[thinbeige]

Maybe this sounds too simple and not academic:

The more I am busy (with meaningful work) the less time I have time to feel bad about feeling bad or just thinking about this.

This doesn't mean one should escape into random work but that there maight be a slight correlation.

[FooHentai]

>The more I am busy (with meaningful work) the less time I have time to feel bad about feeling bad or just thinking about this.

It can help as a distraction but not to fix the long term thought patterns - Anecdotally, I was super busy with meaningful work at university, but I was the most depressed I have ever been. The work offset it for some time, but it took a lot of non-work effort to improve the thought patterns.

[colordrops]

I've found that when I'm in a better mood I find myself more busy with meaningful work, so the correlation may go the other way.

[thinbeige]

IDK and in my case the cause effect direction is the other way.

Imagine you get busy because of external deadlines you cannot influence and you need get things done and don't have time to think a second about anything unrelated.

Even if you are in a bad mood and don't want to work you MUST because of the deadlines. Once you are working towards the deadlines, all bad feelings are gone.

Not sure how it works the way around, I am happy, now I make myself busy with random taks?

Edit: Still thinking about your opinion and now I might agree. If you feel good you might have the willpower to start new meaningful things which make you busy again.