Lifestyle Changes: In addition to medication and therapy changing some of your negative behaviors and habits can help with treating depression.
Get a Routine: When you’re depressed your days become similar in their lack of enjoyment and hard to distinguish from one another. Setting a daily schedule can help you get active and become involved with your life. Your routine could include: getting up at the same time every day, scheduling an activity for each night of the week, and making one phone call a day to a supportive friend or relative.
Set
Goals: A major symptom of depression is the sense you
can't accomplish anything and because of that you feel bad about yourself.
Setting small daily goals such as making the bed, taking a shower, or going for
a walk can help. By completing small contrary acts you’ll feel better about
your abilities and in turn feel better about yourself.
Eat
Healthy: When you’re depressed the last thing you probably
want to do is eat healthy. Regrettably eating overly processed foods like fast
foods and sugary sweets may be adding to your depression. Processed foods
contain refined carbohydrates that have no nutritional value, and unhealthy
levels of sugar and salt. Clinical studies have found that a diet high in
refined foods impairs brain function and encourages depression. Eating healthy
foods has been shown to reverse these issues. What you eat directly affects
your brain and your mood.
Avoid
Drugs and Alcohol: People who suffer from depression
desperately want to alter the way they feel. Many turn to drugs and alcohol as
a solution. Unfortunately alcohol, tranquilizers, and opiates act as depressant
to your nervous system and make your symptoms worse. Amphetamines can give the
illusion they reduce depression, however the come down, the physical toll on
your body, and the withdrawal, result in an even worse depression. Adding drugs
to your already depressed system never helps.
Exercise:
Regular exercise boosts the naturally produced endorphins that your body uses
to help you feel better and less depressed. Endorphins interact with your
brain’s receptors and trigger positive feelings. Exercising, especially
outdoors and in sunlight, invigorates your body. You don’t need to compete in a
triathlon; something as simple as walking for an hour every other day can help
get your endorphins flowing.
Sleep:
It’s recommended you get 6 to 8 hours of sleep a night. But depression can make
it hard to sleep, and with too little sleep your depression can get worse. This
is where setting a routine can help. Try going to bed and getting up at the
same time every day. Do not take naps as they can alter your sleep schedule.
Sometimes, getting rid of the distractions you engage in at night before
sleep—watching TV, looking at your computer, or shopping on your computer—helps
to calm your mind and it’s easier to get a good night’s sleep.
Meditation: Stress and anxiety are major triggers for depression, and meditation has been proven to alter your reaction to those feelings. When you’re stressed the body produces a hormone called cortisol, and meditation lowers cortisol. During meditation your brain is also producing theta waves that usually only occur when you’re asleep, and alpha waves like when you’re daydreaming. When your body gets as relaxed as when it’s sleeping or daydreaming it starts producing dopamine; a neurotransmitter that’s released into your body during pleasurable situations. If you add all those together meditation is probably the best natural treatment for reducing depression.
Challenging Negative Thoughts: A lot of the work in treating depression is changing how you think. When you're depressed, you embrace worst-case scenarios and obsessively dwell on the negative. Challenging these negative thoughts is a common treatment for depression. You feel no one loves you, but what real evidence do you have? You think you’re a worthless horrible person, but is that really the truth? Try challenging these beliefs and ideas. When the thoughts come say, “no, we’re not doing this today.” When you’re telling yourself what a terrible person you are, think about how you would respond if a friend talked about themselves that way. You would probably tell them to stop being so negative. Apply the same logic to your own thoughts. It takes practice, but if you address the negative thoughts head on, don’t embrace them, or indulge, they’ll eventually become less persuasive.
The majority of people
suffering from depression will not see a doctor or a therapist or ask anyone
for help. Left untreated, depression can be detrimental to your mental and
physical health. The overall consequences are not worth the risk. If you are
depressed, feel that you may be depressed, or just can’t seem to find joy in
anything, it's probably time you talked with a professional Doctor.
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