Depression is characterised by persistent sadness and a loss of interest in activities that you normally enjoy, along with an inability to carry out daily activities for at least two weeks. People with depression normally have several of the following symptoms for at least two weeks: sadness, loss of energy, a change in appetite and/ or weight loss, sleeping more or less, anxiety, reduced concentration, indecisiveness, restlessness.
Do you think you might be suffering from depression? Here’s what to do.
- Talk to someone you trust about your feelings.
- Seek professional help. Your local healthcare worker or doctor is a good contact person.
- Remember with the right help, you can get better.
- Eat regularly and get adequate sleep.
- Stay connected. Keep in contact with family and friends.
- Exercise regularly, even if it’s just a short walk.
- Engage in meditation and mindfulness practices. Try a mobile app like Calm or Headspace.
- Accept that you might not be able to accomplish as much as you usually would. Break up large tasks into smaller activities.
- Avoid or restrict alcohol intake and refrain from using illicit drugs as they worsen depression.
- Expect your mood to improve gradually. Practice disputing negative thoughts and replacing them with positive thoughts.
- If you feel suicidal, seek help immediately.
Source: http://www.searo.who.int/srilanka/areas/depression_factsheet.pdf.
Reframe setbacks
- Setbacks = Success – People who’ve experienced 5-7 major setbacks have a higher quality of life and greater confidence to weather adversity. In fact those who’ve experienced adversity are better at appreciating life’s small pleasures and even more resilient to physical pain.
- Check your assumptions – Ask yourself if you have assumed a problem is personal, pervasive or permanent. It may in fact be none of those things.
- Focus on your values – Write about how tough experiences relate to your values (e.g. humour, creativity, accepting help) – it’s a powerful mind-set intervention which will boost happiness. Values-focused bracelets and key chains will help even more.
- Meaningful lives include stress – The people who say they are currently stressed also report having the most meaningful lives. Love, work, parenting and the pursuit of goals all involve stress.
- Stress helps – Stress boosts focus and can also encourage the production of the hormone oxytocin which can improve heart health.
- See stress as a tool – People who experience stress but reframe it as excitement (‘game on’ rather than ‘game over’) actually perform better than those who don’t feel stress at all. Viewing stress as a tool reduces stress-related symptoms like headaches and fatigue.
- Prepare – Prepare in advance for stressful situations – decide now what you would do if specific situations arise in future e.g. If X happens, I’ll do Y.
- Consider future you – Imagine a year or five years has passed since today. What advice would future you give yourself right now?
- Get perspective – Consider what a starving child would think about this problem.
- Dispute – Science says learning to argue with your own negative thoughts will have a big boost to your sense of wellbeing.
- Distance – Distance yourself from negative thoughts – instead of thinking ‘I’m sad/mad/etc.’, think ‘I’m having the thought that I’m sad’ or touch a place on your body and say ‘frustration is here’.
- Turn worry to action – Science says 85% of the stuff we worry about never actually happens and even when they do, 80% of us say we handled it better than we expected. So turn worrying into planning.
Try these coping mechanisms
- Meditate – Meditation is proven to aid depression, anxiety, and chronic pain.
- Exercise – It’s a proven remedy for both depression and anxiety. 30-minutes of brisk walking three times a week has been shown to be just as effective as medication in alleviating depression.
- Walk in nature – A study showed a walk in nature reduced depression in 71% of participants. 15 minutes can even help you resolve a minor problem in your life.
- Focus on your strengths – Using your signature strengths has been shown to decrease depression for 6 months! Write down 3 things you like about yourself. Ask yourself which of your character strengths you’re going to call forward.
- Join a reading group – Reading groups have been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and make participants feel more confident, talkative, ready to listen and interactive.
- Breathe – Sit up straight, with even shoulders, and breathe in deeply for a count of five, then exhale completely for a count of seven.
- Don’t vent – Contrary to popular belief, punching a pillow won’t help. Yelling and behaving violently actually fuels bad feelings. However, surprisingly, repeating bad words can actually provide relief! So murmur curses under your breath, don’t go into a rage.
- Change the setting – Researchers have found that a change of setting can break a spiral of negativity – so simply get up and leave the room, it could do you good.
- Find other people – Time with loved ones puts the brakes on stress caused by rumination (a toxic practice of dwelling on negative thoughts). So find your people and spend time with them.
- Help others – Helping people who are time constrained helps you feel better equipped to deal with your own time constraints, more so than trying to help yourself. When under stress, to feel better, help more not less.
- Consider your advice – How would you advise a friend on how to deal with this problem? Science says we typically give each other better advice than we give ourselves.
- Visit a happy place – If you feel anxious, think of a situation where you feel really happy and mentally visit that place. Tell yourself you are excited about this experience, and count backwards from five – it will trick your brain into thinking your agitated feelings are positive.
- Take a nap – New research indicates that napping may improve our frustration tolerance.
- Pride pose – Stand with your feet hip-width apart and hold your arms over your head – hold this pose for over two minutes – it will reduce cortisol and thereby stress.
- Distract – Distract yourself from negative thoughts – talk to a friend, watch a funny video, or visualise yourself navigating a familiar location. Science says it can provide major relief.
- Tetris – It might sound funny but science says playing Tetris soon after a bad experience can wipe away bad memories and protect your mood.
- Find the love – Look at photographs of people being loved or cared for, it can help reduce your own anxiety.
- Get grounded – Feeling anxious? Look around. Find 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste.
- Heat it up – Yale researchers discovered that people recalled fewer negative feelings about a past lonely experience when they were holding a hot pack. So have some hot tea, take a hot shower, or cuddle a hot water bottle.
- Blue light – Blue lighting is scientifically proven to help us relax faster when suffering from short-term stress. Consider turning your bedroom into a blue haven.
- Get a pet – Science says pets fight stress.
- Rewatch a favourite movie – One study found that people who just thought about watching their favourite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27%!
- Write – Writing about an unpleasant experience when we’re ready to process it can help us move on faster. Don’t worry about spelling, just let your thoughts flow. Writing a negative thought on a piece of paper—and then tossing it in the trash – can boost mood.
- Make art – Studies have shown that drawing and painting can improve mood and help you feel greater control over your life.
- Professional help – 68% of people say visiting a mental health professional was extremely or very effective.
Safe Zone 