REBT for Depression in Teens

Abstract

REBT is an evidence-based approach that helps people manage cognitive, emotional, and behavioral disturbances in sustainable, healthy ways. It takes a holistic view of emotional disturbances, including depression. In keeping with the concept of psychological interactionism, REBT views depression as a thinking-feeling-behaving pattern and not a diagnostic label alone. Depressive thinking-feeling-behaving is a common consequence in teens in response to such adversities and can manifest in different ways. Some may want to resign to their fate and let others make these choices for them, some may want to gain more control by trying to make perfect choices, and some may want to escape the conflict by hurting themselves, overly consuming online content, binge eating junk food, and so on, and others may want to rebel and make extreme choices. Most of these ways prove to be short-term ways of coping with or managing these challenges and may be in fact harmful in the long term. REBT argues that therapy can teach teenagers to identify, practice, and internalize healthy, long-term ways of coping which they can eventually use independently across different situational contexts.