E-ISSN : 2733-4538
People hold diverse beliefs about the feeling and value of emotions; for instance, some people believe they should only feel happy and never feel depressed. Interestingly, previous studies have demonstrated that these beliefs are associated with increased depression. This raises questions about how such beliefs operate in a clinical setting; however, little research has been conducted on treatment-seeking individuals. We examined beliefs about the values of happiness and depressive feelings and their relationship to treatment outcomes in 289 adult patients admitted in an intensive cognitive-behavioral therapy-based psychiatric partial hospital program in the U. S. Beliefs related to happiness and depressive feelings were significantly reduced after treatment, suggesting that they are amenable to change. Moreover, a decrease in the belief that depression should never be experienced was uniquely associated with decreased depressive symptoms after treatment, even after accounting for demographic and treatment-related variables. Our findings support the idea that beliefs about the values of emotions, especially about feeling depressed, are potential targets for depression treatment.
Suicide among young adults is global social issue. Suicidal ideation is recognized to be a key predictor of suicide. According to the interpersonal theory of suicide (IPTS), suicidal ideation is associated with perceived burdensomeness. In interpersonal relationships, perceived burden-someness as a distorted evaluation of one’s value leads to self-criticism. Suicide is described as “arrested flight” in an evolutionary context and is explained as a way to escape from self-criticism. Thus, self-criticism may be a necessary risk factor for suicidal ideation. This study verified whether self-criticism (self-criticizing and self-attacking) mediates the relationship be-tween perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation among young adults. The results showed that self-criticizing and self-attacking partially mediated the relationship between per-ceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation, with self-attacking having a greater effect. Ther-apeutic interventions appropriate for the degree of self-criticism are required in clinical inter-ventions and suicide prevention programs for young adults.