How to deal with depression 101
You feel tired? Exhausted? Sad? Loss of or extreme appetite? All the bad stuff? Blanket burrito all the way?
Then you’ve probably wondered if/ assumed that you have depression.
Seeing as this isn’t very rare, you might be right, but please be aware that depression is, more often than not, a symptom and not an illness. So please, before you self diagnose and (proudly??) Put it in your bio, write down all your symptoms, even the smaller ones and please check with a real doctor!
Now onward to the actual post…. having depression, or symptoms there of sucks. A lot. Be it be it a mental health issue, some other illness like grave ’s disease, or just feeling really down, it can lead to a vicious circle of feeling worse and worse… so here’s some advice, not to fix it, but to make it more bearable and lessen the impact it has on your daily life!
One way is going out and move/ exercise your body, eat fresh food, drink enough water (!!!), get enough sleep
And yes. Depression makes it super hard to get up, but when you can distance yourself a tiny bit and look at your situation objectively, you can do things. Logic and rationality can beat hormones:
🔸Not feeling hungry? If you haven’t eaten in the last 9 hours, eat anyways! You need the energy
🔸Feeling lethargic? Get some fresh air and some blood pumping through your body… running, even a tiny bit,will give you endorphins and other feel-good-hormones. Look forward to those, they feel amazing and your head will be super clear
🔸Feel sad? Avoid sugar (yes. That also means no chocolate). It actually enhances depression, and the more you eat, the more you crave it… instead get some veggies and cook something fresh, full of nutrients that your body actually needs
🔸(Feel like) crying/having a melt down? Get a journal and write down everything that’s shit rn. Read it again, and analyse it. Is it /really/ that bad and unfixabel and hopeless? Or is it just your brain augmenting it to seem that way? Write down things that you enjoy atm, and that are going well. Try thinking of realistic solutions to your current troubles… and if analysing isn’t good rn, at least you get it out of your system and organise your thoughts… especially when they have the habit of running in circles endlessly. And if you’ve been crying hard, drink an extra portion cool water.
For days when you are actually feeling pretty good:
🔸dont neglect proper food, sleep and hydration just because of that, or it wont last too long. Keep up the self care even if you “don’t need it at the moment”… you always can use a healthy lifestyle~
🔸write those good days down at night as well. Remembering good days and moments and knowing there will be those again, is a huge source of strength! And be sure to write down not just those BIG ones that come once in a blue moon, but also some other more random ones… like when you sat outside, enjoying warm sun and a cool breeze, or when you saw those amazing flowers! Or when you saved the little bug, that was lost on the sidewalk!
You are worth all the selfcare!
(Don’t ever listen to a depressed brain. It’s a bully that doesn’t want you to feel good, so it tells you not to sleep, not to move, not to eat healthy, not to socialise, not to do /anything/ that’s good for you. Seriously, dont listen to it)
Thank you for reading this wall of text
