Practice Being Kind To Yourself
Ive written a whole post on this topic alone, so Ill include a link to that here if youd like to read more about self-kindness.
Just remember that you deserve the same kindness and understanding that you show to your friends and family when theyre going through a rough time. Dont treat yourself any differently.
Coping With Depression Tip : Reach Out And Stay Connected
Getting support plays an essential role in overcoming depression. On your own, it can be difficult to maintain a healthy perspective and sustain the effort required to beat depression. At the same time, the very nature of depression makes it difficult to reach out for help. When youre depressed, the tendency is to withdraw and isolate so that connecting to even close family members and friends can be tough.
You may feel too exhausted to talk, ashamed at your situation, or guilty for neglecting certain relationships. But this is just the depression talking. Staying connected to other people and taking part in social activities will make a world of difference in your mood and outlook. Reaching out is not a sign of weakness and it wont mean youre a burden to others. Your loved ones care about you and want to help. And if you dont feel that you have anyone to turn to, its never too late to build new friendships and improve your support network.
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Reduce Your Usual Workload
When youre struggling with your mood and high stress levels, attempting to work at 100% of your usual output is ill-advised. However, not working at all typically isnt helpful either. Why?
Regular work helps provide structure to your day. When you have the structure of regular activities, this helps regulate your biological rhythms, such as those related to eating and sleeping. Without the structure of regular activities, including work and socializing, those biological rhythms will become more dysregulated, which will tend to make depression worse.
Fifty percent of your usual activity is a good sweet spot between not working enough and expecting too much of yourself. You may even find that your productivity doesnt decrease that much with this approach. It will force you to prioritize deep work and other truly important tasks. Limiting yourself to 50% of your usual work will help you let go of activities that were only medium-productive to begin with. Fifty percent isnt a hard and fast rule. You can choose a different number if youd prefer, but adopt the principle.
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Avoid Feeding Your Depression
Feeding depression creates a snowball effect: For example, if you throw a few crumbs out on your balcony or sidewalk, a few pigeons will show up. If you keep throwing out crumbs, by the end of the week a multitude of pigeons will have flocked to the area. Similarly, depression thrives on doubts, fears, and negative thoughts which feeds more depression. Learn to identify the negative thoughts and worries that are fueling your depression so you can replace them with positive, more realistic thoughts.
Find Hope In New Treatment Options
If youre on antidepressant medication and symptoms are still bad and you are too depressed to work, you shouldnt give up on feeling better.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a depression treatment that has shown great results, particularly in patients with treatment-resistant depression.
- TMS works by reactivating parts of the brain that become dormant from depression.
- TMS is highly effective and doesnt come with the side effects associated with antidepressants.
- TMS is also covered by insurance and Medicare.
- A typical TMS treatment takes 18 to 19 minutes, and you can drive afterward, meaning you could do it during your lunch break at work.
If youd like to try TMS, Success TMS is a national provider with locations across the country.
You can learn more at SuccessTMS.com, or give us a call at to check your insurance coverage and get started.
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If You Need To Wallow Wallow But Do So Constructively
Suppressing your feelings and emotions may seem like a strategic way to cope with the negative symptoms of depression. But this technique is ultimately unhealthy.
If youre having a down day, have it. Let yourself feel the emotions but dont stay there.
Consider writing or journaling about what youre experiencing. Then, when the feelings lift, write about that, too.
Seeing the ebb and flow of depressive symptoms can be instructive for both self-healing and hope.
Be Proactive With Backlog
Alvin suggests keeping an eye on work backlogs. Overdue or pressing deadlines can make work more stressful.
When you live with depression, feeling stressed can make you want to avoid work rather than meet it head-on.
Answering emails as soon as they come in and completing projects in small segments can prevent a pileup of work and can also help boost your sense of accomplishment.
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Too Depressed To Work Take Time Off To Recover
When youre too depressed to work, you may get to a point where your deep depression is bad enough that your mental health professionals advise you to take some time off work while treatment is adjusted.
If its taking tremendous amounts of effort to get through the day and your work is suffering, its probably time to take time off work.
If hiding your symptoms is proving difficult and coworkers are noticing a change in behavior, its appropriate to regroup.
This might not mean you stop working altogether. You could work from home or take a week off while your medication is increased.
In other situations, it may take longer to start or switch medications.
In the U.S., many employees qualify for the Family and Medical Leave Act, which guarantees your job will be protected for 12 weeks if you are absent for a medical reason.
