In the movie Firefox, Clint Eastwood's character is tasked with stealing a prototype Soviet jet fighter which uses highly advanced technology.

One of the features of the Firefox plane is a helmet which relays the pilot's thoughts to the flight computer to increase reaction time beyond what is normally possible. The American agent's advisor tells him "you must think in Russian.", because the computer does not understand English commands.

It occurred to me that when we are depressed, we are thinking (and behaving) using a specific kind of "language". It is the language of pessimism, low self worth, worry, passivity and resignation. To overcome it, we have to learn (or relearn) to "think in Nondepressed"! We have to master the inner language of optimism, confidence, higher self esteem, activity, problem solving, assertiveness and expressiveness. We have to think it, and act it.

Thinking about it as logically as I can manage, it just makes sense that doing this ought to have positive results that will bring me more of the experiences that make me happy, therefore not depressed. Doing this is easier said than done, of course. Learning a new language is not a trivial thing.

I hope the metaphor works for you. I'm finding it useful.

Another metaphor I find helpful from movies and other media - deprogramming. I believe that negative events in our past may well cause us to learn assumptions and patterns of thinking that promote things like anxiety, self-doubt, and depressed moods in the future. In a sense it is like brainwashing (which appears to be somehow induced by repeated failures or unpleasant interactions with others and the world at some formative age). It can be a deliberate process in the case of people willfully treating you abusively, or it can be an accidental process based on how you interpreted some unpleasant chain of events at the time.

How do people overcome being brainwashed? A system of deprogramming. Maybe that is what talk therapy and self-help techniques which question negative thoughts and self-defeating behaviors really are?