Sally’s friends helped her remove the guilt by changing her thinking. She then saw that her responsibility was to have made a reasonable effort to help Sam while he was alive, but she was not responsible for his death, just as she was not responsible for his life when he was alive. They reasoned with Sally until she straightened her thinking about the guilt.

Sally’s anger took care of itself when the guilt was gone, as she could no longer blame the doctor, just as she could no longer blame herself. Her fear was more difficult to deal with — a fear of facing the future without Sam. This fear was rational because Sally was really afraid of failure in employment. They decided she would have to get more education to get the job she really wanted, so she took training as a medical receptionist. Sally changed her thinking about her sense of responsibility and removed the guilt. She got more education. Sally’s depression was gone!

Sounds too simple? Actually, the analysis of most depressions is a simple proc-ess. It is the changes we have to make that are the difficult part of the process. Many depressed people know very well how and why they are depressed, but they stay depressed because they lack the willpower to break bad habits, or shyness prevents then from escaping loneliness, or lack of living skills produces further failures to break out of depression. Su-ch changes are easily understood, but difficult to ach-ieve, so the depression continues. — The Bright Side of Depression