
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 2, 1993                   TAG: 9311020059
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DEALING WITH THAT BAD DAY

On average, people classify every third day as a "bad day," according to Randy Larsen, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who has been researching moods for a decade. Larsen

identified 14 strategies that people rely on most consistently to cheer themselves up. Seven are effective short-term cures, two are less effective and five are self-defeating.

The seven most effective short-term cures:

PROBLEM-directed action - actually doing something to solve the problem at the root of the depression.

REAPPRAISAL - "reframing" the situation, to understand what may be good as well as what may be bad about it.

THINKING about other successes - reminding oneself of the other things in one's life that are going well.

REWARDING oneself - going on a shopping spree, for example, or out for dinner.

RESOLVING to try harder - "It turns out that just thinking about the future, and how to avoid a similar problem in the future, makes people feel better immediately." DOWNWARD comparison - thinking about other people

whose problems are even worse than one's own. "It may not be the nicest thing to do. ... But it actually works."

SELF-comparison - comparing one's current situation to one's past situation.

\ Two strategies that probably won't work

Socializing and drinking. Both may immediately elevate people's moods, but feeling better "doesn't last," Larsen said.

\ Five ways to keep yoru bad mood bad

"VENTING" - crying and shouting. "Crying when sad, shouting when angry - what Freud called `catharsis' - in the short term, does not appear to be effective."

DISTRACTION _ trying to escape sadness with diversions. SOLITUDE.

Being alone is "a bad idea. We've found people's moods go down ... even in the short-term future."

FATALISM. People who believe there is nothing to be done about a problem "tend to stay in a bad mood."

BLAMING failure on others - "a nasty form" of reappraisal, in which one reinterprets events in order to lay their failure at someone else's feet. "That just perpetuates a bad mood."

by CNB