'Sticky thinking' hampers decisions in depression

as a lifelong depressive, the "sticky thinking" issue is the main reason why practices like mindfulness meditation are essential. Though MM I've been able to isolate what it actually "feels" like to resist letting a "sticky" thought go, what's behind that resistance, and what it "feels" like to let it go anyway, which is to say, it feels awkward. A good kind of awkward because you realize you're teaching your neurons a new skill they haven't done before. Call it "thought hygiene" and consider it like any other skill like writing or riding a bike.

I also observe that the primary thing an SSRI does for me is that it makes thoughts much less sticky, to the point of forgetfulness.

when I was on SSRI, I didn't really feel any better. What it was for me is that I didn't reach the bottom so easily. If my mood was normally like from 3 to -10, on SSRI it went from 3 to like -5/-6.

So essentially, you learn to ignore thoughts?

It seems hard to do because some thinking about old mistakes seems essential to not make new ones. Am I missing a key element?

Curious as I think I dwell on the past too much and don’t focus on the present

I wouldn't say essential. You might think of dwelling on old mistakes and trying really hard to avoid them as over fitting? You can lose out on seeing possible new mistakes you need to avoid.

My experience was similar except the top end score was also lowered, I.e. it became impossible to feel excited or motivated about anything. I believe SSRI response varies greatly between different individuals and drugs though, so this is just one data point and YMMV

I learned to meditate (doing this with ADHD was really difficult, but I persevered).

Pushing myself to actually meditate in the midst of a dark spiral is another story. Most of the time I absolutely can't.

Sadly, this only works for problems residing purely in your mind. Lots of depression cases have bodily sources that simply can't be ignored (e.g. touch starvation, wizard).

The issue is when you think about them too much. After a certain point dwelling on something for longer (sometimes much longer) than necessary becomes counterproductive and is simply taking away your attention from more important things that are actually happening to you in the present.

Will you come to any new conclusions about how to deal with a problem if you think about an old mistake 50 times? 100 times? Do you need to consciously think about how to move your legs every time you go for a walk in case you stumble?