| How to Cope with Depression Feb 1st 2013, 08:00 Feeling down or blue is a natural part of life. When people let us down, things go wrong, or we lose people we love, or the dreams we've valued, it appears. This sadness becomes a problem when it fails to pass and we don't bounce back. If the sadness stretches over weeks, is occurring frequently and interferes with your ability to interact with people and enjoy your life, it is likely that you're experiencing some form of depression. Provided that you're able to access information and have a good doctor and support network around you, even severe depression is a highly treatable condition. [1] Here are various strategies to help you cope with depression. Seek Help -
Identify whether or not you have depression and seek help if necessary. - An inability to function normally in everyday life
- Lethargy, fatigue, and the feeling that doing things takes a lot of your energy
- Persistent sadness, including fits of crying either uncontrollably or being set off easily, feelings of anxiety or emptiness
- Feeling blue, sad, and generally down over a period of at least two weeks
- Feelings of worthlessness, self-blame and a lack of self esteem
- Sleeping a lot more or less than usual, or experiencing insomnia
- Unusual weight gain or loss, overeating or appetite loss
- Finding thinking or concentrating difficult, "foggy" thinking, inability to make clear decisions or forgetfulness
- Pessimism, or feeling a sense that life is hopeless, pointless and futile This may even lead to a feeling of numbness
- Body pains, cramps, digestive problems, headaches, and other aches that don't go away with medication or treatment
- Being irritable or restless a great deal of the time
- Suicidal thoughts, thoughts about dying, or attempts at suicide
- Ask your doctor to explore possible medical causes behind your depression. Some depression results from, or is a side effect of, medical conditions or treatment for other medical conditions. In some cases, medical conditions can mimic depression.[4] It's important for your doctor to identify any physical causes for depression that require specific treatments or to eliminate other reasons for your condition. Common medical conditions that might trigger depression include:
- Vitamin or mineral deficiencies, especially for people on restrictive diets. B vitamins are associated with depression,[5] although it's unclear whether lower levels of B vitamins (especially B12) cause or are caused by depression.[6] In addition, much new research has come to light on Vitamin D being a powerful mental health regulator. [7] Either way, if you know your vitamin and mineral input isn't optimal, fixing it is an important first step.
- Thyroid problems, hormonal imbalances (including pre-menstrual) or disease.[8][9]
- Medications. The side effects of some medications include depression. Read the warning labels and talk with your doctor about any concerns you might have.
- Addictions to alcohol or other drugs.[10]
- Genetic links to depression.[11]
- Co-existing illnesses. Depression often accompanies anxiety disorders (for example, post-traumatic distress disorder, OCD, social phobia, etc.), alcohol and substance abuse, heart disease, stroke, cancer, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease.[12] These diseases may precede, cause or be a consequence of depression.[13]
- Medical conditions that only women would face including post-partum depression (the "baby blues"), premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).[14][15]
Begin Your Healing -
Start your journey to wellness. - Name your beast. Winston Churchill called his depression his "black dog". By turning it into a pet, he made a difficult situation into a controllable one. In naming it, you make it a condition and not a definition of who you are. You can say something like "My black dog is making me feel irritable today," instead of saying "I'm always an irritable no-hoper".[16]
- Find a role model. Think you're alone in being depressed? Go to the library and pull out five biographies. It's highly likely that at least one of those high achievers suffered from depression. Do a little research online to find famous people who have overcome depression. Read about the many celebrities who are revealing their battles with depression. Read their stories. Take heart in the fact that there are others who have overcome depression, only you have the benefit of their experiences to draw from too!
- Be gentle on yourself. Life isn't a race or a competition. The reality is that you matter, you have great value as a person and making things harder for yourself is akin to beating yourself up. Avoid obsessing about your depression or creating a shrine to it to hide behind when things all seem to hard. The feedback loop of hopelessness and despair created by being angry with yourself for being depressed will deepen your despair. Go back to naming your beast and setting it apart from who you are. Accept the journey to wellness is a matter of baby steps.
- List the things that are bothering you outside of your depression.[17] It could be unpaid bills, a lack of vacations or a tough job. In another column, write down some practical things that you think you can do to deal with the things that are bothering you. For example, find ways to pay these bills, plan a vacation and figure out how to get a new job.
- Prescription medication. Many doctors will prescribe medication. Ask questions about the medication you're taking, including duration and side effects. Be sure to report back to your doctor on anything you notice doesn't feel right or if you're experiencing side effects. You may need to have a change of dosage or switch to a different medication.
