Depression Self Help and Coping Techniques
Depression can be debilitating to you and devastating to your family and friends. A few depression self help and coping techniques can go a long way to help overcome these crushing feelings. It takes practice and a firm commitment to do what it takes, but it’s not impossible and when you succeed, you’ll have a new sense of accomplishment.
Simple changes to your lifestyle such as adopting a better and healthier diet, exercising (especially aerobic), not giving in to urges such as staying in bed rather than going to work or making negative food choices such as eating a hamburger and fries rather than a healthy meal will help build your willpower quotient so that it becomes easier next time.
You know that you should be taking care of yourself, but sometimes life gets in the way and you may be putting yourself last on the “needs me” list. If you don’t start taking care of yourself, you’ll eventually be unable to take care of others who need you. Not putting yourself first in line for rest, relaxation or anything else that can boost your mood is inviting depression into your body and mind.
When you participate in the care and feeding of relationships, you’re developing a self-help technique that can help you cope with feelings of depression on a regular basis. Depression self-help includes talking to friends and/or family members who support you, but you have to work on these relationships, and when you’re depressed it might be difficult just thinking about whom you should call or visit.
When you feel overwhelmed by “things” you have to do, separate them out into two categories – difficult and unattainable. It may be difficult to get out of bed, shower and get yourself to work, but it’s not impossible. Tasks put into the unattainable category might be saying “yes” to one more volunteer job this week. Picking and choosing what you’ll do will give you a sense of empowerment.
A great depression self help tip for coping with symptoms of depression is to begin slowly. The proverbial, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” is especially true when it comes to dealing with depression. Take baby steps on the road to recovery. If you don’t have a lot of energy on one day, don’t try and accomplish a lot. Choose one thing that you know you can do and do that. Forget about the rest of the stuff on your list.
Depression self-help can be a wonderful way for you to feel good about yourself and help overcome depression symptoms, but if you feel yourself descending deeper into the throes of depression and you just can’t seem to pull out of it, don’t hesitate to seek professional help.
Don’t forget to reward yourself for what you’ve accomplished. Write down those accomplishments and then look back periodically. You’ll find that you’ve accomplished much more than you thought you had.
Depression Treatments and Relief
