Behavioral Activation: A Treatment for Depression

All of a sudden, sadness begins to infiltrate your life. Everything is painful and you don’t have the will to do anything. So instead, you hide away in your bed and watch life go by, because you simply can’t move anymore.

And you start to get used to this lack of activity. It seems to make you feel better. You convince yourself that leaving the house would make the pain even worse. Because since you’ve disappeared from the world, you’ve stabilized a bit and the pain has become more tolerable…

No, wait – take back control of your life and get help! There’s a long road ahead, but you have to take the first step, and behavioral activation can help you get there.

“A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”

-John Steinbeck-

The need for treatment

Although people don’t really talk about it, the truth is that 13% of illnesses around the world are mental illnesses. Due to the high prevalence and associated risks, such as suicide, depression is one of the most pressing mental health issues. Not only is it the main reason people seek professional help, it’s also one of the most debilitating health problems there are, since it can weaken both the mind and the body.

The prevalence of mental illnesses is higher than that of physical illnesses like cancer and heart disease. What’s more, this rate is expected to rise considerably by the year 2020 if proper prevention and treatment strategies like behavioral activation aren’t utilized.

On top of the high prevalence rate, depression comes with high costs at the personal, social, and economic level. It also tends to be comorbid with other physical and mental illnesses. Lastly, it can become chronic if goes untreated or is improperly treated, which makes all the problems mentioned above even worse.

“The soul resists sharp pain much more easily than prolonged misery.”

-Jean-Jacques Rousseau-

Why should behavioral activation be utilized?

Behavioral activation is a tool that focuses on the depressed person’s behavior. Analysis shows that they do very few activities, and as the depression advances, this number decreases even more.

That is, when people are depressed, they refuse to start new projects and even abandon current ones. Behavioral activation works on these avoidant behaviors by encouraging the person to progressively increase the amount of activities they do.

“I work grief and sadness out of my body when I dance, and I bring in joy and rhythm.”

But it’s important to remember that the idea isn’t to do things just to do them. The person should do more activities that they’re interested in, such as reading, playing sports, renewing friendships, dancing, traveling, or going to their favorite cafe. This should all be gradual. It’s all about rebuilding their life even though they’re going through a hard time so that they can start to feel better again.

The benefits of behavioral activation

The benefits of behavioral activation as a treatment for depression have been studied thoroughly. The most important one is that it can be used as an alternative or complementary treatment to medication, meaning it enhances the positive impact of treatment, cuts down on recovery time, and reduces side effects.

More specifically, behavioral activation has shown to be at least as effective as antidepressants. But not only that, it has an advantage over medication: it doesn’t have the side effects that medications do.

Behavioral activation is an effective treatment for depression, but this doesn’t mean that it should be isolated from the therapeutic process. It’s more like a tool that can be used to improve your health and well-being, but that should always be designed, outlined, and directed by a professional.

Images courtesy of Frank Marino, Volkan Olmez and Austin Schmid

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