Beck’s cognitive triad

Aaron Beck’s cognitive triad was proposed by this author to explain depression from the cognitive model. According to Beck, the main alteration suffered by people with depression is that They do not process information adequately.

The beliefs and thoughts of these people are biased by the disease itself. However, depressed individuals are not aware of the distortion. On the contrary, they consider it valid and build their lives around those distorted mental schemes.

What is the difference between being sad and being depressed?

At a popular level, we usually say that we are depressed when we are having a sadder season than usual. However, most people who are saddest are not clinically depressed.

The sadness is an innate universal emotion. Furthermore, it is one of the emotions we experience most frequently: when a loved one dies, when we end a relationship, when we leave behind a significant stage or simply when something does not happen as we would have liked. Sadness is part of our range of normal emotions; Although it is the emotion that may predominate in some disorders, such as depression, this does not in itself give it a clinical nature.

How do you know if a person suffers from depression?

Depression is very heterogeneous in its way of manifesting itself. Thus, we are talking about an entire spectrum that includes, for example, major depression, dysthymia, depressive disorder induced by medications or other medical conditions.

According to the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illnesses), to consider that a person meets criteria for major depression, they must experience a depressed mood almost daily most of the day at least during two weeks. Additionally, it must be accompanied by five or more of the following symptoms:

Depressed mood. Reduced interest in almost all activities. Altered appetite: the person eats excessively or barely eats. Insomnia or hypersomnia. Psychomotor alteration. Lack of energy. Feeling of guilt or worthlessness. Cognitive alteration, lack of attention or difficulty making decisions. Repetitive thoughts about death or suicidal ideation.

These symptoms cause a clinically significant discomfort. In addition, the clinical entity has various areas, such as: work, personal or social. Thus, a depressed person is usually so immersed in sadness that it completely conditions their life for, at least, the time contemplated in the diagnostic criteria.

Beck’s cognitive triad

Aaron Beck, one of the fathers of cognitive psychology, analyzed in depth the mental schemas and belief system that people have. Beck began her training in psychoanalysis, but soon realized that the root of most of her patients’ problems lay in their misconceptions and distortion of her thoughts.

Negative thoughts were mainly responsible for these distortions in depressed patients. As a consequence of his observations, Beck proposed the cognitive triad explanatory model for depression. For Beck, the cognitive triad is based on three fundamental aspects: the negative view of oneself, the world and the future. Let’s analyze in more depth what each of these premises mean.

The negative view of oneself according to the cognitive triad

People with depression value themselves very little. They have what we commonly know as low self-esteem. Self-esteem is a complex construct that indicates the value that the person gives to themselves in different areas, including the personal one. Self-esteem contemplates different aspects of oneself such as the following.

Selfconcept

It is the set of beliefs we have about ourselves. It is based on the labels we put on ourselves and people who are depressed have it very low. They may categorically think that they are useless, that they are stupid, or that they are incapable of achieving anything they set out to do. Your self-concept is biased by your distorted thoughts.

Self-acceptance

This involves accepting who we are, including all our virtues and potentialities, but also all our limitations. According to the cognitive triad, subjects with depression put much more Emphasize your own flaws and magnify them.

For example, if a student with depression passes ten subjects and fails one, instead of rejoicing and celebrating the ten passes, the failure will take center stage. It is as if the negative aspects are seen through a magnifying glass: they look bigger than they really are.

Self-confidence

It is the ability to trust ourselves. It involves feeling safe and trusting in our ability. Individuals with depression feel very insecure and do not feel strong enough to act or make important decisions. In addition, the decision not to act reinforces insecurity and this further feeds the fear of adopting solutions.

Self-respect

This concept implies understanding and satisfying our concerns and needs out of the respect we have for ourselves. It is very aligned with values that people have.

On many occasions, people with depression do not act in accordance with their values. In some ways, the low self-respect they have is a more or less subtle form of self-destruction.

The negative vision of the future according to the cognitive triad

Just as the present is a desert in which nothing grows, the future of the person with depression is contemplated in the same way. There’s no hope. The person considers that, if things are bad at the moment, nothing can change their course. What has to happen will be the same or worse than what has happened so far.

For example, let’s imagine a person with depression who has taken some exams and has failed them. Her biased thinking will lead her to think that it is not worth taking it again because she will fail again.. Since she doesn’t trust herself, she won’t believe it’s in her power to do better next time.

Another example. If an individual with depression is fired from work, it is easy for him or her to find himself out of the job market because he believes that no one else will want to hire him. His projection into the future is defeatist and with that attitude it will be much more difficult for him to find a new job, which will reinforce his negative vision of the future.

The negative view of the world from the cognitive triad

People with depression don’t just have a negative view of themselves. Your biased thoughts affect your worldview in a very important way. Thus, for example, their attention will be much more directed to reaffirm their pathological pessimism and when they see or read negative news, these will reinforce their previous ideas. This is what we know as confirmation bias.

The same thing will happen when someone tells them about a bad experience, they get a fine or their wallet is stolen. Every negative event that happens in their lives will only reinforce their negative view of the world. However, It is easy to understand that such a biased vision is not objective at all.. Many negative events happen in the world every day, yes, but there are also many absolutely neutral events and many positive events.

If you have very negative thoughts, ask for help

People who suffer from depression tend to see the world in a negative, biased and dichotomous way. Their own disorder does not allow them to see that their way of interpreting reality does not fully adjust to what is really happening.

Such negative thoughts harm us enormously both physically and mentally, and it is important to learn to manage them better. There are therapeutic approaches, such as cognitive-behavioral, that try to help people gain greater control over their thoughts as a strategy to cope with suffering.

If you or someone around you have this vision of life, it does not have to mean that you have depression. However, from here we recommend that you Consult with a mental health specialist so that they can analyze the case in a personalized way.

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