Combating Negative Predictions for Your Future

You sit for hours knowing that you should be accomplishing something - anything. But the energy and motivation have evaporated from your life. You compare yourself with others who seem to accomplish so much. Worse yet, you compare yourself to the person you once were. You recall past accomplishments and wonder if you will ever again be that person.

A depressed mood easily triggers negative thoughts and pessimistic expectations for the future. In the past if you had a bad day, you would say, "Well, tomorrow will be better." Now you say, "Will this be a never-ending pattern to my life; will I never accomplish anything of value again?"

Such questions are typical of someone with a mood disorder (or anybody experiencing daily pain). Nobody can predict the future. If you ask me whether I want to accomplish something tomorrow, I'll say "yes" but if you ask me whether I know I will accomplish something tomorrow, I'll have to admit that I don't.

Still we do predict the future. We believe that the the best predictor of the future is the past. But how good a predictor is the past? How many things have happened in your life would you not have predicted? How many times have you been pleasantly surprised or bitterly disappointed by an outcome?

Negative predictions about the future based on the past are toxic to your mood. It is bad enough to feel so much pain today, but it is a hundred times worse to believe that the pain will never end. Remind yourself daily that you can affect your mood, that your mood can improve. Monitor your mood three times a day, rating your mood from 0 to 100. Notice that your mood does change and where there is change there is room for improvement.