You Say You’re OK, But Are You Really?
Getting better one step at a time
We hear so much about Depression these days. Sadly it is a reality of life that Depression affects many of us at some point, whether that is through our own experience or the experience of someone close to us.
Depression is often described as numbness – a complete lack of feeling. There is certainly no joy or laughter, but equally there can be no anger, no hurt. If there are any feelings at all, they will often be feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.
Feelings of Depression occur when there are chemical changes that affect the function of the brain. The brain is a wonderful message-sending mechanism. Depression happens when the chemical messages between the brain cells aren’t delivered correctly and communication is disrupted.
Many things can trigger debilitating Depression. If Depression is the result of a specific situation such as a tragedy or a major negative event in your life, there can be an awareness that things will improve, given time. Short bouts can be handled and overcome with therapy and strategies to work through those periods of Depression.
Some helpful tools:
- Learning how to Turn Around Negative Thinking – when our mind is filling our heads with negative thoughts, one of the first things we can do is to Be Grateful, to recognise the positive things in our life. Writing an ‘I Am Grateful For….’ list, starting with the basics in life: “..my two eyes, I can see; …my two legs, I can walk;…the roof over my head”. Once we start the process of Being Grateful, the ideas start to flow. A simple and very effective exercise.
- Learning how to Relax – taking time out (a few minutes will do) to sit quietly (in nature is ideal) and focus your mind on a pleasant passive scene from nature – somewhere you can feel peaceful and at ease. This takes practice as our self-talk in our head is usually running at hundreds of words a minute. The more you practice the better you get; the more you will de-stress.
- Learning Different Ways to Handle Stress – taking time out to relax and de-stress is important, but so is physical exercise. While our mind and body sometimes don’t want to move, it is important to get up and get going. Setting yourself a daily routine to get moving, or having a ‘buddy’ who will turn up and join you in a daily walk etc., can be helpful motivational tools.
- Helping Others in the Community – one of the best ways to improve our feelings of wellbeing is to put our energy into helping others. This gives us a very important sense of purpose as well as puts many of our problems into perspective. The other great advantage is that we now have two happy people in our society who have appreciated each other’s time and effort. This is a very powerful process that can go a long way to feelings of well-being.
- Creating a Sense of Purpose – every human being needs a reason to get up in the morning. Whether that is:
- having a job to go to (we don’t just work for money!)
- taking the dog for a walk, or giving the dog its food (dogs are relentless in getting our attention)
- setting ourselves a project, writing a list of things that need to be done to get the project underway etc.
- organising to meet a friend, knowing that you are committed to getting up and turning up.
Often feelings of depression can’t be explained, or can’t be attributed to a single situation, and there can be many external and internal factors that go towards the reasons for depression. Indeed, there are many different forms of depression.
The following websites may help in understanding more about Depression.
The Centre Within is a two-day practical course in effective living teaching tools and techniques to relax and de-stress, helping you to change negative patterns into positive strategies to achieve what you want out of life.
“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think” – Eeyore the Donkey from “Winnie the Pooh”