- Alternatives to antidepressants. There are natural cures like St.John's Wort. Medication is not a permanent solution for most people. The solution to a depression free life is to use all the tools available (such as self-help books or a changed attitude) and let others help where they can. friends[18]
- Follow all the instructions relevant to your medication, including food and medicinal restrictions, dosage levels and withdrawal requirements.[19]
- If you don't want to take anti-depressants, make this clear to your doctor. Do your research beforehand to discuss alternative options because you will need to convince your doctor that you have the ability to actively work on your depressive thinking patterns and your lack of resilience without the aid of medication. While doing this can take some convincing (have a list of questions for the doctor), it is your right to express your preferred approach to treatment.[20]
- It is important, however, to realize that battling depression without the aid of medication is challenging and can take longer. You may want to consider increasing the frequency of sessions with a cognitive therapy specialist.
-
Research about depression. - Visit your local library and borrow books about depression, anxiety, and happiness. Look in the psychology, self-help, therapy, and medical sections. For youth, ask about books specifically written for teenagers and children (children do get depression[21]). You can also look at online auctions or book sites for affordable books about depression.
- Visit trusted online resources targeted at your population. Government and national institutes set up for mental health treatment are reliable sources of information. For example, in Australia, check out the Beyond Blue National Depression Initiative;[22] in New Zealand, check out the New Zealand Government's Depression site;[23] in Canada, check out the Government's site on Depression;[24] in the USA, check out the CDC[25] or the NIMH[26]. There are many other good resources available online. Just be sure to verify their trustworthiness.
- Helping recovery from depression through reading is referred to as "bibliotherapy". If you're motivated enough to take this path of recovery, it can be very beneficial. This method seems to be well suited to people who always turn to research as a way of answering anything they're experiencing in life.
- Use your deeper knowledge to educate others around you as to what you're going through. It can help to fend off awkward or unsympathetic comments if you've got the bigger picture and facts about depression.
- Keep a journal of your journey through your depression. Document your feelings somewhere personal and completely private. This will be the place where you let out your darkest thoughts, no holds barred, because you don't need to worry that anyone will judge you for them. A diary can become your collaborator in the struggle against your depression because it eventually provides you with great evidence of what improves your mood as well as what brings it down.[27] Try to write in it daily if possible.
Body Care - Take care of your body. Your body needs to be well-nourished, well-rested, and cherished. If you've been neglecting it or pushing it too far, you will pay a price and part of that will result in lowered resiliency and openness to depressive thoughts. The following things matter a great deal when trying to cope with depression:
- Sleep well. Sleep is essential to a healthy, balanced body. Lack of sleep can aggravate negative thinking and easily becomes a vicious cycle whereby your negative thoughts keep you awake and disable your ability to get enough sleep. Waking unrefreshed and feeling tired is a commonplace complaint during depression, and even too much sleep can leave depressed persons feeling tired.[28] Breaking this cycle requires enforcing a strict sleep routine of the same bedtime and waking time every day, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, not exercising three hours prior to bed, removing anything distracting from your bedroom and keeping your room at a suitable temperature, etc.[29]
- Read How to fall asleep for more help. It won't be easy breaking a disturbed sleep cycle and many things can restore the insomnia or wakeful nights, so it's important to be vigilant about keeping to a routine, as well as very forgiving of yourself when you can't sleep.
- Exercise. A recent study showed exercise to be as effective as Zoloft (a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor or SSRI) in treating depression.[30] Exercise releases a natural anti-depressant chemical in your brain and gets you into doing something active. Start small with a simple walk to the local store or around the block, or to your garden gate might be the way to begin. Gradually work up to a routine that fits with your needs and enjoyment.
- Look for friends or group exercise sessions since having a partner will keep you more motivated. You can also look for sports that will allow you to release some of the pent-up emotions that may be built up such as kickboxing.
- Eat healthy. Reduce your intake of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, fast foods, and processed foods. Eat more fruits, vegetables and whole foods. Drink plenty of water and do some research on foods that are said to improve your state of mind and well-being. Improving your diet can be a positive project to keep you constructively occupied and focused when you're working through your depression.
- Restore any neglected grooming. It's can be easy to let yourself go when depressed and to pay no attention to appearance and clothing. Reintroducing daily attention to grooming can help improve your mood and give you a sense of well-being. Get a new haircut or new clothes as part of cheering yourself up. And concentrate on the parts that you do love about yourself instead of fretting over what you don't like.[31]
Support and Healthy Relationships -
Find support among family and friends - Find a good doctor or therapist to work with. If you can't afford or gain access to one, find someone you can trust to share your feelings with as you learn to cope.
- Realize that some people will find this confrontational or upsetting if they're also feeling down, and others may be dismissive. You'll need to reach a decision yourself as to whether it's worth explaining things further with them, or whether it's just best to stay away from them until you're more resilient.
- Be willing to be honest about your irritability and reclusive behavior with those you trust. They need to know it's not personal, but that you need space or time out every now and then.
