Positive Event Scheduling: A Method for Decreasing Depressed Mood

Often times, when people start to feel sad or depressed they stop doing fun things and start spending more time by themselves at home. The truth is, this generally makes feelings of sadness and depression worse. Getting and doing positive things can make people feel better. If your child is feeling sad or depressed and has stopped doing fun things, having him/her do enjoyable things could make a difference. Follow the steps below:

• Have your child make a list of enjoyable activities. This could include things like bike riding, shopping, going dancing, going to a friend's house, or going to a festival. It may be that your child feels that nothing is enjoyable anymore. Even if nothing sounds fun, encourage him/her to try very hard to list out what used to be fun.
• From the list, pick one fun activity to do the follow week. It is best to pick activities that get your child moving around (like bike riding). Physical activity releases brain chemical called endorphins that help people feel good.
• Get out a calendar. Pick three days over the next week that your child will do the enjoyable activity. Mark those days on your calendar. If you are doing this activity with a young child, you could have pictures represent the days he/she is going to do fun activities. For instance, have a picture a bike on days your child is scheduled to go bike riding.
• Do events as scheduled. It is very important that your child actually gets out and does the scheduled positive events. Your child may not want to do the scheduled positive events. Sitting around the house may sound a lot better. But push your child to get out and do the events. Encourage him/her to try it for at least a little while!
• Record feelings. On the calendar, have your child write down how he/she feels at the end of each day. You could use a rating from 1 (feeling really sad and awful) to 10 (feeling wonderful and happy). Have your child do this rating every day of the week, not just on days when an enjoyable activity was done.

Do these steps for at least four weeks. Try doing a different positive event each week. At the end, look back with your child at ratings of feelings each day. Look to see if your child felt better days when a positive event was done. If you find a positive event that makes your child feel better, then commit to doing that things regularly in the future-even when sad feelings arise.