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I beat depression with cognitive therapy

Jill Brooks shares her secrets on how to climb out of the depths of despair with cognitive therapy

Jill first suffered depression after a messy divorce at age 45. At the time, she tried a combination of medication and psychotherapy, which helped. Then she went back to work, established a successful career, raised a family, travelled all over the world, developed a circle of caring friends, and had a rich, wonderful life for 20 years. Throughout, she continued with her medication and therapy.

But at age 65, Jill's career came to a grinding halt. The company she worked for was taken over, and she experienced a major bout of depression. She fought both the takeover and the depression but, when the company offered her a redundancy package, she took the money and left. Then she bought a glamorous apartment in London to cheer herself up. It didn't work. 'I had everything I'd ever dreamed of,' says Jill. 'I had the apartment of my dreams, wonderful friends, grandchildren - but I was still depressed.'

When her usual medication and therapy failed to work, a friend suggested that she see a cognitive therapist. Studies have found that between 50 and 75 per cent of people with depression improve with cognitive therapy.

With cognitive therapy, you learn to identify the inaccurate beliefs that cause your emotional problems and set goals to change them. Fifty to seventy-five percent of depressed people improve with cognitive therapy, a rate comparable to that of treatment using antidepressants.

Jill's cognitive therapist helped her to understand that the brain is flooded with chemicals that cause depressed people to attach a negative spin to every thought, and taught her to evaluate her thinking, identify negativity, then counteract it with specific behavioural strategies.

The process worked. No one knows why, although some scientists feel that cognitive therapy affects the same brain chemicals and structures as medication. 'I wish I'd gone sooner,' says Jill. 'I still need medication, and I still need my support group, but cognitive therapy has allowed me to move forward.

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