This makes it difficult to connect with the positive aspects of engaging in a meaningful activity. Behavioral activation is an excellent way of addressing some of the symptoms of PTSD, including avoidance behavior and symptoms of emotional numbing. In addition, behavioral activation can reduce your risk for depression and, if you have depression, help treat it.
Especially if you're experiencing low motivation or a high level of anxiety, it's important to set reasonable goals and take things slow. Start off with just a few activities and from there, slowly build up the number of activities you engage in each week.
Even a small number of activities can have a big impact on your mood. Finally, remember to reward yourself for the progress that you make. Recognize your accomplishments. Doing so can increase your motivation to keep moving forward, especially during those times when your mood is down. With one step at a time, you can use behavioral activation to build a more meaningful and fulfilling life. Learn the best ways to manage stress and negativity in your life.
Behavioral activation as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder among returning veterans: A randomized trial. Psychiatr Serv. Behavioural activation for depression; an update of meta-analysis of effectiveness and sub group analysis. A comparative study of group behavioral activation and cognitive therapy in reducing subsyndromal anxiety and depressive symptoms.
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Sign Up. What are your concerns? Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Related Articles. How to Treat Depression Without Medication. It does not matter. The critical point is that modifying our behaviour can have a powerful influence over our emotions. The aim of BA is to reverse the cycle of depression by increasing engagement in valued activities, which increases our chances of deriving pleasure and a sense of achievement from life.
The cognitive component of CBT teaches skills for challenging negative thoughts that worsen depressed mood. Modifying behaviour may be enough to improve our outlook on life. Depression usually makes it difficult to notice fluctuations in mood — everything seems black all the time. But moods do fluctuate, at least to some degree. The first step in BA is to become familiar with these fluctuations. When you look back over your activities and mood ratings each week, what activities were associated with a better mood even slightly and what activities were associated with a lower mood?
This is normal, but the idea is for this balance to shift over time. Consider the days and times you are most likely to complete the activity over the coming week, schedule it in your diary, and problem-solve any obstacles that might get in the way. Plan some activities with loved ones for some additional support and encouragement.
You might find that you do some activities just for pleasure such as having coffee with a friend, dancing, or reading a book. Other activities might not be pleasurable, but they nonetheless give you a sense of achievement such as cleaning the house, or going to work. It is important to maintain a healthy balance of both pleasurable and achievement-based activities. Too many pleasurable activities can be unhelpful if it means we neglect our responsibilities, which then pile up and become overwhelming.
On the other hand, too many achievement-based activities can feel like all work and no play. Some activities give us a sense of both pleasure and achievement — win, win! This step is critical. If an activity is scheduled in the diary, then it gets done, regardless of how we are feeling.
This is because people with depression often lose interest in activities they used to enjoy or no longer find pleasure in their hobbies. This article looks at what behavioral activation is, how it works, how effective it is, and how people can practice it.
Behavioral activation is based on behaviorism. For example, engaging in fulfilling or healthy activities can make someone feel good, which then makes them more likely to keep participating in those activities. However, according to this concept, the reverse is also true. Engaging in behavior that makes someone feel bad can activate unpleasant feelings, which then creates a vicious cycle.
The worse a person feels, the less likely they are to engage in behaviors that benefit them. Some therapists recommend behavioral activation for depression because the symptoms of this condition make it hard to engage in pleasurable or meaningful activities. Some also recommend it for substance misuse as a way of replacing the addiction with a healthier behavior. Activities that make people feel good vary from person to person, but here are some examples of how people can use behavioral activation.
One of the main ways people use behavioral activation is to increase pleasurable feelings and create a sense of meaning. For example, a person who usually loves gardening may struggle with motivation when they have a depressive episode. This may mean that they stop gardening entirely. Doing this may reinforce the feeling that things are hopeless or deprive them of an activity that makes them feel good about themselves.
However, if they try to do a small amount of gardening each day, it proves that they can do it. This may improve their mood, keep them physically active, and remind them of things they value. Another way to use behavioral activation is to replace an unhelpful behavior with a beneficial one. For example, if someone notices that they often drink alcohol when stressed but that this ultimately makes them feel worse, they might wish to replace it with another pleasurable and stress -relieving habit, such as a creative hobby.
Doing this creates positive feelings, making it easier to avoid alcohol the next time the person feels stressed. It also helps them manage the stress more effectively, without the side effects of alcohol. Experiencing painful emotions can make it harder to reach out to loved ones or participate in social activities.
This, in turn, may cause someone to become withdrawn or isolated. This can intensify depression, cause loneliness, or mean that a person has less social support. A person who is finding it difficult to socialize may wish to try to commit to a weekly movie night, a regular catchup with a friend, or quality time with their child in order to prevent this.
Even if the person does not really feel like socializing, engaging in these activities may ultimately provide them with a sense of connection, comfort, or fun.
Several studies have yielded promising results associated with behavioral activation. The following sections look at these in more detail. The participants either did solitary activities, activities with one other person, or group social activities. These rewarding activities improved symptoms of depression. However, the group that engaged in one-on-one activities showed the most improvements, which may suggest that social connection is an important factor.
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