Representations of the Future in Depression—A Qualitative Study
- 1 Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Link?ping University, Link?ping, Sweden; Department of Psychiatry, Link?ping University Hospital, Link?ping, Sweden
- 2 Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Link?ping University, Link?ping, Sweden
- 3 Department of Psychiatry, Link?ping University Hospital, Link?ping, Sweden
- 4 Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Link?ping University, Link?ping, Sweden
- 5 Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Link?ping University, Link?ping, Sweden;Section of Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract
Previous studies indicate that the ability to imagine negative or positive future events affects psychological well-being and is a characteristic feature of depression. The aim of this study was to investigate how de pressed individuals view their future during different time periods. A total of 15 individuals with a diagno sis of major depression were recruited from a psychiatry clinic and completed a semi-structured qualita tive interview. Questions were asked about the situation right now, before becoming depressed, and the future (nearest time, within a year and the upcoming 5 - 10 years). Data were collected and analysed using a qualitative approach inspired by grounded theory. The results showed that depressed individuals ex perienced a state of “ambivalence”, with negative cognitive, emotional, physical and socioeconomic con sequences when they were asked to think about the nearest future. Ambivalence and its negative emo tional and cognitive effects were substantially reduced in strength when they were asked about their more distant future. We conclude that the concept of ambivalence in depression and/or anxiety in the present may be an important feature of depression which deserves more attention from both a theoretical and clinical perspective. The use of qualitative approaches in the study of depression is encouraged.
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