10 Best Tips to Deal with Depression

How to Deal with Depression

Dealing with depression is one of the hardest things that some people have to face daily. This is because depression puts a hamper on self and affects our quality of life to a great extent. To deal with depression means having the unshakable feeling that you are alone and that no one feels what you feel nor understand what you’re going through. This creates a constant feeling of loneliness and sometimes pushes people to end it all.

The good news is that depression is treatable, and you don’t have to keep living with it forever. Leaving depression unchecked can impact negatively your mental, physical, and psychological wellbeing. It is as a result of this that practical steps have to be taken to deal with depression every day.

10 Best Tips to Deal with Depression

I am here sharing some simple and workable ways to deal with depression on a regular daily basis.

Employ Writing as a Form of Therapy

Personally out of the 3 choices, I find this one is one of the best ways to deal with depression. Sometimes depression makes it difficult to navigate through everyday life and effectively express yourself. Writing your thoughts and feelings down on a piece of paper, writing pad, or journal is a great way to let out all the negative emotions.  This form of writing is called “Expressive Writing”, and it was primarily developed in the 1980s by James W. Pennebaker.

A major symptom of depression is the inability to convey emotions and let people know exactly how you feel. This can be taken care of if you treat your journal like a confidant. Write honestly about how you feel, what you want, and what you wish you could do. It’s okay if you don’t realize these things, but just putting them down on paper is greatly therapeutic and can help relieve all the pent-up stress.

Work on Boosting Your Self-Esteem and Confidence

Depression often goes hand in hand with low self-esteem and low self-confidence. It helps to look within and without yourself to find the best things about you that will help boost your self-esteem. Most times, this will call for a change in your everyday routine, and that is a step worth taking.

It is important to find your best features and take pride in them. Sometimes this will call for some diet change and an active workout regimen to change the parts of yourself; you don’t feel great about. It will also help you to hang around people who make you feel good about yourself.

A good way to boost your self-esteem is by listing out your achievements the things you feel proud about achieving. The list will serve to remind you of the things you are capable of accomplishing. Also, learn to look your best by dressing up in a way that makes you feel confident about your appearance.

Lean on Others

Having shoulders to lean on is one of life’s true delights. We were never meant to be alone, so there are a lot of things that having good people’s company can solve. Depression already creates a feeling of loneliness. And a good way to battle it is by intentionally being around your friends and family.

This effort must be deliberate because you need to be around the kind of people who love you and can uplift you. You can also identify with other people suffering from depression by way of joining a support group. It will help to be around people who are familiar with your symptoms and can share helpful ideas.

Get Enough Sleep

Your beauty sleep must never be joked with. Getting enough sleep and rest is beneficial in helping your mood, which in turn will make you feel good. It is a known fact that people suffering from depression either sleep too much or sleep too little. Hence it is important to get the required amount of sleep daily to help fight depression.

Get a good sleep schedule, and make sure to follow it, and don’t skip out on sleeping. Inadequate rest will cause a foul change in mood, which will not be good for treating depression. You also want to stop oversleeping, and a good way to stop is by having a healthy alarm habit. Set your alarm for when you need to get up and make sure not to hit the snooze button. You can also try to maintain a steady sleep routine so that even on your off days, you will avoid sleeping in.

Exercise

My second best choice to deal with depression is doing exercise regularly. Exercise has a lot of benefits and the best tip to deal with depression is one of them. Exercises are physical activities that have the ability to relieve stress and light up your mood.

Exercise helps to keep you in shape and give you the satisfaction of going through and completing a task, both of which can help greatly with boosting your self-esteem. You can dedicate 30 minutes a day to doing any form of exercise that relaxes you. This could be some cardio, bodybuilding, or even yoga exercises.

Spend Time Watching Funny Entertainment.

A good comedy can lighten even the darkest day. Devoting some time to watch a funny movie or reading an entertaining book can make you smile and laugh, causing you to come out of your gloominess, even if for just a moment.

Speak With a Therapist

This is one of the best things you can do in the quest for dealing with depression. Talking to a therapist is a good way to get professional help. A therapist will help you by giving you a safe space to express yourself and give you valuable advice on practical steps to take to treat your depression.

Think Positive Thoughts and Combat Negative Emotions

The mind is a very powerful weapon that can either work for us or against us. Depressive thoughts should be shunned and actively fought against. When thoughts like “I am not fine” and “My life is terrible” comes, it is important to fight against them and replace them with positive thoughts and emotions. Thinking positive is definitely the best way to deal with depression, as this is the regular positive affirmation to self about your good things in life.

This will be a deliberate action to fight against the negative emotions stemming from your mind because those emotions and thoughts are not the truth about you. You can make a long list filled with positive statements and you can read this list to yourself constantly. You can also choose to spend time with positive people who nourish your spirit and only makes you think about the pleasant things about yourself.

Go Out and Get Some Sun

Sometimes all it takes to add a little color to your day is to be out in the sun for a while. This is the natural way to deal with depression in life by using the natural resource given to us as a blessing by GOD. The healing effect of the sun is not a myth, as studies have exposed that the sun has the ability to improve our general mood. Multiple studies say that getting some sunlight every day boosts your serotonin level and improves your step-off Seasonal Affective Disorder. Sun exposure can also improve people with nervousness, anxiety, and depression along with the combination of other methods and treatments.

Spend Time Helping Others

The act of giving back or helping others is underestimated. The average person feels fulfilled when they can positively impact others. Some of the greatest thinkers who ever lived, such as Winston Churchill, Leo Tolstoy, and many more, have also believed that the greatest happiness is found when we help others. Multiple scientific research has indicated this to be correct. A good way to get out of your depressed state is by taking time out to help another feel good.

Conclusion

As mentioned earlier in this post, depression is completely treatable, and professional help should be sort apart from the remedies and methods stated above. You deserve to live happily, which is why you must take the necessary steps to better yourself. Endeavor to eat well because even though there has been no medical proof to show that any food can help cure depression, some healthy food can have a calming effect on you. Complex carbs like whole grain, as well as vegetables, fruits, and legumes are good places to start.

The above-mentioned tips are some of the great ways to deal with depression and even begin to treat it. Your mental health is important, so make the decision to help yourself today.

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Disclaimer: The content shared in this blog is based on personal experiences, observations, and self-understanding through research. The details provided here are to share my experiences with people, only for educational and informational purposes, and it is not a piece of expert professional advice to the reader. The details mentioned in this blog do not bind or compel any person to follow the methods given here. The intent to write and share this blog is to communicate some insights on the possible solutions and methods which can help people to get motivated and encourage them to start living a happy and healthy life.

Stay Happy and Healthy!!!