When you are told it is weak faithStep 1 of 9

Before you read on

If you are having thoughts of ending your life, this course is not the right place for you to be right now, and reading further will not help you today. Please tell someone today. Call your local emergency number or go to your nearest emergency department. Ring a crisis line in your country. Ask your doctor for an urgent appointment and say the thoughts out loud, in plain words. Or tell a person who is physically in the room with you and stay near them. Having these thoughts is a symptom of an illness, it is more common than people say, and it is treatable. Telling someone is the thing that helps, not the thing that condemns you.

Lesson 2 of 6

Doing less is the sensible move, and it is the trap

Depression takes the reward out of things. When nothing gives back, the reasonable short term response is to do less of it. Cancel. Stay in. Do not reply.

Every one of those decisions makes sense on the day it is made. Nobody chooses badly here.

But doing less is exactly what removes the last of the reward. The day loses its shape, sleep drifts, and the hours that used to be filled with activity get filled instead with thinking about yourself. In depression, thinking about yourself means thinking badly about yourself, and that supplies the evidence for the conclusion that started the withdrawal.