Depression is a very unpleasant disease. It interferes with living fully and enjoying life. Fortunately, depression can be cured. But you need to find the root cause first to deal with it better.
Causes Of Depression:
A lot of causes may play an important role in increasing the depression of a person, these include:
Genetics: People with genetic history of depression have higher risk of getting depression.
Substance Abuse: Most of the people who face clinical depression have substance abuse problems. These people face difficulty in rebuilding relationships after addiction problem and are left alone. This alienation further increases the depression of a person.
Abuse: Any abuse; physical, emotional, or mental can cause depression. These may be past events but they have an impact on a person’s mental health. Abuse can happen anywhere, whether it's at home or at work.
Serious Illness: Any serious illness can trigger depression
Severe Medication: Some medication can increase the risk of depression.
Personal Problems: Not able to find a job, not receiving support from family etc. can cause depression.
How To Identify If You Have Depression Or Not
For starters – we have a small test. How accurately do the following statements describe your condition?
- You feel miserable all the time. This continues for at least two weeks.
- Nothing really makes you happy, including hobbies, favorite food, and hanging out with friends. As if all the positive emotions were sucked out of you.
- You have no strength for anything. Sometimes you find it difficult even to get out of bed.
- You cannot properly concentrate on business and get tired very quickly.
- You are not able to think as clearly as before.
- It seems to you that life has suddenly lost its colors, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
- You often feel guilty and think about your own worthlessness.
Do you agree with most of the statements? The diagnosis is early, but you have every reason to suspect you are depressed. Here are some tips to help you get out of the black hole. You can also take a test to determine if you have depression
How To Deal With Depression
Half of the population of the world had to deal with depression once or twice in their lives. Here are some easy tips for the ones dealing with this problem.
- Don't Blame Yourself
“Come on, you have no reason to be sad. You're strong, finally pull yourself together." You hear such words from relatives, friends, and colleagues. Unfortunately, many still do not understand that depression is not just a bad mood or psychological immaturity, but a serious mental disorder that is accompanied by physical and biochemical changes in the brain.
Whatever the cause of your depression, it's important to understand that you are not to blame. It is a disease, not weakness, laziness, or lack of will.
- See A Specialist
When our teeth hurt, we go to the dentist. With a high fever, runny nose, and cough, we turn to a doctor. But for some reason, we are in no hurry to visit a psychiatrist, even if we understand that not everything is in order with our psyche.
If you are constantly crying and do not want to live, you need to go for a psychological therapy for depression. He will figure out what is really happening to you and prescribe appropriate treatment.
- Don't Give Up On Your Medications
If you have severe or moderate depression, your psychiatrist will most likely prescribe medication for you. No one can force you to take medication by force, but it is best not to ignore the doctor's advice. Do not be afraid that antidepressants will change your personality or cause addiction. The devil is not so terrible as it is painted.
In simple terms, people suffering from depression have hormonal imbalances in the brain. The task of drugs is to restore it, in particular, to increase the level of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. The body will rebuild itself and in the future will maintain balance on its own.
- Identify The Source Of Stress
The limbic system of the brain is responsible for emotions. It reacts to danger, releasing stress hormones into the bloodstream, and forcing you to make a "fight or flight" decision. It is an important biological mechanism for survival. However, it is not designed to keep you stressed all the time.
In chronic stress, the limbic system beeps without stopping, and this failure can lead to depression. To heal, you need to turn off the continuously screaming signaling in your brain.
- Watch Your Thoughts
When depressed, we become hostage to automatic negative thoughts. They only appear to be true, but in reality, they are false beliefs.
Coping with depression requires changing the mindset that erodes you from the inside out. The next time you start labeling yourself, predicting horrors, or reading other people's minds, remind yourself that these are just distortions of perception.
- Use Energy Sparingly
With depression, performance decreases. You get tired very quickly. Motivation and rationale thinking suffer. Every action that a healthy person does not cost almost any effort is given to you with great difficulty. What you could do in an hour before can now take a whole day or even two. How to survive this period with the least loss?
Try to keep only the most important things on your to-do list. Cancel meetings that drain you of energy, give up unnecessary part-time work, and ask loved ones to take on household chores. In addition, planning in itself Calms The Nervous System.
- Top Up Your Bank Account
Imagine that your mental energy is a bank account. Then everything that you do during the day can be divided into two categories: income and expenses.
Expenses are, for example, getting ready in the morning, work, or household chores. Income - laughter, reading, food, movement, and sleep. If you are overtaken by depression, you need not only to spend your resources more economically but also to replenish your account more often. There are many ways to restore your energy balance. Here are a few of them.
- Physical activity
- Warm bath
- Meditation
- Communicate with those who recharge your batter
Summing Up:
We usually don't seek social contact during depression. At the same time, we still need support. We suggest this strategy: limit communication with people who seem to suck the energy out of you, but look for people who can support you morally. Communication in an online group, where people share their ways to cope with depression, can also bring relief.