As he developed stronger symptoms of depression, he started avoiding additional tasks he thought he wouldn’t do well, for example, paying bills and doing yard work. He had many automatic thoughts across situations about the likelihood that he would fail. These thoughts led him to feel sad, anxious, and hopeless. He viewed his difficulties as due to an innate flaw and not as the result of encroaching depression. He developed a generalized sense of incompetence and helplessness and curtailed his activities further. His relationship with his wife became quite strained, and they started having significant conflict. He interpreted the conflict as meaning he was failing in the marriage, that he was incompetent as a husband.

Over the course of several months, Abe’s problems at work became even worse. Joseph became quite critical of Abe and downgraded him at his yearly performance review. Abe’s depression intensified significantly when his wife filed for divorce. He became preoccupied with thoughts of how he had let her and his children and his boss down. He felt like (that is, he had a belief that he was) an incompetent failure. He felt (believed he was) at the mercy of his sad and hopeless feelings (“I’m out of control”) and thought there was nothing he could do to feel better (“I’m helpless”). And then he lost his job.