A very important question that I ask when people come to counseling is all the different things you have tried to overcome your depression.  The answer to this question is usually quite revealing, because most people will share a variety of strategies to gain control of the depression.  People talk about trying to keep the depressive thoughts and feelings at bay, or they try to replace them with more positive thoughts and feelings.  Others will talk about trying to figure out why they are depressed.

How much you try…those words capture what most of us do in response to depression.  It goes something like this.  The depression means that there is something wrong with me.  If there is something wrong with me, well, I need to try as hard as I can to control the depression.  And there are lots of ways that we do this. 

So being on autopilot is not a problem; it is being on autopilot most of the time that can contribute to problems like depression.  Our routines become ruts.  When the thoughts and feelings that contribute to depression show up, we usually respond by trying to avoid or fight off those thoughts and feelings. These attempts to control the depression can become so habitual that they become a part of our autopilot living.  Along with all the other things we routinely do during the day, there are the decisions we make to fight or avoid the depression…and we don’t even realize that we are doing it.