Being unpaid for a period of time can be a significant financial burden, but if your work is suffering to the degree that you cant perform your responsibilities, its a better option to take the time to get well than to lose your job.
Also remember that mental illness is as real as any physical illness, and your health should be a priority.
If an FMLA leave is needed, be sure to talk to your HR department. Remember that they hired you for a reason and value your contributions to the company.
Its their job to help employees when health issues pop up, and the Americans with Disabilities Act has laws in place to protect people with mental illness.
Improve Your Eating Habits
Research continues to find clear links between diet and mental health. In fact, there have been so many studies that have shown improving nutrition can prevent and treat mental illness that nutritional psychiatry is becoming mainstream.
There are many brain-essential nutrients that can affect depression. For example, a 2012 study found that zinc deficiency is associated with symptoms of depression.
Improving your diet could be key to reducing your symptoms.
But before you make any major changes to your diet or begin taking vitamins or supplements, talk with your physician.
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Find An Accountability Partner
Many reasons, including stigma, can make it feel hard to reach out for help. Yet, support may be whats missing to help you function better while living with depression.
First, try making a list of areas where youd like to improve. Maybe thats getting your finances together, decluttering the garage, or starting a workout routine.
Next, consider going over a list of people in your life. You can write down the best person for each job or the individual with the most experience in each area.
Now you can take a deep breath and reach out to them.
If youre in need of ongoing support say for paying bills on time you may want to ask a friend to help keep you accountable regularly. Consider asking them to check up on you, and try to keep them updated on your progress.
Overwhelm is no joke. By strategically organizing your tasks, it may breathe new life into your to-do list and help you feel more motivated to get things done.
To make things easier on yourself, try:
- Task batching: Doing similar things at the same time, like going to the post office if its right next to the grocery store.
- Habit stacking: When you focus only on one habit until it becomes intuitive, then layering on another one until that feels solid, and so on.
- Microtasking: Breaking down your to-do list into bite-size chunks.
You may find it useful to steal this authors box method, a system that helps with microtasking.
Heres why it may work:
For example, if laundry is a priority, you could write:
Do The Opposite Of What The Depression Voice Suggests
The negative, irrational voice in your head may talk you out of self-help. However, if you can learn to recognize it, you can learn to replace it. Use logic as a weapon. Address each thought individually as it occurs.
If you believe an event wont be fun or worth your time, say to yourself, You might be right, but itll be better than just sitting here another night. You may soon see the negative isnt always realistic.
A lengthy to-do list may be so weighty that youd rather do nothing. Instead of compiling a long list of tasks, consider setting one or two smaller goals.
For example:
- Dont clean the house take the trash out.
- Dont do all the laundry thats piled up just sort the piles by color.
- Dont clear out your entire email inbox just address any time-sensitive messages.
When youve done a small thing, set your eyes on another small thing, and then another. This way, you have a list of tangible achievements and not an untouched to-do list.
All goals are worthy of recognition, and all successes are worthy of celebration. When you achieve a goal, do your best to recognize it.
You may not feel like celebrating with a cake and confetti, but recognizing your own successes can be a very powerful weapon against depressions negative weight.
The memory of a job well-done may be especially powerful against negative talk and overgeneralization.
Focus on times when you feel the most disorganized or scattered.
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Should You Change Your Jobs
What you do every day for 8hrs per day matters. Who youre surrounded with matters as well.
If you dont feel like your work is meaningful and/or the environment is dreadful, youre not in a good place.
Again, its important to note that depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide.
Even with treatment, its possible that your symptoms are bad enough to make it difficult to work a 40-hour workweek.
If this is your situation, you have options.
You could talk yo your boss about working from home to avoid some triggers.
You could provide your skills on a freelance basis through a resource like Upwork. You could enter the service industry by driving for Uber or Lyft or doing something else thats not 9 to 5.
Disability benefits are also an option.
Some states offer this on a temporary basis. On a federal level, the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability programs will provide your retirement benefits early , though approvals can be difficult.
Even with full documentation, this process can take years, so you may want to hire a lawyer who specializes in disability law. Many of these lawyers only take fees once your benefits have been approved.
Get Out Of Your Apartment
Depression loves to lie to us. It says things like, Youre a downer. Nobody wants to be around you and Stalk your exs new fiances Instagram! and Save energy and work from home today. When it comes to productivity, working from home can be a challenge under prime circumstances. Throw a little heartbreak or shame in there, and next thing you know, the only things youve crossed off your to-do list are opening the door for Seamless and clicking Next episode fourteen times. Despite what depression tells you, get yourself to a coffee shop, library, or co-working space. Shower optional.
