Ever said cheer up to a depressed individual

Posted on April 25, 2015

Photo: flickr

Perhaps they feel worse or that it does not help when you do that. Some individuals tend to prefer “negative validation”.
Negative validation is letting people know that the feelings they have are normal and reasonable in the situation.

As opposed to being cheer up by others, those with low self-esteem might find comfort in this. They want to be seen as how they see themselves.

Thus, they often reject friends’ ideas of how positively they had seem them and reject positive re-framing expressions of optimism and encouragement for bettering their situation.

We tend to want to “reframe” the situation when one is feeling depressed. However, reminding them of the positive aspect of their lives and situation, highlights the dark times they that are facing now. It would be better to just sympathize with them.
However, it is particularly difficult to help those with low self-esteem. It might end up causing the individual that is trying to cheer the other person, to feel worse about themselves and relationship. Probably, empathy is the way to go for low-self-esteem.


Category(s):Depression

Source material from PsyBlog