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Theme
Low mood & depression.
Everyone feels low sometimes. Usually it passes on its own, but sometimes it lingers: you don't feel like doing anything, everything takes effort and negative thoughts take over. That's hard, especially if you feel you're facing it alone. In this theme you'll find everything in one place about low mood, lack of energy, negative thought patterns and preventing relapse.
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Course · 6 lessons · in Dutch
Low mood & depression
For anyone who doesn't feel like doing anything and notices negative thoughts taking over. Five lessons on how low mood develops, becoming more active and looking at your thoughts differently.
Start with lesson 1Exercises
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More videosFeeling low? You're really not the only one
Low mood or depression can happen to anyone. Millions of people go through low periods in their lives. A few people you might not expect:
Churchill called his depression "the black dog" that kept following him all his life. He told his doctor he preferred not to stand too close to the edge of a platform when a train rushed past. His way out: painting and bricklaying in the garden at Chartwell, for hours on end.
Rowling was a single mother in Edinburgh, in a deep depression, when she was working on Harry Potter. The Dementors, creatures that suck all hope and happiness out of you, came straight out of that time. She described it as "the cold absence of feeling".
Springsteen wrote in his memoir that depression hit him around the age of sixty like "a freight train bearing down on you", in the middle of one of the most successful periods of his career. He has been in therapy since 1982 and says plainly that it's the reason he's still standing.
Pianist and comedian Mike Boddé spent five years in a severe depression and was in an isolation cell for a while. In his book Pil and his show Mike Boddé vertelt he talks about it frankly: "It was as if someone had switched off the light and I didn't know where the switch was." He performs again now and speaks openly about recovery.
Reading tips
More reading tips
BookDepressie, de dwangmatige denkziekteFrançois de WaalView at bol.comThrough short stories, François de Waal, who has lived through it himself, takes you into the world behind his depression: the road towards it, the search for solutions and the struggle with medication. Raw, honest and full of quotes and reading tips from literature, philosophy, art and science. Comforting and encouraging.
BookMindfulness en bevrijding van depressieMark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal & Jon Kabat-ZinnView at bol.comFour professors lay bare the hidden mechanisms of depression and show why attempts to pull yourself out of it often keep you stuck. With a proven self-help programme that's easy to apply and guided meditations to break gloomy thought patterns and become more resilient. Recommended by Daniel Goleman.
BookDe mythe van normaalGabor MatéView at bol.comGabor Maté unpicks the causes of our physical and emotional malaise and shows how ‘normal’ in a hectic, toxic society is linked to trauma and illness. The key to healing lies in our shared humanity and in embracing who you really are, free of society's expectations.Running into something, or does something on this page raise questions? You don't have to figure it out on your own. Feel free to bring it to your therapist: there's room for that, however small or big it feels.