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Counter Depression With Exercise
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , getting regular physical activity can make you less likely to develop depression. Exercising three to five times weekly for 30 to 60 minutes can provide mental health benefits because exercise is a good way to get “out of your head” and focus on moment-to-moment sensations, such as your breathing and movements.
How To Overcome Work Anxiety
Work anxiety is never just work anxiety. It often bleeds into your home and personal life, and if it continues without management for too long, you may also develop anxiety that often lasts long after you leave your job.
While all of these characteristics might not apply to you, the information should still provide you with tips of how to properly manage your anxiety at work. For the purpose of this article, we will make a few assumptions, which include the following:
- You are currently at a job you cannot leave, because you have not obtained a new job or you need to stay for family reasons.
- You are employed for a company that utilizes cubicles or offices. Despite not fitting the mold exactly, retail, restaurant, and work-from-home jobs should still relate and be relevant based on the suggestions below but how you integrate them may change.
- You are good at your career. Having high career aspirations is still a very important aspect of overcoming anxiety. If you fail to even try to succeed at work, it can impact your anxiety negatively.
- You are not anxious about finances this kind of work anxiety is related to a different kind of anxiety in general. Financial anxiety can be overcome by changing priorities and properly budgeting. We understand that some of you are not paid what you are worth, which can incite anxiety. However, for the sake of this article, we will assume your finances are stable or not a cause of anxiousness.
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When Youre Depressed You Cant Just Will Yourself To Snap Out Of It But This Guide To Depression Help Can Put You On The Road To Recovery
Coronavirus update
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many of us are dealing with social distancing, isolation, and lockdowns that make it even harder to cope with symptoms of depression. Whatever your circumstances, though, there are ways to overcome feelings of sadness and despair, improve your mood, and regain a sense of hope. In addition to the tips in this article, you can also find help for depression in our Coronavirus Mental Health Toolkit.
Learn How To Stop Negative Thoughts
Depression doesn’t just make you feel bad, it can also cause you to think more negatively. Changing those negative thoughts, however, can improve your mood.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of therapy that works to alter common patterns of negative thinking called cognitive distortions in order to eliminate depression. There are also many self-help books, apps, and online courses that can help you learn how to change your unhealthy thinking patterns.
The symptoms of depression, such as fatigue and difficulty concentrating, make procrastination tempting.
Putting things off fuels depression. It can lead to increased guilt, worry, and stress.
It’s important to set deadlines and manage your time well. Establish short-term goals and work hard to get the most important things done first. Each task you successfully complete will help you break through the habit of procrastination.
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But First Get The Exact Daily Self
so you never have to feel like your mental health is controlling you and your life again.
Because you can improve your mental health and happiness with just a couple of simple tweaks to your day even if doing day-to-day tasks like cooking dinner seems impossible right now.
But its those simple tweaks thats precisely what youll learn when you download the daily self-care checklist I used to overcome depression.
Look though, I get it. I tried everything under the sun to beat my depression and if I had stumbled across this on the internet I probably wouldnt have believed it either.
But yesterday was a struggle, right? So what have you got to lose? Maybe the things that worked for me will work for you too, and how incredible would that be
Just click the button below to grab your copy and get ready to take back control of your mental health, so you can wake up each morning with a smile on your face
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Why You Might Be Depressed At Work
There are various reasons why you may be dealing with an increase in depressive symptoms at work. And while no two people or experiences are the same, some common themes seem to emerge when pinpointing the causes or triggers of signs of depression at work.
While not an exhaustive list, the following situations may contribute to work depression:
- feeling like you have no control over work issues
- feeling like your job is in jeopardy
- working in a toxic work environment
- being overworked or underpaid
- experiencing workplace harassment or discrimination
- working irregular hours
- lacking balance between work and home
- working in a setting that doesnt match your personal values
- doing work that doesnt further your career goals
- experiencing poor or unsafe working conditions
Leela R. Magavi, MD, a psychiatrist and regional medical director at Community Psychiatry, said she works with many clients who are adversely affected by engaging in work they arent passionate about.
Individuals can mindlessly complete tasks throughout the day and begin to feel disconnected and demoralized, which can exacerbate anxiety and depressive symptoms, she explained.
Others may have little time to consume meals or hydrate throughout the day, which Magavi suggested could worsen fatigue and inattentiveness.
And creating and sticking to a structured routine at home is easier said than done.
Without a routine, boredom can slowly creep in, giving way to depressive feelings and thoughts, she said.
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