How To Overcome Depression
Depression is a disease that affects how you think, feel, and behave. It can range from mild to severe. Untreated depression has a variety of regrets.
The most common form of depression is Major Depression or Unipolar Depression and it's the one we'll be focusing on in this blog post. Depression can be caused by many different things including an illness like heart disease, diabetes, or cancer; certain medications; mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder; physical conditions like brain injury; chronic pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia syndrome or arthritis; and even not getting enough sleep at night because of work demands, among others.
If you're suffering from depression, it can seriously reduce your quality of life and make taking care of yourself difficult. Worrying about depression can also make it worse.
If you have symptoms of mild to moderate depression, I strongly recommend that you seek professional help by visiting a physician or therapist. Untreated depression can lead to suicide or other bad outcomes such as substance abuse problems, job loss or divorce.
The good news is that there are many treatments for depression and in most cases success is likely if you're willing to work hard at it. I've seen many people pull themselves out of this downward spiral we call depression and learn to live life fully again. It's not easy, in fact it can often feel impossible, but with the right approach and plenty of support you can succeed.
How To Get Your Depression Under Control
You may think that depression is something that happens to other people and there's nothing you can do about it. That's a false belief, in fact it's one of the biggest mistakes many people make when they're struggling with depression.
First of all, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) depression affects 30 million adults in the United States alone. That means there are a lot more than just a few people among us who get depressed from time-to-time.
And second, you can do something about it. But that means you'll need to get off your butt and start doing something about it. It's not easy, but if someone close to you has died or if you've been through a life threatening illness or a major upheaval in your life then it shouldn't feel very easy. If you're in a bad situation, getting out of it will be difficult. If you're in a good situation, staying on track will be difficult.
Why is it so hard? I'll tell you why soon, but first let me tell you about a simple way to overcome depression from someone who has struggled with depression in the past:
Putting in the time and energy to learn how to overcome depression is worth it because once you've learned how to do it then you can do it for life. And though some days may feel like battles, eventually things will start falling into place and your life will improve.
I know that feeling well and for years there's been a war going on inside of me and I was fighting it every day with various depression treatments and various other things. But now that I've found a way to deal with my depression I'm able to live life again.
Get Ready For Battle
Depression is a war that you can win and the sooner you accept that then the better off you'll be. Don't think of it as something you have to suffer through, instead view it as a war that you're going to win by beating your enemy when they least expect it. Depression will not be easy to beat so don't underestimate its power.
Depression has many faces and tricks up its sleeve and one of the things people do when they're depressed is think about how bad their situation is.
Ask yourself the following questions:
What's the worst thing you've ever experienced in your life? What do you think about your life and how bad it is? How are you doing in comparison to other people who are in similar situations? How bad could this get, really? Are you ready for battle? Will you be ready when battle inevitably comes along? If not, what will it take to get you ready.
Some difficult battles take a while to get ready for so don't expect to be instantly fighting depression or that everything will go right overnight. Progress takes time but if you work hard at fighting depression things will change. Work on getting better each day.
Conclusion
I'm not saying that depression is easy to overcome, you're going to have to work hard at it and as I said earlier if someone close to you has died or if you've been through a life threatening illness or a major upheaval in your life then it shouldn't feel very easy. If you're in a bad situation, getting out of it will be difficult. If you're in a good situation, staying on track will be difficult.
But I am saying that depression is something that anyone can overcome with the right approach and the right treatment. It's not an impossible situation and you'll be able to beat depression for yourself as well as for anybody else who may have seen your struggle.