Behavioural Activation: The Simplest High-Evidence Depression Treatment

Summary

Behavioural activation (BA) is the act of scheduling valued and rewarding activity back into a depressed life to break the withdrawal-deepens-depression loop, and it is one of the cheapest, best-evidenced treatments in all of mental health (as good as full CBT in head-to-head trials, deliverable by non-specialists) yet badly under-used, with the honest caveat that it is a strong first move for milder-to-moderate depression rather than a cure-all, and severe, worsening, or suicidal depression is a clinical-care boundary, not a self-help target. ---