Xiao Lin grew up in good health with no major illnesses, but in the last two months she was brought in by her parents to seek help from a psychologist because she had been depressed and had committed suicide four times. Lin is the oldest in her family and grew up with high expectations from her parents. Her parents projected their own unfulfilled wishes onto their eldest daughter, Lin, and their harsh discipline and lack of positive encouragement led Lin to develop an automatic mindset of excessive attention to external evaluations from a young age. “I fell behind in my homework indicating that I was incapable, and my classmates would laugh at me, leaving me with very little confidence. I was the oldest in my family, and I couldn’t be an example to my younger sister, which in turn made my parents sad and let my teachers down. I don’t have any self-confidence, what’s the point of life.” This irrational automated thinking of Xiao Lin is related to the family environment she grew up in. From these points, we help Lin learn to identify, observe, and record her irrational thinking habits, and discuss with Lin the logic of this wrong thinking habit. What is the logic of this wrong thinking habit, criticize it, and then eliminate it. The counselor helped Lynn to realize that one’s evaluation has come from the inner her cold words. When she was told by her teacher that she was not working hard, her mood hit the bottom and she could not get motivated to do anything, she was irritable, had insomnia, and felt that she was inferior in everything. Her appetite became abnormal, sometimes she ate and drank a lot, sometimes she had no appetite at all, and she even thought of jumping off a building. Lin has a lot of irrational thinking and cares a lot about what people say about her. If it is good, her mood is mediocre; if it is bad, her mood is very bad. Her self-expectation is to be smart, beautiful, rich, filial, accomplished, and to have many friends. Xiao Lin has the myth that “all things are inferior, but only reading is high”. Her deep concern is that if I am not good at school, I will not be able to go to a good high school, I will not be able to go to a good school, I will not be able to find a good job, I will not be able to become a useful person, and I will not be able to become a valuable person, so I will not be happy. She took for granted her own merits, such as being kind, affable, self-examination, self-control, respect for elders, eagerness to help others, consideration for others, compassion, sense of justice, etc., and was not happy. Expert comments After medication, Xiao Lin’s mood improved quickly. However, medication can only control the symptoms for a while, not cure the root cause, and Xiaolin’s symptoms still have ups and downs. The counselor selected the most important symptoms, such as suicide and hopelessness, and the two external aspects, too much in the accidental evaluation will lead to lack of self-confidence and dependence; too much care for the internal evaluation is often narcissistic and headstrong. The counselor discussed with Xiao Lin the “irrational thinking caused by homework retreat” and asked her to think about it: Can’t a homework retreat be caught up in the next time? Can’t she be a role model for her younger sister if she falls behind in school? Are there other aspects of being a role model? For example, being a person, doing something, other talents, skills, etc. Falling behind in school will make teachers and parents sad and disappointed. So what should we do? You have to find a solution instead of spending all day dwelling and feeling sad, which will only eat away at your mind and not make any progress. If you think about the reason for your regression, if the reason is your inability to concentrate or your lack of effort, can this reason be corrected? Xiao Lin admitted to herself that she was not working hard enough. Although, the counselor knew that the root problem of Xiao Lin was not lack of effort, Xiao Lin now recognized this way, so she had to let the facts verify it. So, the counselor gave Xiaolin two months to work on it. During this period, Xiaolin could not think about suicide and gave herself a chance to work on it. So, Xiao Lin worked harder than before, putting aside other chores for the time being. However, her schoolwork still did not improve. This was because Xiao Lin was suffering from depression and could not concentrate, so of course her memory was not effective. So, she was doing half the work with twice the effort. Then, first, she had to improve her mood. Xiao Lin’s depression cycle had already taken shape: bad homework → depression → inability to concentrate on studying → worse homework → more depression. The counselor discussed with Xiao Lin that working hard is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for good grades, and that working hard will have a better situation than not working hard. In addition, Xiaolin had the thought, “I’m not long behind at the beginning of my life, how can I catch up with others afterwards?” The counselor discussed with Xiao Lin that Xiao Lin was not as bad as the others, and that all roads lead to Rome, and everyone has their own path to follow. The counselor also discussed with Lin that her depression was related to her upbringing. She grew up with high expectations from her parents, who lacked positive encouragement for her. In terms of psychological development, Xiao Lin’s intelligence is medium to high, and in elementary school, she could make up for her poor performance by being diligent, but in secondary school, the difficulty and complexity of her homework increased significantly, and it was normal for Xiao Lin to compensate with hard work, which was partially effective but not ideal. During the consultation, the counselor asked Xiao Lin to write down her strengths at home, so that she could experience how these strengths could help her find her value, and then improve her emotions and behavior, and return to her previous happy life. After the above counseling sessions, Lin gradually changed her mind, understood her emotions, and was able to control her emotions, or at least to control herself from taking action when she was in a negative mood, but to seek help or to sit down and let the negative emotions pass quietly. There are many causes of teenage depression, mainly biological, such as the lack of certain neurotransmitters in the brain; environmental, such as interpersonal relationships; psychological, the loss of important caregivers from childhood, lack of positive encouragement, too much irrational thinking, and so on. Adolescents are very plastic, and if they are sufficiently motivated, have logical thinking, can anticipate the cause and effect of things in general, and are willing to cooperate with therapy, they are very suitable for cognitive therapy.