Fight depression may be a tough opponent, but you’re tougher! With determination and a few tricks up your sleeve, you can set yourself back on a positive course in life. Check out the following ways to fight depression and can handily beat depression when it strikes.
7 Ways to Fight Depression Without Drugs
1. Get involved with a hobby. Something new that gets you thinking can really help divert the negative energy and thoughts that are directing you toward being depressed. Try something interesting and crafty or exciting and stimulating to get your mind geared to happier thoughts. It might help also if your new hobby involves new people and a change of scenery.
2. Seek out sources of laughter and inspiration. Even by yourself, the choices you make can have a big impact on depression; choose to watch a comedy rather than the evening news, or pick up a thrilling book rather than being gloomy. You already know what makes you happy, so actively seek it out until you find reasons for smiling!
3. Find a support group. Life gets everybody down at some point, and having people to talk to that feel the same way can really help. Find a gathering, either in person or online, where you feel you fit in and are comfortable discussing your feelings. Sometimes a stranger makes the best listener and can offer you the best advice.
4. Get fresh air. Staying indoors all day will only foster that cloudy mood; go outside and feel some sunshine on your face! Listening to nature or just the simple sounds of traffic in the neighborhood will perk you up a bit. Avoid cooping yourself up in your home, at any cost!
5. Take better care of yourself physically. Eating right and getting plenty of sleep are very important toward clearing depression; the better your body is functioning, the better your mind works. Try feeding yourself like a king or queen with loads of fresh fruits and vegetables, your favorite entrees and other items that give you strength and energy. Try yoga or meditation to help clear your mind and ease your thinking. You owe it all to yourself!
6. Be realistic to avoid disappointment. Setting yourself up for failure by having lofty, unreachable goals is a huge facilitator of depression, and we all do it at some point in our lives. Start a journal, featuring your accomplishments thus far, where you’d like to be in the future and realistic ways you can get there. Break big problems and big dreams into smaller parts, so you can put them within reach.
7. Ask for professional help if necessary. You are only human; whatever you are going through may be beckoning for professional intervention, and you’re probably not in a position to see that. It’s a small step from having the blues and being down for awhile to full-blown, clinical depression, fight depression. Make sure what you are suffering from isn’t more than you can handle, by talking it over with your physician, church leader or someone else you can depend on. A second opinion may be the first step in the right direction, and you deserve to be well and happy.
Fight depression works hard at bringing you down, so you’ve got to work harder at getting back up. Use these tips and whatever else you need to dust yourself off, pick yourself up and get back into enjoying life.