Tips to Overcome / Deal / Fight Depression

Life is not a bed of roses. At one time or another, we may feel upset, lonely, or sad. These feelings are considered a normal part of human life. As long as the person is able to overcome them without having much effect on his/her life, it is normal, problems occur when these feelings are prolonged and they significantly impair individual daily functioning as they interfere with relationships, role functioning, etc.

Defining Depression / What is Depression

What actually depression is? We can say it is a state in which a person is so preoccupied with sadness that he/she is unable to carry out normal routine tasks, sleep and appetite may be disturbed, has difficulty concentrating and there may be feelings of guilt. (APA, 2013). Depression is known as a common cold of psychiatric disturbances.

Ways to Overcome Depression / Fight Depression

Overcoming depression is not easy but at the same time, it is not impossible. Some types of depression require clinical attention, while other types of depression can be overcome by following simple wonderful tips.

Daily Schedule of Exercise

An active body is more able to overcome depression, so a person should make a schedule for daily exercise even if it is for 10-15 minutes. By giving time and attention to yourself, a person is less likely to become a victim of depression.

https://researchpedia.info/tips-to-motivate-yourself-to-exercise-work-out/

Goal Setting

Until and unless a person him/herself is motivated to get out of depression, nobody else can help. Start with small goals, try to build your interest in that goal, once you have accomplished it, then set a slightly higher goal. In this way move progressively from small to large goals. Key point is that you need to reinforce yourself after the set goal has been accomplished in order to avoid being fatigued.

Mindfulness Skills

Mindfulness is that you accept your thoughts, and feeling without judging them. Learning mindfulness skills like breathing, meditation, and yoga help individual overcome depression, it prevents relapse.

Distracting Yourself

Since in depression is person’s mind is occupied by a negative pattern of thinking, so one best tip is to distract yourself in one way or another like start reading an interesting book, or by engaging in some activity.

Adequate Sleep

Sleep is a natural mechanism that refreshes your body, so getting an adequate amount of sleep is good for your body and mind. Even if you are unable to sleep just try to relax.

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Support Group

Joining a support group will enable a depressed individual to feel better because, in such groups, individuals from a variety of backgrounds share their feelings and thoughts which reinforces the individual that he is not alone who is undergoing suffering but a number of people also share the same problem. Basically, such groups instill a feeling of hope in individuals.

Challenging Yourself

Acceptance that one is suffering from a particular problem is the first step towards recovery. So a depressed individual needs to first identify what basically is, that is making him depressed, one’s identified he needs to challenge it and at the same time provide an alternative for that thing. Like if particular thought like I am a failure is making you feel depressed, then you should challenge it by providing proof to yourself that you are not a failure.

Socialization

Interacting with people, having chat with them also helps a lot. If socializing with people is not possible, then keeping a pet, taking care of it is also a good alternative.

Exposure to Sunlight

Since in depression person mood is gloomy, an interesting fact is that exposure to sunlight is effective in overcoming depression. Light has a positive effect on your mind. Less the amount of light, the higher will be the depression level is.

Freedom of Expression to Yourself

Letting out your feelings, emotions, giving freedom of expression helps to prevent depression. If the person does not express him/herself, these negative feeling will build up inside a person. When the threshold for tolerance will end, all these accumulated feelings will burst just like a volcano eruption. This exposition will lower down the individual’s self-esteem.

Do things that make you feel good

Try to do the things that make you feel both good and happy. This will helps you a lot to overcome your depression and stress. When you do your favourite things, it will automatically improve your mood. Here are some tips to follow to make you feel good and happy:

Exercise – This is one of the best ways to make you feel good and energetic.

Healthy diet – Food has a great impact not just on your physical health but also on your mental health.

Physical activity – Try to take part in physical activities such as jogging, running, swimming, and bicycling.

Go outside – Either it’s for shopping or for a walk, going outside relieves your stress.

Music – Listening to good music boosts your mood.

Spend time with your family and friends – Spending time with your favourite person always improves your mood.

Notice small blessings – Try to see those small blessings in your life and be thankful for them. Either it’s food on your table or roof on your head.

Me time – Try to take some time out for yourself from your busy and depressed schedule.

No more toxic people – Cut out those toxic people from your life who drains your energy and try to replace them with positive people.

Good sleep – Make sure to get good sleep and not oversleep or less sleep.

Things no to do

There are some things that aggravate your stress and depression. Try to avoid doing these things when you are depressed:

Keeping it secret – Reaching out to your loved ones and building a support system to help you in your struggle against depression is a wise choice, to begin with.

Avoid drinking alcohol – While drinking might help you numb what you are feeling right now but there’s a very high possibility of you becoming dependent on it the more you use it to numb your depression.

Isolate yourself – Depression may make you believe that you need to be on your own all the time and that no one wants to be around you. But in reality that isn’t true, there are people out there who care about you.

Blaming yourself – It can happen to just about anyone so don’t beat yourself up for feeling this way.

Neglect your self-care – Taking care of your physical health can make a lot of difference in helping you cope with your depression.

Give up hope – No matter how severe your depression make it always remember there is still hope that some day you will get better.

Conclusion

Truly said by Stephen Fry:

“If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather”. Do you have any other tip to remove depression?

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/coping-with-depression.htm