Depressed People See the World More Realistically

In 2015, over 16 million people in the US suffered from depression, as stated by the National Institute of Mental Health.

L.B Alloy and L.Y. Abramson introduced the idea of depressive realism in 1979. In their research, there were two parties, depressed people, and non-depressed people. They were given a task and it resulted in depressed participants having control over things than the non-depressed participants who thought they are in control.

Depressive realism is feeling under the weather and seeing things clearly without any bias, compared to feeling normal and under delusions. Likely victims of this are introverts, people with high IQs, and males.

Professor Colin Feltham of Sheffield Hallam University and “Depressive Realism” author stated that the concept is still hypothetical to many psychologists.

Feltham said that the depressive realism theory is somehow associated with the terror management theory where it states that humanity is bound for self-deception, and so under depression, the likelihood of being deceived is quite low.

Self-deception may actually be good for people because the fact is reality sometimes hurt a lot.

Psychologist and Professor Michael T. Moore from Adelphi University surveyed 75 studies regarding depressed realism, and though he found evidence of the truthfulness of the concept, he said it is not enough to be conclusive. There are loopholes in the process, and he is still not convinced.

Currently, cognitive therapy is the major treatment for depression. Cognitive therapy concludes that depression sprang from negative experiences and sadness. The depressed patient cannot look beyond the anxiety and only focuses on the negative happenings.

Cognitive therapy helps depressed people by making them see the positive side of things.

In the long run, it will be figured out which treatment for depression is more effective, either depressed realism or cognitive therapy.