Knowing that you are under the spell of depression can be one of the hardest realities to swallow. But you are lucky if you are able to self-assess this problem as millions of people around the world aren’t able to do so. You suddenly tend to start feeling loneliness and hollowness in your life. Your purpose of life seems all lost. You start to experience sporadic instances of anxiety, fail to focus on tasks and your relationships start falling apart. Negative thoughts start ruling your mind and life seems to be a miserable episode that has no end.
If you have started witnessing the triggers such as frequent mood swings, loss of appetite, sudden outburst of anger it is important for you to regain control over your emotions. While there are medicinal and therapeutic treatments for depression, there are still several ways in which you can deal with this problem without having to consult a psychotherapist. Let us take you through seven tips that will help you cope up with depression –
#1 Stop Craving for Validation
One of the root causes of depression is looking for validation. While you must live your life following the established logic, reasoning and societal norms you shouldn’t always look for acceptability in everything you do in life. For instance one of your acts may not be acceptable to everyone around you and that isn’t reason enough to start feeling depressed. The moment you stop looking for validation in every act you perform, you will feel better. The point here is you should be happy and honest about what you are doing rather than looking at appreciation from all quarters.
#2 Look At the Broader Picture
Depression often results from overthinking on issues and looking at things from a restrictive point of view. In other words you often end up looking at things through a myopic lens. They are judging me, nobody cares about me, and they will never be able to appreciate all that hard work I do. These thoughts surround you in a sea of negativity where you lose out on the objective view to life. You aren’t always WRONG and neither are people around you. When you are able to look at things from their perspective and also start accepting divergent views on the same matter, you will be at peace with yourself and not sink into spells of anxiety and overthinking.
#3 Relive happy days
You weren’t born depressed, surely not. You have lived through happier times when and shared great memories with your parents, siblings and friends. Now as your life seems meaningless and you are unable to find peace it would be a worthy idea to relive your happy memories. Think about the happy times in your life and the reasons behind your happiness. Flip through the old pictures on your old albums or scroll through the images on your computer. It is magical, it works like an antidote to your depression and would free you of the shackles that you have tied yourself to in recent days.
#4 Start practicing meditation
Meditation has for ages been one of the best cures for depression. Meditation is one of the best ways to get rid of the negative energy inside your body. You will be able to bring your body, mind and soul to a state of equilibrium. It helps in targeting the root cause of depression i.e. stress and anxiety. Scientific research has shown that meditation targets those areas of your brain that is responsible for causing depression. When you are engaging in meditation regularly you will be able to train your mind in achieving sustained focus. It helps in dealing with negative thinking, emotions and anxiety.
#5 Start writing down your thoughts
Depression puts your mind through extreme stress and one of the best ways to let that stress out is by writing down your thoughts. There are many things you’d want to tell people, perhaps even yell at them. Avoid hurting your relationships in your fit of rage and instead pour out all that anger on a piece of paper or typing it on your smartphone. This is a tested way of getting rid of overwhelming emotions. Read them later and you’d perhaps realise that your anger was a result of your myopic way of looking at things as we have discussed earlier.
#6 Start exploring what you are good at
Depression and self-pity go hand in hand. The more you are depressed, the more you start looking at yourself from the prism of self-pity. You suddenly start feeling you aren’t good at anything. This is more likely the case when you have suffered a huge setback in your career or something you have been pursuing with determination. There isn’t a soul on earth who isn’t good at nothing. You might play the guitar better than your peers; have exceptional culinary skills or be good at painting. You need to explore those and start appreciating your own skills. This helps in unwinding your mind and draining negativity out of your system.
#7 Go out and explore the world
You perhaps don’t even realise how fresh breeze of air hitting your face serves as a magical cure to depression. This is why you need to go out and explore the world instead of cocooning yourself to a cramped space that only leads to increased bouts of depression. Go backpacking to new places, meet new people and experience new cultures. It is one of the best therapies and it will help you leave behind all the places, memories and elements that trigger depression. You will return relaxed and rejuvenated, able to look at your life more objectively.
Try the above things and you are likely to feel better about yourself and be able to cope up with depression and negativity. If you aren’t able to beat depression and feel it is getting worse you need to immediately get in touch with a psychologist. If not treated through medication or therapy this condition can turn acute and often pushes people to a point of no return.
Furthermore, we know that it’s kind of hard to tell anyone about this mysterious condition but please remember that you are not alone in this. You can get professional help in a very confidential way as there are online chat rooms available where you can talk to a counselor directly through the video conferencing, phone call or even visiting their place. There are several support groups that offer free chat help for depression where you can share your thoughts with them and they will guide you on everything.
So, don’t worry and always remember, you are not alone in this and everything is going to be fine.