- Be around positive people. Talk with friends, family and colleagues who make you feel good and who are good to be around. Spend time with people who see the world in a positive way and ask them to share their visions, ideas, and approaches to life with you. Most positive people will be more than happy to reveal the things that help them keep upbeat and happy about their lives. Learn from them.
- Remembering that misery loves company. It can be incredibly hard to keep away from people as down and out as you're feeling, but do your best to avoid them. You won't be doing either of you a favor by confirming each others fears that the rest of the world is terrible.
Changing Your Behavior -
Find things you enjoy doing - Do a hobby you enjoy or think you'll enjoy. Immerse yourself in it. It doesn't have to be expensive or difficult. As long as it's interesting it will serve the purpose.
- Care for pets. The routine involved in pets needing to be fed, groomed, and played with can be very satisfying for a depressed person. This is especially so because pets don't provide a sense of judgment but return love and acceptance.
- Introduce structure into your everyday life. Make a schedule of what to do every day, no matter how mundane and gradually expand this as you start to feel better. It doesn't matter whether you work or not. A schedule can put some direction back into a day that might otherwise feel empty or aimless.[32]
- Do fun things and treat yourself. Feeling down feeds on itself and it soon becomes a catch-22 when you convince yourself that you don't deserve to enjoy anything. The antidote is to do things that you used to enjoy or that are fun for people around you - "one fun thing a day to keep the blues at bay".
- As with everything else, do this gradually. One fun thing a day, such as watching a beloved comedy or reading a funny book can give you a sense of fun for a while.
- Schedule positive events into your life. Go out to dinner, the movies or for a walk with friends.
- Take it slowly. If you used to enjoy gardening, plant a single plant. If you used to enjoy a long walk, take a short one. Gradually build up to more enjoyable experiences.
- Help others. This can be a good way of moving through your depression once it's under better control, and is often an ideal technique to use when your healing seems to have temporarily "plateaued." In helping other people going through hardships, you will be able to channel some of your sadness and inability to cope into ensuring that other people can. This removes the concentration from you to others, which can be good if you're prone to too much introspection.
- Don't overdo volunteering. If you become involved in charity or volunteer work and you feel exhausted or used up, that's a sign you're overdoing it or may not even be ready to be help others just yet. It doesn't mean you won't be able to do this, but it does mean take care of your own self first.
Changing Your Negative Thinking Patterns -
Negative thoughts breed... more negative thoughts - Change your thinking. As part of progressing, recognizing and defeating negative thinking patterns is a very important aspect to concentrate on. Cognitive behavioral therapy, psychotherapy, or other forms of psychological therapy are helpful when you're unlearning negative thinking and establishing patterns of thinking that support your self-esteem and increase your self confidence. While it is best to read up in this area and speak with someone qualified to help guide you through the ways to change your thinking, there are some important things to keep in mind.
- Acknowledge the feeling will pass. This can be a very difficult step, but it's vital because it helps you to start banishing thoughts of hopelessness.[33]
- List all of your good points. When you're depressed, it's easy to understate the positive things about yourself. Turn this around by listing everything that is good about you. Include achievements from the past and hopes for the future, however few or random they may seem. If you can't write this list, have a trusted friend or family member start one for you. This is a list to keep building upon as you work through your depression. Self-acceptance is a vital part of recovering from depression because you acknowledge that there are good things about yourself, but also that you cannot be perfect. This will help you stop judging yourself more harshly than anyone else.
- Make decisions, however small, and act on them. Again, while this is very difficult to do during depression, it is a vital element in facing the sense of helplessness that tends to overwhelm depressed persons.[34] Small decisions like getting out of bed, calling friends or cleaning up the kitchen all add up. Once you act on them, they become achievements.
- Learn how to replace faulty thinking by focusing on it. Ask questions such as: Am I assuming the worst? Am I condemning myself because something bad has happened? Am I focused on my weaknesses rather than my strengths? [35] It is helpful to arrange the negative thought in one column and a rationalization in another column, so that you can confront and undo the negative thinking.
- Learn assertiveness techniques once you've challenged the harder aspects of your negative thinking processes. Assertive techniques will allow you to find a pathway to standing up for yourself without giving in to feelings of anger, fear, or powerlessness. Knowing how to assert yourself is an important part of not falling back into depressive patterns in the future.
- Look for the good. Sit back and try to find the good in your life. Whatever it is, it is something worth finding. Return to this list regularly and continue to update it. In your initial recovery, it might have one or two things such as "my house" or "my spouse." Over time, it should grow as you start to experience the more joyful side of life again.
- Replace unhappy thoughts with memories of happier times. You are in control of what you're thinking about. Make the choice to prefer the positive, happier memories over the unhappy thoughts.
