HELP WITH DEPRESSION

Depression isn’t just sadness or joylessness; it’s a lack of physical, emotional and psychic energy that combines with a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, then liberally sprinkled with self-hatred. There’s some cognitive distortion with depression too – people misperceive themselves as having fewer choices, and being more narrowly restricted than they really are. Depression is very commonplace, and it’s even estimated that over 50% of office visits to the doctor are really because of depression.

Here are some suggestions for what to do for depression:

• Medication can be a big help in jump-starting the healing if you’re so much in the pits that you don’t have the energy for anything else. It can make a huge difference and really get you rolling. But it’s important to see a psychiatrist or physician who’s up on the latest anti-depressants – there is quite an array, and chances are something will help that won’t cause too many side effects for your system. But you need somebody who knows this stuff, and most internists or GP’s don’t. Often people are under- or over-medicated, or don’t wait long enough to let the stuff work. Once you’re rolling and begin doing some of the other things on this list, you can probably start reducing your dosage.
• Counseling or therapy can be a huge help here, even if the depression is biochemically based, because it has such an erosive effect on work performance, relationships and confidence. A good clinician can be just the right kind of sounding board to help get you back your perspective and return you to balance.
• Try to make yourself get up in the morning and avoid sleeping in, even though, if you’re depressed, you won’t feel like it. Getting up and moving around helps fight depression; sleeping late feeds it.
• You need to reduce your intake of carbs, and especially sugar, while amping up the protein. Again, it feels counter-intuitive, because if you’re depressed you’re going to want that quick charge of energy that sugar and simple carbs provide; but that very same jolt of sugar floods the bloodstream, spikes, and then causes a crash, leaving you more depressed than ever. The same is true for caffeine and alcohol.
• The more you can move and exercise, the better off you’ll be. Don’t forget, depression is blocked or dead-ended energy, and you can get it moving again by literally moving more. (And, yes, if you’re depressed, you won’t feel like it, but it will make you feel palpably better afterward.)
• If your depression is seasonal or fed by lack of light, those special lamps that imitate the sun’s rays are available at many clinics, mental health centers and private practices. A half hour a day under those rays can make a big difference. If you can afford it, buy your own set.
• Let your more reliable friends, family and/or support system at work know that you need extra support, concern, encouragement or sensitivity (as long as it doesn’t get you in trouble or create a new set of problems for you). If you haven’t already worn them out or frustrated their efforts to help you in the past, the right people will come through for you. But do be smart about whom you talk to, and don’t try to get blood from a stone.
• Try to catch yourself at negative self-talk, criticism, scolding and name-calling, and instead deliberately change your internal voice to say something positive, encouraging and kind. I know it sounds hokey, but it works, (even if you think it’s hokey) and it’s an important skill to learn for healing depression.
• Try to force yourself to keep up your schedule, meet your responsibilities and stay active. But if you just can’t hack it now and then, forgive yourself and try to be kind and nourishing to yourself.
• Listen to guided imagery and other low-demand self-help strategies on a regular basis. It can make a huge difference – we hear this all the time. We have many titles that might help, starting of course with Combat Depression. But Ease Grief, Healthful Sleep (depression usually impairs sleep), Anger & Forgiveness and our Affirmations can all be very helpful here. Try one and see if you respond well to it. If you do, listen to it ‘til you’re sick of it, and then try another.
• Other allied techniques that are powerful energy-boosters and terrific for depression would be Amy Weintraub’s Breathe to Beat the Blues, which uses the breath to rev your engines back to life; Suzanne Scurlock-Durana’s Healing from the Core, which uses energy work and guided meditation to do the same; and Michael Reed Gach’s CD, Increase Vitality, which uses his technique of Acu-Yoga to get the job done.

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