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Slightly different than treating depression, this is all about the real-life ways that you can still actually live your life while you have depression. Pretty sure there are 23 more hours in a day more than an hour at a therapist's office and taking your daily medication. This is what real people (also poor people) can do for those 23 hours.
Will everything here work for everybody? No. Is this meant to take place of your doctor recommended treatment? No. This is just my personal to-do list for making it through life when living seems like an insurmountable object.
Even with medication, those bad days creep up on me. In order to keep up, I have a few, reliable methods to keep me up and going.
No Drugs and No Alcohol
Recreational drugs and alcohol are depressants. Even if they make you feel better for a short period of time, you're playing the long game. Leave them alone. A quick burst of drunkenness can leave a person feeling even more depressed and depleted afterward. Drugs are often the same. That sparkly, artificial high simply casts a psychological shadow over reality. Focus on making reality better, not just drowning it out. Reality is what lasts.
Okay, some people may argue that marijuana is not a depressant. It is but it isn't. Unlike injecting heroin between your toes, the highs and lows are less dramatic. That said, most doctors will tell you to leave it be. The possible benefits of marijuana haven't been studied well enough to mix it with clinical depression.
Stay Neat and Clean
There's nothing so depressing as laying around in your own filth and stinking of B.O. There are a lot of things in life that can't be changed; this is not one of them. Shower every day. Wash your sheets. Stay organized. Pick up clutter. Even if you're not going anywhere that day, get up and get ready as if you are. Not only is this physically healthy for you, but it'll help you to dispel that slovenly, bum-about-the-house feeling that gets no one anywhere.
Also, no one likes stinky, depressed people. Just depressed? That's much better odds for having people like you. Now go tidy up. Seriously. You'll feel better.
Fresh Air and Sunshine
Totally simple and yet totally legit. One of the most common experiences of people with depression is this strange urge to wall yourself into your house/room/car/office/whatever in the dark. Vicious cycle: you feel depressed, so you stay inside to relax and avoid stress which makes you feel isolated and so you feel depressed and so on….
Sunshine helps people produce Vitamin D which as multiple health benefits. Vitamin D can help boost your immunity, fight disease, keep your bones strong, and generally keep you happy. Sunshine helps to fight seasonal depression, and it generally brings about a lighter mood. Just be sure to use sunblock. Skin cancer can be very depressing.
Next week? A few more tips on living with depression symptoms.
The post Coping with Depression Symptoms: Part One appeared first on How to Get Rid of Things™.
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