- Change the way you talk. Alter the language you use to help yourself look at things more positively. By saying "at least...," this turns a negative into a positive. Other examples include rather than regretting something and feeling a failure, ask yourself, "What have I learnt from this?"
Other Possibilities -
Art therapy is one possible recovery aid - Music is a form of self-help therapy that is known to change mood. Choose music that improves your mood. If you must listen to sad music, switch to more upbeat music after a few songs or tunes.
- Art therapy is another common alternative practice for depression.[36] Draw, paint or create designs that unleash your feelings on a canvas or paper. There are qualified art therapists who can assist you if needed.
- Pet therapy can help. Pets prevent a sense of isolation, they don't judge, and studies have proven that they induce a feeling of well-being in people who are depressed.[37] Even if you don't own a pet, try to get access to someone else's on a regular basis and spend time with them.
The Way Forward -
Look forward to the future and know that you're amazing - Accept that depression may return. Once you're affected by depression, your vulnerability to it can mean it has a higher chance of returning in your life if you don't manage its causes well. Recognize the warning signs and take constructive actions to deal with it earlier on before it starts. Aim to minimize its impact and duration.
- Talk with other people who are experiencing depression. When you've passed through depression, you can help others to work through it too. Reassure them that what they're experiencing is real, worthy of treatment and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
- Avoid comparing yourself to other people. Compare yourself to you at your lowest point in the past and think about what's better now. If you think you're at your lowest point ever, then imagine one small thing (the tiniest thing you can think of) that you know you can make better.
- Make your sleeping room as dark and quiet as possible. Any noise or light disturbances will often be enough to awaken or prevent sleep for a depressed person.
- Have beautiful surroundings. Remove the things from your life that upset you or bring you down. It might be as simple as removing clutter or as complex as redecorating. Brighten up a dark room or let in more fresh air. Let some of the outside world bathe your inside life.
- Keep your alarm clock by your bed, but away from you. This will make you get up enough to check the time. Use the very act of rising physically to check the clock as a reason to get up completely and proceed to the bathroom.
- If the counselor you're seeing isn't helping, don't be afraid to try a different one. It can take a while to find someone that is suited to your particular needs. Look for someone who specializes in your problem area.
- Change your life. Often times depression results from a deep-rooted desire to be in a different situation than you are right now. If you don't like living with your parents well into your 20s, move out of your house. If you don't like your city, move to a different one. If you don't like your job, find a new one. Allowing uncomfortable, unsuitable, or untenable situations to control you is a way of living life in an unhappy fog. Take the initiative to change what isn't working. It will be hard, but staying in a rut is even harder.
- Sometimes not connecting with your therapist can be a good thing. It might actually be that your therapist is telling you things you don't want to hear or projecting things about yourself you don't much like.
- Reduce your stress levels. Stress both nourishes and harbors depression, exacerbating any tendencies to react in a depressed way to life's problems and providing ongoing fuel for sustaining depressed thinking. Learning to deal with stress constructively in the future increases your chances of preventing depression and remaining resilient in the face of pressures.
- If you find therapy a little strange, try seeing the therapist as a non-judgmental great aunt or uncle on whom you can unload all of your feelings without getting back any negative commentary. It does you good to offload thoughts to another person, and if you can't find that person among your circle of friends or within your family, a therapist is a sound and confidential substitute.
- For many people, having something to believe in makes an enormous difference to their emotional and spiritual well-being.[38] Turning to your existing faith, a new one, or finding a cause you believe in might be a pathway to finding your way out of the darkness and into renewed purpose. If you believe in a religious faith, you may find solace in praying, meditating or reading holy texts. Consult a local religious leader in your community with any questions. If you're not religious, try reading a book of philosophy or a self-help book.
Edit Warnings - Depression can often lead to self harm and suicide. Although both of these may seem like the only possible options when you're at rock bottom, remember all the positive outlets and choices available like talking to people, getting support and seeking professional help. At the very least, think of all the others you will hurt by leaving them behind.
- Leaving depression alone in the hopes that time will heal it all is the worst possible thing to do. The longer you leave getting help, the worse the depression will become and the harder it will be to self-help. Most, if not all types of depression will simply intensify over time. If you realize you may be or are definitely suffering from depression, get help immediately.
- When finding a person to help you with depression, always ask to see their qualifications and understand the differences between the different types of therapists. If one type of therapy doesn't suit you, you may need to change either the therapist or the type of therapy; keep trying until something clicks for you. Do not see it as a dead end or another hopeless situation you've ended up in!
Edit Related wikiHows
Edit Sources and Citations |  |
--4.jpg)
--4.jpg/200px-5-stages-of-grief-(Depression)--4.jpg){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment