How To Deal With Depression

When you can’t feel anything anymore, life feels hopeless, and every waking thought is negative no matter how hard you try to snap out of it, there are ways to feel better again.

I’ve been there myself. When you’re not depressed you’re a completely different person.

You enjoy doing things, life has meaning, and you get excited about what life has to offer.

I’ll share some information that has helped both me and countless others in times of depression.

Proven Strategies for Improving Mood

1. Concentrate on doing rather than thinking.
2. Do a task that is meaningful or used to be meaningful.
3. Go to a new environment with new faces and scenery.

Act Rather Than Think

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut if you don't know how to deal with depression… laying in bed or watching TV, ruminating on what you don’t have, past failures, and broken relationships.

When you go about actively doing something, whether it’s fixing your car, playing with your kids, or doing something meaningful for someone else, it helps break the cycle of negative thoughts.

You may not enjoy it at the beginning, but by doing something rewarding you start the cascade of pleasurable reinforcement... something that is absent in depression.

Actually, depression is essential the absence of pleasure/happiness. By getting the ball rolling and doing something you enjoy, you break the cycle, which in turn allows you to think more effectively as well.

An example from myself… I had been suffering from depression since I was 17... I am now 32. There’s a strong genetic tendency for depression in my family. My father and sister are on disability due to depression and my grandmother committed suicide.

I had always wanted to do something meaningful with my life and have a career that challenges me both creatively and intellectually, and this website is an extension of that.

I spent almost a year neglecting this website working at a stressful job I didn’t like. I would think about writing pages but never get around to it. This would make me terribly depressed.

Just the act of starting to write and the final completion of a page would totally turn around my mood. I now try to finish one page a day.

It doesn’t always work out, but it’s a goal I’ve set for myself, and it’s made a tremendous difference in my life. It's helped me learn how to deal with depression.

My challenge to you is to find something meaningful you can do everyday that can be easily acted upon. Don’t worry about perfection, just do it. I am a recovering perfectionaholic… I know how it feels! :)

I started this page an hour ago without any set plan of what I was going to write. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes!

Do Meaningful Work With Your Hands

Since ancient times people have worked with their hands to provide food and shelter which was necessary for survival. Think of the pioneers that settled new landscapes hundreds of years ago.

It was a tough world not knowing what you were going to eat day by day, who you were going to meet, or what predators you may encounter.

They didn't have any specific strategies on how to deal with depression. They just did what was natural to them.

Your brain has been hard wired to find meaningful and essential work using your hands, to be rewarding. Without it, our ancestors would have given up and died off thousands of years ago.

Unfortunately in today’s society we don’t have to hunt for our meals, build shelters, or attend to our crops. With such time-saving conveniences such as already prepared meals, riding lawn mowers, and washing machines, not a lot of survival work is needed in our everyday lives.

Your mind may temporarily get past short periods without reward by sheer discipline, but over time the reward connections will deteriorate, resulting in less and less motivation.

Does that mean you have to kill your food, build a house, and drag a woman home by her hair? :) Well, not necessarily, although many men find great rewards in doing these things.

Recent research has shown hunting, fishing, playing sports, construction, and working on your car with friends as rated the most rewarding activities for men to engage in.

For men, they have been shown to be successful stratgies on how to deal with depression.

If you don’t enjoy these things I would suggest finding something else of personal value that requires using your hands like; painting/drawing/sculpting, playing an instrument, or a sport whether it’s bowling, darts, or whatever.

You know yourself best. Think back to when you were younger and the hobbies you enjoyed. Or perhaps try engaging in a new activity you’ve always wanted to try!

Explore New Environments

Another method on how to deal with depression is to get out to new places and meet new people.

If you’re stuck in an endless loop of negative thoughts, staring at the wall all day won’t exactly help things along. By doing something novel, these new experiences can help break the chain of negative thoughts.

Research has shown most people have 95% of the same thoughts as the day previous. I wouldn’t be surprised if depressed people were closer to 99%. By forcing yourself in to new experiences, it’ll help increase new thoughts you normally wouldn’t have had.

Your brain likes new experiences. They are stimulating and help produce feel good chemicals to improve mood. Think back to a new romance, a new job, a vacation, or living on your own for the first time.

If you’re like most people they were exciting times. Most likely a little scary as well, but the challenges and new faces helped motivate you to push ahead and get things done.

I’m sure you can think of some better examples that may be more suitable to yourself.

Hope and Depression

If you're still struggling on how to deal with depression after using these steps, the most important thing to remember is not to lose hope. Hope can help people through the darkest of times.

Knowing that something is temporary and will pass in time, that better times lie ahead, or that tomorrow will be better day, is comforting to the human soul.

The AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) motto “Take it one day at a time” helps with depression as well.

Remember you are not alone. I wish you happiness and greater times ahead.

If this article How to Deal with Depression has helped you, please let me know. It's nice to hear positive feedback. :)