How Behavioral Activation Can Lift Depression

Behavioral Activation is a skill used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that is primarily used to treat depression. CBT is a commonly used evidence-based treatment that is aimed at exploring how a person’s thoughts, behaviors, and emotions are all connected. This type of therapy also helps people to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors through various skills. One of the skills used in cognitive behavioral therapy is behavioral activation. Behavioral activation is a skill that encourages patients to engage in activities that are rewarding to them. This skill is aimed at decreasing negative feelings and moods that come with depression. In this article, we will discuss what behavioral activation is, how it works, and how to use it in your life.

What Is Behavioral Activation?

Behavioral Activation is a skill used in cognitive behavioral therapy that helps people engage in activities that improve their mood over time. This skill is meant to address the symptoms of avoidance and isolation that many people experience when struggling with depression. Behavioral Activation (BA) helps people use their values to find activities that are meaningful to them. While these activities will not cure the person’s depression, they may help to lift their mood gradually over time. Mood improvement can help with motivation and the improvement of other mental health symptoms. Depression treatment usually involves making small changes over time. Behavioral activation works best for people who are struggling with low motivation and are feeling stuck in changing their thought patterns.

How Behavioral Activation Works?

When a person is experiencing depression, they may experience symptoms of isolation from loved ones or avoidance of activities they once enjoyed. If depression symptoms become too severe, they can cause a person to avoid all activities and people that might improve their mood. Avoiding activities that could help a person feel better keeps them stuck in the depression cycle. Another component of BA is focusing on changing behaviors before changing our thoughts. This can be helpful for people who feel stuck in changing their negative thinking. One of the benefits of BA is that it does not require much analysis or deep reflection of thoughts.

How to Use Behavioral Activation

Behavioral Activation (BA) uses several components that directly target the symptoms of depression. The activities patients use for behavioral activation can be tailored to their specific interests and needs for them to work most effectively. Below, we will discuss the key aspects of BA and how it can help to target the symptoms of depression.

Values: When using behavioral activation, it’s helpful for patients to reflect on their personal values. These values can be used to understand what matters most to the specific patient. This can help the patient and therapist select activities that will help to increase positive feelings for the patient. Finding activities centered around the patient’s interests will ensure the greatest chance of success in relief from symptoms. The activities a patient uses for BA will work best if they are closely tied to things that matter deeply to them. Patients can use loved ones of therapists to help them identify their values. There are also free websites with quizzes online to help identify values.
Activity Log and Scheduling: An important part of BA is activity monitoring. As we mentioned above, activities that matter to the patient will be the most helpful. Scheduling activities that align with the patient’s values will help them feel connected to the activities they are engaging in. It’s important to start small when scheduling these activities to prevent overwhelm. Activity logs can be used to track activities, routines, moods, energy levels, and any other depression symptoms that might be noteworthy. Activity logs can help identify periods of time the patient might be more at risk for triggers. If filling out an activity log seems too stressful for the patient, they can try doing it with a trusted friend or therapist. The other key part of an activity log is tracking the patient’s mood before and after they partake in the activity. This helps them track how these scheduled activities really change their mood.
Avoidance: One of the common symptoms of depression is avoiding activities or people. Part of behavioral activation is reducing avoidance behaviors if possible. People can try to identify what behaviors they tend to avoid the most and focus on not doing so. They can all work to identify times that leave them open to negative thinking or thought spirals.

Example of Behavioral Activation Activities

As we mentioned above, the activities that each patient chooses to use will be different. However, there are some common activities that people use when trying to schedule meaningful activities into their lives.

Some activities that patients choose to engage in center around their daily life and routines. This could mean hygienic tasks such as showering or brushing teeth. It could also mean incorporating small sections of time to clean their space. These activities can be helpful to schedule because people with depression often struggle with keeping up with daily tasks.

Patients can also engage in activities that are purely for enjoyment. This can be listening to music, watching movies, watching or playing sports, reading, or painting. Patients also might choose to schedule social activities as a form of their BA efforts. This could mean calling a friend once a week or joining a local group. Socialization can help with decreasing symptoms of depression.

Recovering from and maintaining recovery from depression can be a challenging feat. But recovery from depression is always possible. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the common ways to treat symptoms of depression and bring lasting recovery. Behavioral Activation (BA) is one of the components of CBT that helps decrease the symptoms of depression by increasing the positive feelings that come from engaging in meaningful activities. When people practice BA, they can use activity scheduling and activity logs to track meaningful activities they want to incorporate into their lives. These logs are also meant to track the person’s moods before and after they partake in the meaningful activity. This is meant to show the patient that participating in meaningful activities is worth the effort. Oftentimes, when people are struggling with depression, they have convinced themselves that there aren’t any activities that will bring them joy again. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. There is always hope for anyone struggling with depression to recover and live a happy life. We understand that recovery from depression or any mental health concern is difficult, but we want to stress that it is never impossible. Behavioral activation can be used as a way to remind people struggling that there is a life full of meaningful moments waiting for them on the other side of depression.

If you (or someone you love) may benefit from therapy for their mental health, we are here for you! Reach out to us today if you are ready to start your therapy journey.

References

https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioral

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272735810000504

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9082162/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10424774/

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression

Keywords: depression treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, behavioral activation, activity log