Table 4 Themes and quotes of ‘The impact of mood on the future thinking capability’ during poor mental health and well state

Varied ability and motivation

“I think it was more of a lack of capability in the sense of not want, being so scared of it, that you don’t even want to acknowledge it. So I would avoid thinking about it because it would, one, make me more stressed, and two, make me more sad.” [06¹; female, 19², subclinical depression and anxiety]

“I hated thinking about the future. I didn’t want to think. People at the time tried to help me a lot by saying, ‘but it won’t. You won’t always feel anxious. It’ll be OK in the future’, but I don’t want to think about that, because I didn’t think that the future would ever change. I thought it would always be like that.” [17; female, 17, clinical depression and anxiety]

“I can think a lot more further into the future without getting upset, and I guess I let myself have fun imagining things.” [18; female, 16, clinical mixed depression and anxiety episodes]

“But now, I look forward to the future, I forget about the negativity, I don’t dwell on each day thinking about what’s happened. I’m just thinking about tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be a good day.” [01; male, 18, clinical depression and anxiety]

Stuck in the past

“When I’m highly anxious and in that sort of state, I don’t really think of anything else apart from what’s happening right now. … I don’t know if it’s you don’t want to look at it [the future] or you just give up thinking about it cause you’re so highly stressed about the current state, you would inward looking rather than thinking about the future.” [07; female, 19, clinical anxiety]

“I’m still quite past orientated, but at the same time I’m a lot more future orientated. … I do look more into the future now, and that’s me actively trying to do that, cause I think sometimes when I get stressed out, I’m trying to think, well there are better things to come and they’ll be there soon.” [07; female, 19, clinical anxiety]