Helping Yourself With Depression

Helping Yourself With Depression

Do you feel that you spend too much time focusing on the negative things in life? Do you wish you were a happier person? You’re not alone. Bouts of depression affect people all over the world. If you're currently feeling out of it, totally out of your normal system and hating and ignoring almost everything and anyone that comes along or you feel generally tired, un-motivated & have very low energy all the time try to get yourself checked by a psychiatrist because this behaviour that you're trying to ignore may be symptoms of depression. Act fast because if you don't, it'll certainly be a lot harder for you to be able to have yourself cured of this illness, especially once self-delusion starts to kick in. There are some techniques you can do to help yourself with depression without needing medication.

In this blog, you will learn. 

• How to keep negative thoughts from spiralling out of control;

• How to boost your confidence & gain more control of your emotions through meditation;

• Why it’s important to show thankfulness daily;

• Why self-hypnosis isn’t just hype (and why you should try it!) 

Flawed Thinking & Filters

The way our brains filter information can make situations seem a lot worse than they are.

Every image of the world you perceive is first turned upside-down by the lenses in your eyes and then flipped again by the visual cortex in your brain. Your visual cortex acts as a filter – your brain indeed has many filters – but sometimes these filters can do more harm than good.

In short, mental filters affect how we perceive the world and are the reason why everybody experiences life differently.

Picture two friends, a man and a woman walking through a park. Suddenly a dog runs up to them. The man had a traumatic experience with dogs as a child; he becomes terrified as the dog approaches. The woman grew up around dogs, so she knows the chubby Labrador has just come to say hello. Filters serve an important purpose, in that they enable us to make sense of a complex world. Filters break down information to help us understand, allowing us to recognise patterns in everything from news stories to the behaviour of friends and family. Our views and values, from politics to personal ethics, are affected by these filters. However mental filters can also malfunction and distort our perception of reality. We tend to view the world through a lens coloured by our beliefs, ignoring anything that contradicts those beliefs. If you see people as inherently untrustworthy, for example, then you’re going to see more bad than good in people in general. Always try to see the best in people even when it is difficult to. 

Flawed thinking leads to negative thought patterns that soon turn into debilitating demons. 

Picture a car driving in circles in a field. After many loops, the circular grooves in the soil become deep, making the driving easier – but making any deviation from the track almost impossible.

Our thought patterns are like this. We can get stuck in loops with thoughts and feelings, and once stuck, find it a struggle to move beyond them. If you hold negative beliefs about yourself, often all it takes is a minor incident to start you on a downward spiral.

The saying "you get what you give" is very true. If you are giving out negative energy or are thinking too many negative thoughts you will attract negative energy. If you are giving out positive energy or you are thinking more positive thoughts you will attract more positive energy.

Overthinking

One way to help yourself with depression is to see if there are any situations that you could be over-dramatising. People tend to think negative experiences are more significant than they are. 

Sometimes people overthink situations to the point they believe they are mind-reading, or believe they know what others are thinking. By misinterpreting people’s expressions and body language, you can easily make false judgments. So if you feel yourself seeing only the worst in every situation, remember to question your thought patterns and think of alternative explanations. 

Gratitude

To combat depression it's important to show gratitude and appreciate everything you have.

Writing down your worries and listing what you are grateful for are good ways to combat depression. The simple act of writing down a list of positive and negative activities in your life can give you a roadmap to recovery.

Take a sheet of paper and draw a straight line through the middle. In the top half of the sheet, list all the activities that bring you joy, such as playing music or spending time with friends. Once you’ve written down everything you can think of, turn your attention to the bottom half of the sheet. There, list all the people and negative activities that sap your energy and worsen your mood. This paper is a snapshot of the things that influence you daily. For the next week, keep the list nearby and make a conscious effort to find things to do or experience from the top rather than the bottom of the sheet. You’ll soon find that you automatically choose activities that match the kind of positive life you desire.

Another powerful tool for reducing depression is to express gratitude daily. 

One way to do this is to keep a diary. In it, write down all the things you are grateful for, from the steadfast support a friend has shown to the warmth of spring sunshine. Write in your diary for two weeks, registering any differences in how you feel day today.

Practicing gratitude works because doing so helps you to shift your focus from what you feel is lacking in your life to the valuable things that are already there.

Research has also shown that keeping a gratitude journal can have a significant positive boost on the moods of people suffering from depression. Most of us can only think about one thing at a time. This limitation can be made an advantage, however, as it can help banish negative thought patterns.

In short, if you change your thought patterns, you can improve your mood.

Meditation

Meditation is a great way of dealing with depression as it helps relax & exercise your mind which can help you by keeping your mind off bad or negative thoughts. Furthermore, meditation increases your brain activity & this in turn creates a remarkable calmness and a positive outlook, which also has tremendous benefits on the physical health of the body. 

Mantra 

Another technique you can use when you feel like you’re spiralling downward, you can use a mantra to reverse the free-fall.

A mantra – a repeated sound, word, or phrase – works by interrupting the negative flow of thoughts.

You can come up with many words and phrases for your mantra. “Stronger” or “This too shall pass” are two examples. A mantra is most effective, however, when you come up with your own.

First, decide in which situations you’re going to use your mantra. If you find you’re stressed by incidents such as being cut off in heavy traffic, your mantra for such a moment might be, “calm” or "relax."

To make this mantra have an even more calming effect, link saying the word to an image of a placid lake or the soothing sounds of waves lapping against the shore. Self-hypnosis can help you rewrite damaging mental habits with more positive ways of thinking.

Self Hypnotism

Have you ever watched anyone be hypnotised? Unlike what many people think, hypnotism doesn’t involve a person taking control of another person.

For hypnotism to work, you have to want to be hypnotised. A hypnotist is there to act as a guide, but people really hypnotise themselves.

Behind all the mystery, there is a rational, well-defined procedure for hypnotism.

When hypnotised, you enter a trance-like state but remain conscious and aware of your surroundings. In this state, your mind becomes more suggestible, so it is easier to make positive changes to your behaviour and thought patterns.

We can think of self-hypnosis like technology. When you are hypnotised, you can fiddle with your brain’s operating system and modify programs running in the background – your subconscious thoughts. Thus self-hypnosis is an effective way to change, delete and upgrade thought patterns.

So how do you go about hypnotising yourself?

The best method is to create a soundtrack that you can listen to regularly. A soundtrack or song is a script that will help you reprogram your brain – words or sentences that emphasise the beliefs and behaviours you wish to change.

For example, your soundtrack could include phrases like, “I am becoming healthier and healthier” or “Every day I’m worrying much less and sleeping far better.” You can make your own soundtrack, for example, or purchase one pre-made. Once you’re happy with your script, listen to it in a relaxed environment. You need to listen to your soundtrack multiple times, as it can take time for change to happen. At this stage, your soundtrack has the power indeed to make you calmer, stronger, more confident and healthier. You can also find & listen to good music. Good music is one of the best mental health boosters on earth! It can make you feel happy, relaxed, sad or pumped up depending on the genre. 

When you hear music of your liking, your brain releases a chemical called dopamine that has positive effects on mood.

You may already be hypnotising yourself without even knowing it. Every time you tell yourself you can’t achieve something, you’re reinforcing thought patterns and affecting your behaviour!

Depression help begins with trying to understand the patient's situation and continue on being patient as well as always extending your help because depression help is never easy nor is the depression treatment itself, which is why both patients and loved ones need to help each other out through every step of the way. Never set goals that are high above your reach, give yourself some help by not being too hard on yourself, believe that you are good and strong enough to achieve your goals but only one step at a time.