8 tips to ease depression

Nowadays the Depression It is a typical and very frequent problem of the society in which we live, being an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in the population.

We consider depressed a person who presents at least a sad state of mind and partial loss of the ability to feel interest and pleasure, along with other problems such as fatigue, poor judgment, sleeping problems or feeding, appearing recurring negative thoughts They make life look negative, sometimes uncontrollable and hopeless.

What can we do to remove depression from our lives?

Depressed people have mood, cognitive, behavioral, physical and interpersonal symptoms, being a problem that generates a lot of difficulties when living a normal life.

Bearing this in mind, we proceed to give you a series of indications or tips that are useful to improve your state in a depressive process. Although the tone of this article may seem casual, all the indications given have a scientific basis, most of them being applied in the clinical practice in people with different types of depression.

1. Make a schedule... and stick to it

Depressed people tend to have a passive attitude towards life. Depression causes you to lose enthusiasm and energy, losing motivation to make plans and do things. It is also common to think that whatever you do there will not be an improvement in your situation, which facilitates inhibition.

One way to combat this passive attitude is to make and commit to sticking to a schedule. Said schedule must incorporate the different activities that are going to be carried out throughout the day and week, obliging the depressed person to distribute their time in such a way as to avoid as much as possible negative thoughts that may to have. It should incorporate both daily obligations (going to work, for example) and daily habits (mealtime, bedtime, and hygiene habits), and it is especially important incorporate the periods of leisure and socialization in a specific way (it is not worth saying I leave this time for leisure, but a specific activity has to be planned such as going to the cinema for example).

Making a schedule is a way of forcing yourself to plan and act, but the schedule you make must be realistic or else you can get frustrated and worsen your mood.

2. Set goals

Very linked to the previous advice. It is about imagining a future or situation that you want to reach and that you think you can achieve..

The objectives that you set for yourself have to be realistic and achievable in the short term, that they require a little effort but are not so hard that you want to give up. If the goal you come up with is complicated or long-term, compartmentalize it so that you can break it down into small achievable goals in relatively short time frames. It is not about doing a long-distance race, because you can fall on the road. It's about taking one small step at a time.

3. Do sports

We all know the phrase "mens sana in corpore sana." In fact, this popular saying contains more wisdom than it may seem. Regular exercise has been shown to generate endogenous endorphins, making us feel in a better mood and reducing the effects of depression.

It also strengthens the body and the immune system, helps improve self-esteem and allows you to rest better. The data reflect that it is even a protective factor for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, in addition to coronary diseases. So, do not hesitate to go for a run, swim or go to the gym, as it will make you feel better and will be useful in many ways. The endorphins relieve depression.

4. Make a list of everything that goes wrong

Writing what happens or happens to us is a good way to do introspection. Making a list of the things that make us feel bad can be very helpful. However, simply making a list of everything that is going wrong is a process that can help to locate cognitively where the problem or dissatisfaction is, but it does not help if work is done later. Once done, write down what thoughts are provoking you, and then try to imagine possible interpretations different from yours.

This helps to gradually modify dysfunctional beliefs and negative thoughts if we manage to integrate more positive interpretations and reject those of greater negativity.

5. Vent

Anyone who knows a depressed person can probably say that that person is unwell and may even have told him / her the reasons why he / she is unwell. However, although you can give reasons why they feel bad, many depressed people tend to be inhibited and keep their real thoughts and emotions about it.

In this sense, If you feel that you are in a bad moment, you do not have to hesitate to vent. The list of things that go wrong that we talked about earlier… burn it. Sing, scream, cry, run, practice a contact sport that allows you to vent frustration. The important thing is that you do not close in on yourself and let your thoughts flow and, above all, your emotions.

6. Force yourself to go out and socialize

Depressed people tend, in the long run, to avoid contact with others. His state at first generates empathy and concern in friends or loved ones, but in the long run the negative and isolationist attitude that depression produces can produce some rejection in others.

This is why if you are in a situation of depression, it would be useful for you to participate in the social life around you. This does not mean that you force social situations or establish a dependent relationship with others, which also tends to produce rejection, but try to go out, participate in the conversation of those close to you and be open to participate in different plans and activities.

6. Do something you like

We have said before that depressed people tend to be passive and lose the desire to do things. Even things that you were passionate about before now lose their meaning and the idea of ​​doing them seems stupid to you.

For this reason it is important to force yourself to do them, trying to recover the illusion. It is not necessary that the activity make you completely happy or that you enjoy the same as before, but it is enough to That makes you decrease the level of sadness a little, and in the long run you could regain the passion for it.

7. Explore

Introducing changes in your life can make you discover new feelings and points of view about life. It is not about leaving all the above behind, but about introducing some small variant that may be satisfactory and even change the vision of the whole.

For example, sign up for a cooking, Chinese writing, or origami course, or travel to a place you've never been before (even if it's a different neighborhood in your own city). You can discover a new passion, meet environments and people that make you reflect and value things differently.

8. Go to a professional

If you do not see yourself capable of getting out of the situation by yourself, you can always enlist the help of a professional. Mood disorders are, along with anxiety, the most common type of problems that psychologists and psychiatrists usually work on.

This does not mean that your problem will be solved overnight, but they can help you establish strategies and carry out psychological treatments that improve your situation.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fifth edition. DSM-V. Masson, Barcelona.
• Beck, A.T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. International University Press, New York.