Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Cope With Severe Depression

Depression is a difficult illness to live with. It can leave you feeling hopeless, drained, stressed, and even suicidal. There may be times when things seem so dark that you can’t see a way out. Even if you feel like giving up, hang on because there are ways to cope.


Instructions


Cope With Severe Depression


1. Try to identify any things or situations that seem to trigger or worsen your depression. Try to minimize these triggers as much as possible. This may mean having to cut some things out of your life, change jobs, or stop hanging around certain people. You don’t need any added stressors, as depression is stressful enough.


2. Talk with a professional therapist or counselor. They may be able to help you to better handle your depression by getting to the root of what it is that is making you depressed. While there may be external factors such as life changes, bad circumstances, or other unfortunate things occurring in your life, it’s also possible that an illness or chemical imbalance in your brain is causing your depression.


3. Speak with your doctor or psychiatrist about antidepressants. Antidepressants are helpful to some when it comes to dealing and coping with their depression. Not all antidepressants work for everyone so you may have to try different ones before you know which one works for you.








4. Get involved in a hobby to try to give you an outlet and something else to focus on. Taking part in different activities that you enjoy can help to relieve stress and bring you some enjoyment, even if it’s just temporary. Every little bit of positive energy helps.


5. Write in a journal. Journaling helps you to keep track of how you’re feeling from day to day and record any triggers that make your depression worse as well as any ways you’ve found to help you better cope with your depression. You can write down anything you’re not comfortable talking about with someone else.


6. Don’t isolate yourself from friends and family. A lot of times, people who are depressed want to be alone. It’s best if you can have people around you who will offer you support and lots of love. Try to be actively involved with friends and family. Even if you don’t feel like it, go out with them and try to enjoy yourself. Interacting with other people helps to focus your mind on things other than what’s bothering you.


7. Eat healthy, exercise, and be sure to get enough sleep. You want to keep a healthy body and have enough strength to help you to work on your mind. Proper diet, exercise, and adequate rest keeps us in good shape and gives you energy. Since depression can sometimes drain your energy, you want to practice good habits so you can better cope. Feeling good physically will help you to cope mentally.

Tags: your depression, better cope, Cope With Severe, Even feel, Even feel like, feel like, friends family