If you have a mood disorder that involves depression, just getting through the day and taking care of the business of life can seem like too much. The irony of depression is that it leaves you exhausted and unmotivated, which gets in the way of your ability to recover, which makes your depression worse. It’s a vicious cycle.
There’s a good chance, as you read the following tips, that they will include things that you just plain don’t feel up to doing. Your goal should be to pick one healthy mood management activity to do that you really don’t feel like doing every day. Over time, hopefully you’ll feel like doing more, and these will become tips for keeping yourself from relapsing or getting worse.
Whatever kind of treatment you are receiving for depression, it won’t work if you don’t cooperate fully. If you are working with a doctor or therapist, it is crucially important that you honestly tell them how you are doing. If you’re the sort of person who reflexively answers “fine” whenever someone asks how you are, this may take some work on your part. But these folks can’t help you if they don’t know for certain how much help you need.
Your doctor or therapist may give you “homework” or “assignments” to complete at home. Do them – they are high priority. Even more importantly, if you are learning new skills or ideas in therapy, try your best to use them in everyday life. There is no magic wand to make your depression go away – you have to help yourself with your therapist or doctor’s support.
If you don’t like your treatment or think it’s not helping you, tell your therapist or doctor that. You are the expert on you, and they should be taking your needs and wants into account. This doesn’t mean you’ll always get your way – remember, they have some expertise to share, too – but you are entitled to express your opinion and understand your options.
It can take up to six weeks for medication to build up in your system and start to help you feel better. If you don’t take it every day, it won’t work. Even after you start to feel better, you need to keep taking it until your doctor says it’s OK to stop. If you want to stop, have weird side effects or dislike it, let your doctor know. Stopping or switching medication may be an option for you, but stopping by yourself can cause withdrawal symptoms, relapse and other side effects.
If you have a bipolar disorder, you should know that, statistically, people with bipolar disorder are the most likely of all patients with mental illness to not take their medication properly. That’s because a little touch of mania can make you sure you don’t need them. Watch out for that – a relapse is bad news.
When you’re feeling lousy, alcohol, marijuana and other substances may feel like an incredible relief. You might also be using them to help you sleep, since insomnia is common in depression. The effect, however, is only temporary. Worse yet, when those drugs wear off, you may well find you feel even worse than you did before. Street drugs and alcohol do nothing to help with the underlying causes of depression, so don’t use them to sooth your mood.
Exercise releases natural endorphins, a chemical in the brain related to pleasure. Getting regular exercise helps many people with depression feel better, and those with a history of depression keep a stable mood.
Changes in appetite are one of the symptoms of depression. You may feel like eating close to nothing or binging on junk food. But remember that depression is a physical as well as a psychological phenomenon. Your body needs healthy food to deal with it effectively. What’s more, processed sugars and other highly refined foods may depress your system, making your moods worse. Lack of certain vitamins has also been shown to negatively impact mood.
While you may not be able to force yourself to eat a “normal” amount, make sure what you are eating is healthy. Take a vitamin supplement. Make sure you get enough calcium.
A big chunk of battling depression is recognizing the difference between things that are true and things that you believe are true because you’re depressed. The more you can say, “That’s the depression talking,” the better off you’ll be.
You may have noticed there are particular things you tend to think or tell yourself when you’re depressed, such as “I’m no good” or “I’m such a failure.” Once you’ve identified those, practice Thought Stopping. This is a simple technique – when you notice yourself thinking those things, tell yourself to stop. Tell yourself that those thoughts are coming from your depression and not from reality.
This might feel silly the first few times. You may find you’re telling yourself the thoughts aren’t based on truth, but truly believing they are. That’s OK. Keep practicing. Thought Stopping is a skill, and like any other skill it requires practice.
If you notice your mood getting worse, and particularly if you are having thoughts of hurting or killing yourself or anyone else, tell someone – your doctor or therapist, a friend, a parent, a teacher, or anyone else you trust. You do not have to feel so bad, and you need to let other people help you. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Let people know.