By Mansi S. Mehta:
Editor’s note: Youth Ki Awaaz joins hands with the NalandaWay Foundation, founded by Sriram Iyer, to help break the silence around mental health, failure and suicide. Through Iyer’s book, “The Story Of A Suicide”, we’ll be talking about dealing with depression, loneliness, rejection, stress and various other issues that affect many of us, today. You can read the book here.
Sadness or downswings in mood are normal reactions to life’s struggles, setbacks, and disappointments. Many people use the word ‘depression’ to explain these kinds of feelings, but depression is much more than just sadness. The normal ups and downs of life mean that everyone feels sad or has ‘the blues’ from time to time. But if emptiness and despair have taken hold of your life and won’t go away, you may have depression. Depression makes it tough to function and enjoy life like you once did. Just getting through the day can be overwhelming. But no matter how hopeless you feel, you can get better.
In most cases of depression, the best approach involves a combination of social support, lifestyle changes, emotional skills building and professional help.
Here’s a list that might help you to deal with depression.
Dos
1. Ask for help and support. If even the thought of tackling your depression seems overwhelming, don’t panic. The key to recovery is to start small and ask for help.
2. Make healthy changes in your lifestyle.
3. Cultivate supportive relationships because keeping yourself absolutely isolated could lead you to feel lonely and depressed.
4. Get regular exercise and sleep.
5. Eating healthy always helps. It might help you naturally boost your mood too.
6. Learn to manage and tackle stress.
7. Practise relaxation techniques regularly.
8. Challenge negative thought patterns and try to embrace positivity.
9. Build emotional skills to give you the ability to cope and bounce back from adversity, trauma and loss.
10. Seek professional help. There are many effective treatments for depression, including therapy, medication and alternative treatments.
11. Seek help when you feel down and via a reliable counsellor, a friend or a trusted one. The goal is to bring back your well-being.
Don’ts
1. Don’t delay the treatment for depression. The longer depression exists, the harder it is to cure.
2. Don’t hesitate to seek professional help. You don’t have to be alone. Trained professionals/counsellors can help you.
3. Don’t just treat depression. Make sure you address and combat heart diseases and other medical issues if required.
Depression is not a trivial thing. It is a real medical condition that should be treated and cared for just like any other sickness. Just because depression isn’t necessarily physical does not mean that it is something that can be overcome through sheer willpower. If you have battled with depression or seen someone you love go through it, do write in, about your experiences. Your sharing may help someone out there, cope a lot better.
This post on how to deal with depression was originally published here.
