Practical Actions
Symptoms of depression can include feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness, and they can make anyone feel like there is no use in getting out of bed. Here are some practical things you can do-
See a Doctor!
Firstly, please go and see your doctor and ask for some bloodwork on your hormones. There are many hormones that when out of ideal range can lead to feelings of sluggishness and apathy. So please before asking for medications, make sure that it’s not your adrenal glands that causing all the problems.
Small change can have a big effect.
There is no need to change everything to feel a little better. Creating new habits is a hard task so be patient with yourself. Changing everything can be a set up to feeling overwhelmed and exhausted and then disheartened when a relapse inevitably occurs.
Keep a Journal/Log
We are not the best remembering our feelings unless that are really intense. Keeping a log of how you feel on a daily basis can be a good way of seeing how things change. No one is asking you to write the next great novel, so even if you score your day on a scale of 1-10 of how good you felt, that would be a good start and something tangible to reflect on.
Food affects how we feel
Food really does have such a big impact on how we feel, even seeing our food come towards us in a restaurant makes us feel elated. Again small change can be powerful. Try experiments, cut out sugar for a week and see if it makes a difference to your mood, and then do the same with gluten. If you start out with these small changes and they lead to positive difference you are on the right track, keep going and if you have a slip or a relapse, its ok, just pick yourself up and try again.
Be with friends, Don't isolate!
A hard and very beneficial action to take during a depressive episode is to be around people. Choose people who are kind and will let you just be yourself, happy or not. AA Milne’s Eeyore was never excluded by his friends and wasn’t expected to be anything other than his dysthymic self. Being around others can be a monumental task, but it can help reduce the sense of isolation that is so prevalent during depression. A depressive episode doesn’t last forever and being with people can shorten the length and reduce the intensity of an episode and when it’s over you will not have cut yourself off from those who love and care for you.
BE KIND TO YOURSELF!
Lastly, and I cannot stress this enough, BE KIND TO YOURSELF! The messages you give yourself matter, and they impact how you feel. If you have a bad day, allow yourself to have a bad day and don’t make the day harder than it already is by saying mean and cruel things to yourself. What can help is carry a picture of yourself as a child, and treat yourself the way you would treat this young version of yourself. Be gentle and patient and kind with your thoughts, actions and words.
Firstly, please go and see your doctor and ask for some bloodwork on your hormones. There are many hormones that when out of ideal range can lead to feelings of sluggishness and apathy. So please before asking for medications, make sure that it’s not your adrenal glands that causing all the problems.
Small change can have a big effect.
There is no need to change everything to feel a little better. Creating new habits is a hard task so be patient with yourself. Changing everything can be a set up to feeling overwhelmed and exhausted and then disheartened when a relapse inevitably occurs.
Keep a Journal/Log
We are not the best remembering our feelings unless that are really intense. Keeping a log of how you feel on a daily basis can be a good way of seeing how things change. No one is asking you to write the next great novel, so even if you score your day on a scale of 1-10 of how good you felt, that would be a good start and something tangible to reflect on.
Food affects how we feel
Food really does have such a big impact on how we feel, even seeing our food come towards us in a restaurant makes us feel elated. Again small change can be powerful. Try experiments, cut out sugar for a week and see if it makes a difference to your mood, and then do the same with gluten. If you start out with these small changes and they lead to positive difference you are on the right track, keep going and if you have a slip or a relapse, its ok, just pick yourself up and try again.
Be with friends, Don't isolate!
A hard and very beneficial action to take during a depressive episode is to be around people. Choose people who are kind and will let you just be yourself, happy or not. AA Milne’s Eeyore was never excluded by his friends and wasn’t expected to be anything other than his dysthymic self. Being around others can be a monumental task, but it can help reduce the sense of isolation that is so prevalent during depression. A depressive episode doesn’t last forever and being with people can shorten the length and reduce the intensity of an episode and when it’s over you will not have cut yourself off from those who love and care for you.
BE KIND TO YOURSELF!
Lastly, and I cannot stress this enough, BE KIND TO YOURSELF! The messages you give yourself matter, and they impact how you feel. If you have a bad day, allow yourself to have a bad day and don’t make the day harder than it already is by saying mean and cruel things to yourself. What can help is carry a picture of yourself as a child, and treat yourself the way you would treat this young version of yourself. Be gentle and patient and kind with your thoughts, actions and words.
