What is depression?

Depression is a very common problem. A lot of adults will experience symptoms of depression at some point. In more mild forms depression does not prevent you from living a normal life, but the most severe forms of depression can be life-threatening, with thoughts of death and suicide. It is important in both of the cases to be able to identify that you are suffering from depression and know how to fight depression.

These are some of the signs or symptoms you might experience if you have depression.

Emotions or feelings

Feelings of sadness, guilt, distress, despair or numbness
Loss of interest in anything and getting no pleasure from anything
Frequent crying or feelings that you cannot cry.
Feeling of loneliness, even if you’re with friends.

Physiological or physical signs

Fatigue.
Concern.
Problems sleeping, especially waking early or disturbed sleeps.
Feel worse at a particular time of day (usually morning).
Changes in appetite, eating and weight.
Some people also experience intense migraine headaches which are mainly caused through stress

Thoughts

Lose the belief in yourself.
Expect the worst and having negative or melancholic thoughts
Thinking that everything seems hopeless.
Thoughts of suicide.
You think that you hate yourself.
Poor memory or concentration.

How these feelings, physical signs and thoughts may affect your life:

It may be difficult to do even the simple things.
You will not be able to do your normal activities.
Isolate yourself from other people.
You may end up not doing anything for long periods.
You may feel that you should control everything twice.

Of course, not all these symptoms are present to people with depression. Even if you have severe depression, is common to feel some of these things periodically. This is especially true if you have recently suffered a loss and especially if someone very close to you has died. When these symptoms are part of a normal reaction to loss or painful events, will be resolved with the passage of time. Most people find it helpful to talk about these feelings with someone who cares. But if these feelings are too intense or continue for some time, they may develop into depression. When this happens, you need to take measures on how to fight depression yourself and / or seek help from others.

What causes depression?

There is no single cause for depression. Usually there is more than one cause and they vary from person to person, but can sometimes occur without any apparent reason. As already mentioned, painful events can make someone start to feel depressed and sometimes it can be transformed into a more serious depression from which it is difficult to recover. The conditions may play a role. Thus, being alone, to have to live with a very low income, physical illness and unemployment can all contribute towards depression. Sometimes several different factors cause depression. In some cases, even the events that may be regarded as good and positive, like to get married or to start a new job can be stressful enough to cause depression. The birth of a child can also lead to a depression for one in ten women. Different people will fight depression in different ways, and although many may be sad and depressed, some try to fight depression in other ways, such as excessive drinking or irritability. One in ten people who have severe depression may also have periods where they are in agitation, with uncontrolled behaviour. This is known as depression mania and affects equally men and women.

Some people are more likely to experience depression than others?

Some people seem to be more vulnerable than others to become depressed. This may be due to body composition (including body chemistry) or in early life experiences and family influences. Some people may be more predisposed to «see the negative side» of life in general and this may increase the likelihood of developing a depression.

How to fight depression?

Even if you have a doctor or mental health specialist involved in your treatment, there are things you can do to fight depression.

1. Do something active

Physical activity is particularly helpful. Walking, running, cycling and everything that starts to increase your activity can help to improve how you feel. Schedule 15 or 20 minutes of activity every day or every other day at first. This type of physical activity can actually begin to make you feel less tired. Find something of interest and spent some time on this. Plan to focus on things you usually enjoy and find some time each day for 5 of these activities. You can find it supportive to deal with a new interest. Many people find that creative activities such as painting, writing poetry or playing music, help them express their emotions and make them feel better.

Make a small beginning in jobs or obligations that you avoided, split large tasks into smaller steps and start working with them one by one. For example, there may be jobs in the home or garden that really needs to be done, but you continuously postpone them. If so, began the first day to tackle one small area. In this way, you do not set too high goals and you have a greater chance to achieve your objective and this will make you feel good.

2. Talk to other people

Try to tell those close to you how you feel. They may be able to listen and help you reflect on things. To cry can sometimes help to relieve tension and let things go. You may be impressed to find out those who talk with you and had the same depression at some point can understand you better on how you feel.

3. Look after yourself

Resist the temptation to fight your depression with alcohol, make poor use of medication or to switch to illegal drugs. These may give some immediate relief, but very soon you create additional health problems and psychological problems to be faced.

Eat well; a good diet can help to keep in good health so recovery is easier.

Try to «offer» yourself things you normally enjoy.

4. Let go of your negative thoughts

Do not let the pessimistic thoughts pass without question. When someone is experiencing depression, often tends to think and expect the worst of himself, his life and future. Do not just accept these thoughts; try the following to fight depression by eliminating your negative thoughts:

Identify when your mood is not good
Note the unpleasant thoughts you have during that time
Try to challenge these thoughts by recording arguments against them. Imagine what would you said to a friend who had such negative thoughts about himself
Try to keep a diary of things that have enjoyed or achieved during the week.

This can help to focus on good things rather than the bad things in your life.

What kind of treatment is available in order to fight depression?

Most people are monitored for depression by their family doctor. Your doctor may recommend a treatment for pills or antidepressants or both. Your doctor can refer to a mental health specialist. This could be a psychiatrist, or can be a consultant, a Community psychiatric nurse, a psychologist or other mental health specialist. The treatments are usually counselling or psychotherapy. These will help you understand your own difficulties and begin to find ways to overcome depression. The «Cognitive therapy» is a kind of therapy often used. It can help people to challenge the negative thoughts and to continue with their lives.

