Since coming down with a case of Major Depression a few years ago, one of the most interesting psychotherapy approaches I’ve run into is one called “Schema Therapy.”
Schema therapy identifies 18 “lifetraps” or “early maladaptive schemas,” which are “self-defeating, core themes or patterns that we keep repeating throughout our lives,” according to the Schema Therapy Institute. See a list of the 18 schemas.
Schema therapy organizes past negative experiences in a way that is convenient and easy for a non-therapist like me to understand and use as a tool in self-improvement.
We often learned these patterns during childhood as ways of adapting to difficult childhood situations where we were powerless. However, they now sometimes create problems for us and are no longer useful. Given that childhood is not likely to ever be perfect, it seems likely to me that most people would have one of two of these schemas.
In my case, many things in childhood weren’t quite right, but it wasn’t until Major Depression slowly crept up on me that I started looking closer at my past. I eventually had the solemn realization that things weren’t even as good as I had originally thought.
I’ve learned that I’m significantly affected by a number of these schemas–not just one or two. As a result, I now see how some of my own thoughts and actions contributed to my depression.
As an ongoing personal project, I’m evaluating how these schemas negatively affect my thoughts and actions. The ultimate goal is to reduce their effect on me and hopefully feel better and happier. So far, it’s helping a lot.
My personal list includes the following schemas, more or less in order of stronger to weaker:
- Subjugation
- Emotional Deprivation
- Defectiveness/Shame
- Emotional Inhibition
- Unrelenting Standards
- Negativity/Pessimism
- Approval-Seeking
- Social Isolation
- Abandonment
- Mistrust/Abuse
The first two in the list–subjugation schema and emotional deprivation schema–are the most pervasive and damaging for me. They operate quietly in the background in so much of my life, affecting my judgement, generally without my awareness of them. I’m seeing them in so many places, now that I know what to look for.
Future posts on this blog will discuss specific examples where I’ve identified these schemas tainting my daily thoughts.
I don’t need to believe any of what these old “voices” are telling me about myself.