How To Find Treatment Near You
The first step in getting treatment for depression is making an appointment with your general practitioner. They can recommend doctors in your area.
If youre religious, ask your religious leader if they have counselors to recommend. Some people prefer faith-based counseling, which incorporates their religion into a treatment plan.
You can also check healthcare databases for therapists, psychiatrists, and counselors. These databases can provide you with information such as certifications, accepted insurance providers, and reviews left by other people. You can start with these databases:
Seeking Help For Depression
Get help if you’re still feeling down or depressed after a couple of weeks.
Treatments for depression include psychological therapies and antidepressants.
You can refer yourself for psychological therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy or counselling on the NHS. You don’t need a referral from your GP.
You can talk it through with your GP first if you prefer. Your GP can also tell you about antidepressants.
If you start to feel that your life isn’t worth living or about harming yourself, get help straight away.
You can:
- contact Samaritans on 116 123 for 24-hour confidential, non-judgemental emotional support
Anxiety And Depression: What Are The Possible Links
Although clearly not identical emotional states, mental health research suggests that depression and anxiety often coexist because they can be caused by the same or similar factors. According to an article published May 2020 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, those overlapping causes can include:
- Genetic Factors Genetic factors contribute to 40 percent of the predisposition to depressive and anxious symptoms, with 60 percent being attributed to environmental, noninherited factors. Especially with anxiety, more so than depression, there often is some family history, and so therefore we think that there may be some genetic predisposition to this, Connolly explains.
- Environmental Factors Also referred to as social factors, these include experiences like trauma or neglect in early childhood, and current stressors such as relationship difficulties, unemployment, social isolation, and physical illness. People who have post-traumatic stress disorder , an anxiety disorder, are particularly likely to also develop depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health .
- Pain Chronic pain, and particularly disabling pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome , low back pain, headaches, and nerve pain, are closely linked to psychological distress, including both anxiety and depression, notes Harvard Health. In fact, they say, research suggests that pain shares some biological mechanisms with anxiety and depression.
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Learn To Avoid Procrastination
Another way to take control of your stress is to stay on top of your priorities and avoid procrastinating.
Procrastination may harm your productivity and leave you scrambling to catch up. This can cause stress, which negatively affects your health and sleep quality .
A study in 140 medical students in China linked procrastination to increased stress levels. The study also associated procrastination and delayed stress reactions with more negative parenting styles, including punishment and rejection .
If you find yourself procrastinating regularly, it may be helpful to get in the habit of making a to-do list organized by priority. Give yourself realistic deadlines and work your way down the list.
Work on the things that need to get done today and give yourself chunks of uninterrupted time. Switching between tasks or multitasking can be stressful in itself.
Summary
If you find yourself regularly procrastinating, staying on top of your to-do list may help ward off related stress.
Examples Of What Can Cause Stress Include:
- 1. Being Robbed, Mugged, Or Attacked
- 2. Major Natural Disasters, Such As Earthquakes, That Can Damage Your Home Or Destroy It Altogether
- 3. Losing Your Job
- 4. Getting Into A Fight With Your Spouse Or Significant Other
- 5. Getting Into A Car Accident, Which Can Cause Physical, Emotional, And Financial Stress
Certain Lifestyle Choices Can Also Contribute To Your Stress Levels. This Is Especially True If They Affect Your Overall Health Or If You Become Dependent On Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms. Lifestyle Choices That Can Increase Your Stress Include:
- 1. Heavy Or Excessive Consumption Of Alcohol
- 2. Spending Too Much Time Watching Television Or Playing Video Games
- 3. Not Getting Enough Exercise
- 4. Smoking Or Using Illegal Drugs
- 5. Working At A High-pressure Job
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Te Taha Whnau Spend Time With Other People
Connecting with people can help you feel better faster. Sometimes it helps to plan your social contacts ahead of time, and to go even if you dont feel like it on the day:
- Meet up with a friend for a coffee.
- Help out at the local community centre or marae.
- Join a local group or a club.
- Go to family or whnau birthdays, anniversaries and get-togethers.
- Spend more time with the children and mokopuna.
- Join an online forum or chat group.
“What helps the most are people who accept it, listen to me and support me. My partner and family who are always there for me, no matter what. They give me hope and push me to keep fighting.Angela
Put Your Thoughts On The Witness Stand
Once you identify the destructive thoughts patterns that contribute to your depression, you can start to challenge them with questions such as:
- Whats the evidence that this thought is true? Not true?
