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Happy Monday, and welcome to 
your mental Health mini. 

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This week's guest is Doctor Ayla
Rusio. 

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She's one of my pen professors. 
I worked in her lab for three 

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semesters. 
We're talking about depression. 

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The basic principle of stress 
generation was introduced by 

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Connie Hammer, and what she 
discovered in her research is 

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that many individuals who are 
depressed seem to be engaging in

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behaviors that almost got in 
their own way that were making 

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things more difficult for them. 
So these were events that rather

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than sort of completely random 
acts like let's say, you know, 

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there's a hurricane, for 
example, that's something that I

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have no control over. 
I did nothing for this hurricane

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to happen. 
I'm unfortunately sort of stuck 

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in the wrong place at the wrong 
time. 

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That would be an independent 
stress. 

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Something's independent from me,
but to find that many 

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individuals depression were 
experiencing what she called 

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dependent stress. 
So dependent stress, an example 

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would be like frequent arguments
with a boyfriend or girlfriend. 

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This is something that I 
contribute to in some way or 

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potentially could contribute to.
I might have a very quarrelsome 

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boyfriend or girlfriend, but I 
also may be a person who is sort

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of repeatedly doing things 
that's causing arguments to 

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happen or contributing in some 
way to the stress. 

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At first, at least, this was a 
controversial idea because we 

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don't want to blame the victim. 
We don't want to say like, you 

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know, people who are depressed 
are doing like bad things for 

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themselves. 
On the other hand, I think it's 

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really important to recognize 
when we are doing things that 

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are making things harder for us 
so that we can take steps to try

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to improve the situation. 
So the basic idea behind stress 

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generation is that to some 
extent, all of us contribute or 

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can contribute to the stress we 
experience. 

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And the opposite side or flip 
side of that is that we all have

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the opportunity to reduce our 
stress levels by taking a hard 

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look at what are we potentially 
doing that may be increasing 

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stress for us. 
So I'll give you maybe a minor 

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example. 
If I'm a person who's 

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chronically late, I'm going to 
be generating some stress for 

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myself, right? 
I'm going to, let's say, pay a 

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bill late. 
And as a result, I'm going to 

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have a fine and I'm going to 
have to pay. 

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Or let's say I'm going to arrive
late to a meeting and as a 

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result, I'm going to be taken 
less seriously by the people I'm

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supposed to be meeting with or 
I'll miss some important 

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information. 
So maybe for students, like 

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maybe because I'm oversleeping 
all the time, I'm missing class 

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or late for class and then I 
miss information I need to know 

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in order to do well in exams. 
If I recognize that I am 

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contributing to the stress that 
I'm experiencing by not managing

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my time well, then by improving 
my time management skills, I can

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actually reduce stress in my 
life. 

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That's a non interpersonal 
example, but an important thing 

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to note is that Connie Hammond 
observed that most of the 

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dependent stressors that she 
observed, especially in the 

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women in her sample, were inter 
personal in nature. 

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So the women were engaging in 
behaviors that were increasing 

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the likelihood of others in 
their life, sort of arguing with

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them, leaving them, you know, 
where relationships were more 

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unstable or were ending or just 
were more stressful. 

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So thinking very hard about what
are the ways in which I may be 

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contributing to difficult 
relationships. 

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And that includes selecting 
people to have relationships 

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with who may not treat us the 
way we deserve to be treated. 

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What could be done about it? 
So cognitively, what we often 

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see is people tending to respond
in ways that tighten the stress 

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by by doing things like blaming 
the stressor on themselves and 

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unstable things that can't be 
changed. 

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As opposed to looking for 
outside reasons why the stressor

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might have happened or 
recognizing the stressors come 

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and go, that they can be 
temporary rather than a stable 

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feature of me. 
So if I believe that when I 

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encounter stressors, it's 
because something is inherently 

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bad about me, it's unavoidable, 
and it's always going to be 

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around, I'm going to be much 
more likely to stay depressed. 

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And if I recognize that 
stressors can be things that are

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temporary, that are outside of 
me and that can be controlled 

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emotionally. 
We often see high levels of 

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sadness and distress, but also 
low levels of positive emotion. 

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What seems to happen is that 
people are feeling sort of very 

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sad, very hopeless, but in 
addition they can feel just a 

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really difficult time feeling 
pleasure and joy and connection 

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to other people that really 
contributes to the difficulties 

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of this disorder. 
And then interpersonally, 

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oftentimes people withdraw from 
others. 

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They isolate themselves rather 
than reaching out and connecting

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with other people, and that can 
make it very difficult for the 

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depression to stop. 
So an important first step is to

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recognize that when stressors 
occur, all of us are going to 

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react. 
What we have some control over 

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is how are we going to respond? 
And so if we know that we're a 

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person who, when we experience a
stressor, can react really 

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strongly, then thinking about, 
hey, what can I do now to deal 

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productively with this? 
What about the situation is sort

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of out of my control? 
And it's like, I need to let go 

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of that. 
And what part of this can I do 

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something about? 
Let me actually make a plan for 

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how I'm going to address this, 
taking kind of concrete steps 

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and having a plan in place to 
address the things that can be 

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addressed cognitively, 
emotionally, interpersonally. 

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Rather than kind of withdrawing 
and isolating myself and 

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thinking about all the ways in 
which things are going wrong, 

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Can I instead approach, I'm 
going to reach out to people who

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I trust and who I love, who I 
know will help me get through 

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the situation, encourage me to 
try something different? 

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Can I sort of think about 
activities that I can engage in 

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that are going to lift my 
positive emotion and will help 

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me curtail that negative 
emotional experience?