“Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes.” – William Gibson
We’ve all gone through depressive emotional states every now and again. Prolonged periods of sadness or a feeling of hopelessness.
But suffering from a real clinical depression is something entirely different.
Most of the times our feelings of being depressed are just emotions we have to go through, of red flags warning us to change something in our lives.
So before you diagnose yourself with depression, why not try a few of these things first and see if it makes any difference.
1. Exercise
Take a walk, Go for a run, do some push ups on your bedroom floor. Anything to get your blood pumping, even if it’s just a little.
According to BUPA Australia Health, Physical activity can help increase levels of the “feel good” chemicals in your brain like endorphins and serotonin.
In today’s society many of us spend our lives just sitting down.
Whether that be in the car, or at our work desk, or at home on the couch. It’s easy to forget to get up and get our bodies active, and just how much it can help better our mood.
2. Scream, Cry or SING your heart out!
Sometimes we just have to let all that emotions out of us in the form of loud unexplainable noises.
Screaming into a pillow or letting yourself have a good and messy cry might be the best thing to just let it all out.
But if you want to go for a more positive spin on the practice, signing your heart out to some of your favorite songs is a good way to release the tension and let all your emotions out in a similar way to screaming.
Preferably pick some songs with a lot of powerful notes for you to belt out all your emotions into!
3. Talk or Hangout with a Friend.
Every now and again we can get lost in the rat race of work and responsibilities. It’s easy to forget to make time to be with the people we care about.
We may wish that they would make the effort to call us first, especially if it’s been awhile. Remember, everyone is caught up in their own web of duties.
If we want to break through, sometimes we have to make the first effort.
It may feel awkward, but you’ll be amazed how just being around a close friend can turn your mood around.
4. Draw or Write
Finding a creative outlet for your emotions is a great way to get them out of your head and down onto some paper.
Bottling up your emotions are never a good idea.
That’s why writing or drawing out how you feel can be a constructive way to deal with your feelings.
It helps you release all that pent up energy and gives you a better sense of what it is you’re going through.
5. Clean your room/home
The spaces we live in are usually reflections of ourselves, for better or worse.
And when you get into a chronically depressive state, our homes can suffer.
We start to forget cleaning up after ourselves and our places to live just get keep getting messier.
This only further helps to re-enforce your bad mood by having a cluttered environment.
A 2010 study published in the scientific journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin used linguistic analysis software to measure the way 60 individuals discussed their homes.
Women who described their living spaces as “cluttered” or full of “unfinished projects” were more likely to be depressed and fatigued than women who described their homes as “restful” and “restorative.”
The researchers also found that women with cluttered homes expressed higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
This is why cleaning up your living area can do wonders for your state of mind.
6. Examine the people you surround yourself with.
There’s a great quote circling around the internet that says “Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self esteem, first make sure you are not, in fact, just surrounded by a**holes.”
And it’s completely true!
A lot of the times we think we’re depressed or worthless, it’s because we are surrounded by people who aren’t good for us. They might be emotionally manipulative, or not have your best interest in mind.
Either way, it’s a good thing to analyze the people you keep close to yourself. If they are bringing you more trouble than anything, it may be time to take them out of your life.
It may be hard, but it’s best for your mental health, to surround yourself with people who have a positive effect on your life.
7. Consider Counseling
Talking to a counselor can be a great way to cope with the things you are going through.
They can also help determine whether your emotions are a normal feeling, or if you’re dealing with something more serious.
A counselor then can refer you to a psychiatrist who is further equipped to deal with things like clinical depression and can prescribe medication.
Which if you are truly suffering from, may be the best thing to do for you.
BUT! before you do, make sure you try all these 7 things first.
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