When people are depressed, they sometimes say that they feel everything is so hopeless that it is useless to try. The process of thinking this way is biased towards a negative interpretation of events. The stressful events experienced earlier in life can sometimes lead a person to develop a negative life schema in which they view themselves as someone who could never succeed, never have a good day, and never get better, which, of course, is quite untrue. The negative pattern of thinking can become so automatic that years later, it leads to a habit of over-generalizing and magnifying problems while failing to notice or give credence to positive events. In this case, our shortcuts in thinking have become what is keeping us stuck in self-defeating habits.