Depression Self Help - All Change

Depression has been described as many things, such as a grey cloud, a black dog, an empty void or an enveloping darkness. It can be summoned by one or a combination of things, such as diet, drugs, stress and anxiety - or its cause can seem totally mysterious.

But notice what's going on here - depression is nearly always treated as an illness that attacks and consumes energy, like something you can catch. Actually, it's just a word.

"How can I have a word?" you may ask... "I definitely know I've got it, and I know it's dragging me down". Well, it's not an 'it' for starters. Depression is just a way to describe the end-result of all those negative thoughts, bad feelings, draining energy and gloom.

Okay, so you know you can't catch something that's just a description of a collection of symptoms. So why do you feel so down? Well, there are many factors that uniquely affect us in our lives, and we learn to cope with them as best we can. Sometimes, for whatever reason, we can lose the ability to cope with something - maybe too much stress or continuous anxiety over a long period.

Maybe our diet isn't giving us the nutrients we need to function effectively, or something we are taking recreationally has depleted the natural chemicals we depend on to feel normal. You might have an idea of where you may be able to take steps to give your body a chance to rebuild some of those precious resources. That's a great first step.

But at this moment of seeking depression self help, you may care less about why - just how to feel human again, even for a brief moment. Think about this - to feel depressed, your body depends on a familiar environment. Not just where you are, but what your body is doing at this moment - how you're sitting, breathing and so on.

When you change the environment you interrupt the process of feeling depressed. What can you change right now about yourself? These depression self help exercises are best performed in private, so you don't have to worry about looking 'unusual'...

Breathing: take a slow, deep breath in through your nose for a count of 2. Hold for 2, then exhale through your mouth for a count of 4. Repeat this five times then continue to breathe normally but deeper than before.

Face: pull the biggest fake smile you can and widen your eyes. It may feel stupid, but it still counts as far as your body is concerned. Even if you think you look like a serial killer, keep it going! Your body knows only that it should be smiling.

Posture: stand up, stand straight. Shake any tension out of your arms and legs.

Walk around a bit. {If you have high or low blood pressure, you should skip the following steps} Squat down, look around, stand up. Bend over and look at the world through your legs. Stand up straight again and shake yourself down.

Still smiling strangely? Good. Now try to imagine the old depressed state and notice how you feel now. Depression plays out in an environment it knows, and it doesn't know how to function effectively in this place because you don't normally go there.

This is a quick way to get some relief, here and now. Feel free to add some steps of your own if you like, as long as they're unusual. Check out further articles on this site for more depression self help insights. Oh yes, you can stop smiling now... unless you want to!


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