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10 things you can learn from women who survived depression

Posted By : Administrator Friday 03 Mar, 2017
10 things you can learn from women who survived depression

According to studies, people with depression may experience a lack of interest and pleasure in daily activities, significant weight loss or gain, insomnia or excessive sleeping, lack of energy, inability to concentrate, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.When people are depressed, they feel that they have fallen into a deep, dark pit with no light in sight. Most of them feel, it’s never going to end or at times they mistake it as their nature. The first step to treating depression is to acknowledge your feelings, reach out, seek help, create a support base and if necessary take medication. There are no hard and fast rules and everyone has a different story of recovery. But yes, it is possible to fight this demon and come out successful. We scoured the net for stories of people who fought and won their battle against depression and this is what we learnt:

1. Acknowledge your feelings: “I saw myself in the mirror with a depressed face and I thought I can be like this for the rest of my life or I can rise up from this and make my own life better. And it’s at that moment that I felt a sort of freedom for the first time in my life,” reads a personal story of a depression survivor.

Only when you confront yourself in the mirror and ask yourself some tough questions, that you get to the root of the problem. Once you acknowledge your problem and feel overwhelmed by it, you have an urge to get out of it. When you have an urge to reach a solution, you actually seek help and are on a road to recovery.

2. Be honest with yourself: “The biggest thing I’ve learnt is that regardless of what anybody else says I’m accountable to myself. I’ve started asking a lot more questions. So, if I’m starting to feel a little bit nervy I know to challenge that feeling and say, “Hey, whoa, where did you come from? What’s actually triggering this feeling?” Okay, so it’s that, great, I acknowledge that, now let it go, move forward,” says another story.

Pushing your feelings under the carpet for a considerable period of time won’t help. It will only aggravate the problem. Acknowledge that there is a problem, talk to yourself, talk to your near ones, ask for help, get treatment. Don’t lie to yourself.

3. Find an outlet: “They were fantastic turning points for me – music, socialising, getting out and having fun with friends, writing – I love writing – and creative stories and things like that,” read one story.

“You have to find something that you enjoy that makes your heart sing and makes you feel good. I think exercise is big because it does have all those by products where as a result, you feel so much better, you feel stronger and better equipped to take on anything that life throws at you,” read another.

When you are depressed, you forget the cool, creative person you once were. Picking up one strand and working on it will help you get close to what you were earlier. So if you like writing, you can start with a blog.

4. A daily dose of motivation: “I used to carry these cards around with me and one of them said, for example, ‘You are greater than you think you are’. Sometimes you need to talk to yourself like a coach, and sometimes you need to talk to yourself like a parent,” says an online story.

Positive affirmations help you great deal in overcoming the negative chain of thoughts and stay motivated.

5. Find a support system: “One of the biggest things with depression is the isolation and it’s the same with anorexia. You think no one gets you. For me, knowing that someone else had my back was one of the greatest tools – my friends who said, “How are you doing today? You alright?” “Yeah, I’m fine.” “Cool. What are we gonna do today? Let’s go and have fun.” That was all I needed. I didn’t necessarily need to talk about how I was feeling, it was just that someone had my back,” a story read.

You need someone who can interrupt the constant chattering in your head. You need someone who can tell you that you are awesome in a subtle, believable way. And you need someone waiting at the end of the dark tunnel who can silently be there for you when you are depressed.

6. Recall the joyful moments: “Trying to get back into singing and remembering the things that I loved that brought me joy were real great – what I call joy triggers now to help keep me on the path of happiness,” a survivor posted online.

When you are on your road to recovery, you need a good dose of motivation and happiness. Be it happy memories or things that you loved to do before your depression, it will all help you to speed up in emerging victorious.

7. Meditate and exercise: “Spending time to meditate is fantastic. I have a lot of words inside my head being in the entertainment industry and being a communicator so, for me, guided meditation works really, really well. Pop it in my ears, lie back and for 15 or 20 minutes – cos that’s all I need – it just calms down the chatter. That’s been great,” says a depression survivor.

Relaxation soothes out your overworked muscles and thereby slows down the speed of thoughts, giving you time to reflect and also relax yourself.

8. Keep a diary: “For a little while I kept a diary so I could see what would happen. I was right in it (bouts of anger) and I’d miss all the little things that led up to it. So I kept a diary and so I’ve learnt those triggers. It doesn’t mean I recognise them all the time, but now I’ve got better at seeing them,” a person who battled depression wrote.

If you have an anger problem which goes along with the depression, keeping a diary will help you sort your thoughts and thereby help in regulating them. Once you recognise your anger triggers, you can find ways to tackle them better.

9. Enjoy little things: “I enjoy the little things. I love nature, you know, to see a beautiful bird or a butterfly. And out of where our horses are kept there’s, you know, there’s wood pigeons and Rosellas and Pukekos and ducks and ducklings. And it’s that kind of thing, I love the simple things. That’s probably what life’s about now, it’s the little things that are really important. I think the positive thing is to thoroughly enjoy your life because you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Love your family. Just love the small things,” says a person who fought with depression successfully.

Life is a collection of moments. Try to amass a lot of happy ones so that when you are down and out, you can go back to the happy memories.

10. Help others: Last but not the least, everyone can come out of depression, only if they are aware that there is help available. By helping others, one can cope with depression better.


Catex Health is a large network of mental health experts who are available 24x7 for your support and will ensure confidential, dignified and empowering support for any sort of emotional distress. Click here to reach out to an expert or call +91 9911775626.









http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/10-things-you-can-learn-from-depression-survivors/