- What would I tell a friend who had this thought?
- Is there another way of looking at the situation or an alternate explanation?
- How might I look at this situation if I didnt have depression?
As you cross-examine your negative thoughts, you may be surprised at how quickly they crumble. In the process, youll develop a more balanced perspective and help to relieve your depression.
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Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
Also known as SSRIs, these typically have fewer side effects than other types of antidepressants. Fluoxetine , sertraline , and escitalopram all fit into this category.
Depression is linked to low levels of serotonin . SSRIs work by preventing your blood from absorbing some of the serotonin from your brain. This leaves a higher level of serotonin in the brain, and increased serotonin can help relieve depression.
Try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy can be extremely useful in counteracting depression and is based on the principle that certain ways of thinking can trigger certain health problems, such as depression. The counselor helps you understand your current thought patterns and identify any harmful or false ideas and thoughts that you have that can trigger depression or make it worse.
The aim is to change your way of thinking to avoid these ideas, as well as help your thought patterns be more realistic and helpful.
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Find Something To Look Forward To
This is a technique I routinely use as an anti-blues vaccination. When Im down I search for something to put on the calendar that makes me happy and excited. Indeed, this 2007 study showed that people get an emotional lift when they contemplate a future fun event, versus looking back on a fabulous activity from the past. Book a trip, buy concert tickets, plan a partywhatever brings a flush to your cheeks and rumble of joy to your belly. My biggest mood-turnarounds arise when I begin a project that can potentially create some good in the world and lead to fulfilling connections. For example, Ive volunteered as a mentor to underserved young women who want to write, sought publishing contracts to write a book, taught workshops, submitted a video to do a TedX talk . The point is: stop continually telling yourself nothing good will ever again happenyouve been there, seen that, done that.
The Upshot: Depression is a diagnosable and treatable condition. Theres no reason to suffer in silence, or to guess whether or not what youre feeling qualifies as depression. Your primary care physician can help direct you to someone who specializes in mental health. In the meantime, heres a guide to the signs and symptoms and a quick assessment quiz. You can also download one of these mental health apps for more information.
*Names of patients are changed
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Ways Of Coping That Dont Work In The Long Term
Some of our attempts to cope with trauma, changes and stresses help us in the short them but can make things worse in the long term. Most of us know for ourselves what these things are. They include:
- Self-medicating with alcohol and drugs.
- Working all hours.
- Avoiding whnau, friends and stressful situations.
- Stopping physical exercise.
“At first, alcohol eased my anxiety in social situations but as time went on this changed. Alcohol was a slow corrosive, gradually stripping me of my ability to cope with life. Id spend days in bed, feeling depressed and wanting to die.Paul
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Socialize With Friends And Family
Even if you are experiencing mild depression or a funk, you might find yourself drawing away from others, avoiding social situations, or not wanting to burden people with your feelings. One of the hardest but most helpful things you can do to see yourself through depression is to find that strong support circle and spend time with the people you love.
Schedule times to visit with family and friends or plan to grab lunch with a coworker so you have a specific time and place where you can lean on others when youre feeling blue. You might also find that some of these people have experienced depression themselves and they might be able to relate with you on the subject and share ideas of what has helped them in the past or just lend an open ear.
Look After Your Body And Your Brain
Looking after your body with physical activity, good food and sleep will also help you look after your brain.
Try taking one of these steps:
- go to the beach or bush, listen to the sounds of nature and smell the fresh air
- get out and do something physical, like going for a run, walk or to yoga
- get your hands dirty in the garden
- sleep in your bed
- keep a bottle of water in your car or handbag
- cut back on alcohol and recreational drugs
- eat healthier meals.
How does this help? Since childhood, weve all been told to think about what we put in our bodies and what we do to them. Its with good reason. Keeping physically active, eating right, sleeping well do make a difference to our mental health.
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Create A Morning Pampering Routine
When you live with depression, you may notice your personal care starts to decline. You might start by skipping the shower. Brushing your hair may feel like a chore. Maybe you dont remember when you last brushed your teeth.
A small, cross-sectional study found married women who self-pampered were less likely to experience depression compared to married women who didnt self-pamper.
Its possible, however, like with diet, that people who pamper themselves more are more likely to have other beneficial mental and physical behaviors, which might explain lower rates of depression.
Get A Handle On Your Household Chores
Depression can make it difficult to complete household chores, such as doing the dishes or paying bills.
