Treating the American Depression

Don't Worry, Be Happy! I love that diddi of Bobby McFerrin. According to Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), here is one way to get there. A-C-T.

Accept—Coming to terms with the past. Treatment starts with honest acceptance and acknowledgement of the state one is in, without exaggeration or mitigation of the truth. That means accepting one's depressed condition in all its misery. It means taking an inventory of the weaknesses, the negatives, and the limits of one's capacity to deal with these challenges. It also means taking stock of the strengths, positives, opportunities, the capacities that are there. A person learns to accept reality as it is experienced and evidenced in all its forms from many viewpoints. Acceptance does not mean denying the negatives that has arisen from past events or decisions but admitting and embracing them to remove them from focus.

Commit—Engaging the future. Treatment proceeds through choosing a very concrete vision and achievable wants for a different state of being including the specific steps and costs of getting there. It is identifying what one desires in specific, a positive outcome that can build on the strengths that have been identified and making a commitment to go for it. This solidifies the shift of focus from the bad stuff which is admittedly already here, to the potential good stuff that one could make happen. It is a move from blaming and naming someone or something else for the bad stuff happening to taking responsibility for it, that is, choosing to respond no matter what or who can be blamed.

Take Action—Immersion in the present. Finally, treatment culminates with taking specific, sometimes very “baby,” steps to embark on the journey towards the chosen vision and positive outcome. 

Yes, with a little guidance, we don't worry and we be happy. 

Here is a recent example--a great one. 

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,19 students were killed with an assault weapon. The surviving students, along with their parents and teachers were devastated and in a situation of almost total helplessness. 

But while the media and we on the outside considered them powerless victims, they turned their grief to anger and their anger to collective action. They organized themselves to acknowledge the habits of a society in which they were a part. Instead of blaming others, they took responsibility for making a change to those institutions and their justifications. They are confronting the laws, opposing the morality, and questioning the culture that permits and encourages such destruction. 

They are not blaming and so transferring their power elsewhere. They are holding politicians, financiers, lobbyists, manufacturers accountable for also taking responsibility for gun safety.

Positive Psychololgist Martin Seligman teaches the steps to a happy soul by training people in seven habits:

• Relationships 
• Acts of kindness
• Exercise
• Flow 
• Meaning through Engagement
• Tracking strengths or assets
• Positive Mind-set (Gratitude, Optimism)

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS students 1) developed their relationships by getting together in small and large groups rather than just going home alone, 2) they grieved and consoled one another, 3) they engaged with one another to find a meaning, 4) they identified the habits in society (institutions) that were contributing to gun massacres at schools, 5) they looked at their own strengths in their ability to organize with allies, 6) they identified concrete changes in these habits that could make a difference, 7) rather than blaming, they took responsibility for making change in habits by confronting and engaging with those who could lead the institutions to change, 8) they took immediate short range steps to organize public actions with key institutional leaders and make demands that were reasonable, possible, and measurable. 9) they celebrated their victories; they thanked all who participated; they maiantained a positive attitude of "si! se puede!" Yes, we can.

I've witnessed the process of neighborhood and larger communities moving from negative depression to positive action, from a sense of helplessness to a celebration of power, by taking these steps. They change their own personal depression-fostering habits by engaging in changing the institutions that are fostering the despondency of the community.

How about the Great American Depression of 2017? Can we treat that?