Any kind of treatment used, it usually takes some time before starting to feel the benefits, but such treatment has helped many people and can be very effective. Sometimes people get antidepressants after a prescription by their family doctor or psychiatrist. These have shown that they are supporting for many people suffering from depression. The antidepressants affect chemicals in the brain and make you feel less depressed. It is addictive and once you start to feel better, can arrange with your doctor to stop the medication, usually after several months. This will not cause you any difficulty and your doctor will gradually adjust and reduce the dose. When you start a dosage of antidepressants, it is important to remember that they do not immediately bring the desired result. It will take 2-4 weeks until you get the desired result and you should continue to take them regularly to feel the benefit. They may have some side effects initially, but they are usually quite mild and will generally go away slowly while continuing treatment. Your doctor or your pharmacist will advise you on this. Although people often start to feel better within 2-4 weeks taking antidepressants, it is important to continue to take as long as recommended by your doctor. This helps to prevent depression returning. If you take antidepressants, it is important to see the doctor before you take any other pills, drugs or alcohol.

Where can I get more help to fight depression?

If you think that you have depression, your physician is the best person to speak first. He can give you information about local services, which can help you fight depression.

No related posts.

The first step for changing your life is to get rid of negative feelings. Negative feelings can prevent you from thinking and behaving reasonably. They prevent you from seeing objectively and prospectively the situations you are experiencing. When we are under the influence of negative emotions, we tend to see only what we want to see and remember only what we want to remember.

Have you noticed that most people have a tendency to focus on the negative side of life and ignoring the positive events? The unpleasant sell more! You just have to take a look at newspapers, magazines and television and see that they are invading and bombing us literally with unpleasant negative events. Rarely good news made the headlines! Rarely, we give the necessary importance to the good events in our lives! Why?

Our negative emotions and feelings are stronger and more painful. Our negative memories never cease to be cruel while our positive memories become weaker over time and we tend to forget the intensity of the positive emotions that we experienced. We tend to magnify the negative feelings, the unfortunate events in our lives, because of fear and terror. Many times we do not know how to handle them and even if we know it is a quite painful process to do. Many times we are afraid our fear! With happy feelings things are simple. The joy is always welcomed and it never brings emotional dilemmas and fears. The joy is something we expect and we are ready at any time to experience at the maximum.

Unfortunately with negative feelings you panic yourself with negative thoughts, torture, suffering and this makes the process of changing you life a denial. Negative thinking can damage your thoughts and make you weak, and unfortunately the negative effects that accumulate around you, drive the situation from bad to worse.

What causes negative feelings?

Negative emotions include anger, sorrow, hate, regret and envy. In some situations, it is quite normal to express these feelings. But when they last for long periods, you are in a negative psychological condition and there is the risk to stop enjoying your life. It is therefore important, to understand the mechanisms responsible for your bad psychological state and to take measures that will gradually allow you to better control the negative feelings.

Emotions are complex reactions. They may be psychological and related to what you think or can be organic and related to what you feel.

You should know that your brain reacts to what you think. It releases hormones and chemicals that create a state of arousal. All feelings, positive or negative affect you in this way.

These are complex procedures and the truth is that we are not prepared and we do not have the necessary skills to handle them. This is why we often find it difficult to properly handle negative psychological situations.

Negative emotions make us feel sad and unhappy. These emotions are leading us to condemn not only ourselves but also others around us. They reduce our self-confidence and our self-esteem.

The hatred, anger, jealousy and regret, can be completely normal under certain conditions. If, however, they last for long periods, will remove from us our love and enthusiasm for life.

The longer this situation lasts, the more difficult becomes the problem. Also adopting wrong ways to deal with negative emotions may aggravate the situation. For example, if anger is not managed effectively this will lead to violence, and as a result will make the situation worse for us.

How to eliminate negative emotions and change your life?

Have your ever thought what would happen if you began to see your life positively, if you were willing and able to make the big step and change your life? If you took your life a little lighter, if you could laugh and learn from your mistakes? Probably not!

There are several things you can do to in order to properly treat the negative emotions. It is important initially not to enlarge the problem because this will re-create the problem constantly in your minds.

You also need to accept the fact that sometimes you will experience negative feelings because they are an integral part of human life. It is better to focus your attention on the search for ways to escape and to make yourself feel better.

Relaxing in various ways such as reading, walking and talking to friends, can help considerably. You can also seek help from the doctor, the psychologist, or your family.

It is important to try to recognize the reasons that make you feel regret, stress, anger, jealousy or hatred. Recognizing negative emotions and knowing what is their cause will help you to prepare in advance to address them.

Physical activity reduces stress and the chemical substances associated with the stimulation caused by stress in our bodies. The relief offered by physical activity, allows us to better deal with the negative psychological feelings.

Finally, it is necessary to leave the past in the past. It is not for your benefit to review the bad situations of the past because this can disturb you from seeing the benefits of the present and the future.

Try therefore to see things from the positive side. Any unpleasant fact, any negative feelings, any fear can work in your advantage and for your benefit! Behind them all lies a lesson that helps us to grow, to mature, to move forward and become stronger.

Wake up tomorrow morning and put your best smile, even if it rains and if the traffic on the road is intolerable or if your colleagues are irritating … Your smile can act as a mirror and suddenly you’ll see others smiling. Smile will change your mood, will increase your energy and your positive energy will surely make you look more beautiful, more powerful, more ready to tackle the problems or difficulties that may arise. All problems have a solution so do not let them take over you. After the storm there is always a rainbow. So do not stay permanently tuned to the rain and clouds! When you catch the bottom, do not give up, it’s your time to get to the surface and change your life! Use negative events as examples to avoid and as shields to protect yourself in the future!

Learn to experience life the positive way! Convince your self that you are not afraid and fight for your dreams, win your joy, do not lose your optimism and especially do not think negative! Become a winner of life! Treat you life, as you want to be treated.

image source: sicilianitaliano

No related posts.