But a pile of paperwork, the stack of dirty dishes, and floor covered in dirty clothes will only magnify your feelings of worthlessness.
Take control of your daily chores. Start small and work on one project at a time. Getting up and moving can help you start to feel better in itself. But, seeing your progress in the home can be key to helping you feel better.
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Symptoms And Causes Of Depression
Symptoms of depression can be very different from person to person. However, as a general rule, if you are depressed you feel hopeless, sad and lacking interest in things that used to make you feel happy.
Depression symptoms are bad enough to interfere with work, social life and family life, and can persist for weeks or months.
Doctors describe depression in one of three ways, depending on how serious it is:
- mild depression it has some impact on daily life
- moderate depression it has a significant impact on your daily life
- severe depression this makes it nearly impossible to get through your life day to day
A few people with severe depression may have symptoms of psychotic depression.
Below is a list of depression symptoms it’s unlikely that one person would have all of them.
Seeing A Doctor About Depression
Big changes in your life, like bereavement, losing a job, or even having a baby, can cause symptoms of depression. You’re also more likely to experience depression if you have a family history of depression. However, it’s also possible to become depressed without there being an obvious reason.
You can learn more about depression causes here.
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What Can You Use Them For
The short answer: Everything.
Depending on your career and lifestyle, your bullet journal might include a variety of organizing schemes to keep your day-to-day life running smoothly as well as planning strategies to make your future goals professional or otherwise a reality.
The beauty of bullet journaling is that you can make every page suit your current needs. And then, as your priorities change say youve started a new job or want to revamp your eating habits you can transform your bullet journal right along with you, says Shelby Abrahamsen, bullet journal expert and owner of the website LittleCoffeeFox.
Among other things, you can use your bullet journal to:
Psychological Depression Symptoms Include:
- doing poorly at work
- difficulties with your family or home life
It’s not always possible to tell that you’re having symptoms of depression right away it can start and progress gradually. A lot of people don’t realise they’re ill and try to carry on and cope with their symptoms. Sometimes it takes a friend or family member to notice that there’s a problem.
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Create A Wellness Toolbox
A wellness toolbox is a set of tools that you can use to help soothe yourself when you are feeling down. The tools you find most helpful might not work for someone else so its important to carefully consider what things can help you feel your best. Cuddling your pet, listening to your favorite music, taking a warm bath, or reading a good book are just a few tools you might find helpful. Create a list of the activities you might try when youre feeling bad. Choose an activity to try when youre having a particularly rough time.
How Can You Get Yourself Out Of A Funk
Although depression can become a very clinical subject, many of the ways to help yourself through this mood disorder are very simple and practical. Self-care is a key component to living a happy, healthy life and between your diet, exercise, daily routines, and social interactions there are plenty of steps you can take to influence your mood. As you move through your depression, be open to trying new approaches and understand that it might take a combination of these self-care practices before you notice a change in your mood.
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Small Steps Big Impact
If a person feels sustained, intense, feelings of sadness or loss of interest in activities, they may have clinical depression. People also refer to this condition as major depressive disorder.
However, there are small steps you can take to help you gain more agency in your life and improve your sense of well-being.
Read on to learn how to incorporate these strategies in a way that makes sense for you.
How To Reduce Stress And Anxiety In 10 Steps
We all experience stress and anxiety at one time or another. For some, it may be more severe than others, but one thing is for sure: we can all agree that a stress-free life is a happy one. If you are fed up with your stress and anxiety, you may be wondering how to reduce stress. The good news is there are plenty of stress reducers that you can incorporate into your life to help you.
Step One: Think Ahead
Stressful triggers are usually repetitive. If youre dealing with stress and anxiety, you may find that the same things each month cause you unneeded stress. Some examples include past due bills, laundry piling up, or deadlines at work.
Once you identify the problems in your life that consistently stress you out, you can begin working to eliminate them by planning ahead.
If money problems seem to be constantly plaguing you, it may be time to consider coming up with a budget. A budget can help you to meet your financial goals by setting aside money for those important bills so that you dont have to worry when it comes time to pay them.
If you have issues setting aside time to do housework or laundry, you could set aside one day of each week to take care of these duties. For example, you could do all the laundry on Sundays and clean the house on Mondays.
Be sure not to pile too much work onto one day, or you could risk becoming even more stressed from the amount of work you have to do that day.
Step Two: Tweak your Morning Routine
Step Three: Get More Sleep
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