate. Are there trade-offs in CBT for depression larger than we're aware of?

Comment author: JoachimSchipper 03 May 2012 07:58:45AM 1 point [-]

That is possible, but note that depression itself is massively bad for, well, anything, including the quality of thoughts.

Comment author: [deleted] 05 May 2012 01:39:08AM 0 points [-]

Certainly that's true of severe depression, but mild depression carries some intellectual benefits. Greater rationality seems to be among them.