Depression Help

Depression Help: Where to Turn

Everyone feels the sting of depression from time to time. Depending on the kind of person you are, you may or may not wish to consider alternative types of treatment other than traditional therapy and medication. As long as you are not having thoughts of harming yourself, perhaps you’d benefit from taking some time to research the different types of treatment, or to relax and take a step back from daily life in order to let resolution manifest of its own accord.

Everyone is different. Some people need to talk with someone, and this is the only way that he or she is likely to come to a solution or a plateau from which recuperative work can be carried out. If you consider yourself to be this type of person perhaps you’d do best seeking a psychotherapist with whom you can discuss your feelings. If talking is important to you, avoid psychiatrists, as these mental health professionals are likely to push drugs and minimize therapy unless you seek a therapist in addition to treatment by a psychiatrist.

How To Cope With Depression

Again, if you are suffering extreme depression or your depression is accompanied by many bouts of anxiousness each day then you may feel better skipping straight to professional help of some kind. However, if you have a little patience and some sense of self direction you may very well do better simply taking a step back and reassessing your life.

Many times depression comes about as a way for our deeper selves to let us know that we’re missing out on some goal or that current perspectives are not matching up with what our lives are like. Basically, depression is an aspect of ourselves telling us that we’re not happy. When we stop to consider the clues we can often put together these pieces to form some idea of which direction in life will lead us back to a sense of satisfaction and wellbeing.

Depression: You're Not Alone

There are a number of excellent informational websites about depression as well as online discussion boards where you can research and discuss topics related to depression. This can be a great way to get a head start on your own self discovery, or to supplement professional treatment of your depression.

Depression Symptoms

Treating Depression Symptoms with Respect

Have you been feeling particularly down in the dumps for such an uncharacteristically long amount of time that you’ve considered taking anti-depressant drugs? Uncomfortable symptoms are the body’s way of telling us that something isn’t right physically, uncomfortable emotions (as well as physical ones) are the psyche’s way of trying to tell us what we’re lacking mentally, emotionally or more collectively, ‘spiritually’.

Let’s say you become violently sick and keep throwing up. You happen to have some anti-nausea pills so you pop a few of those. Then you remember that codeine prescription left over from a broken arm a couple of years ago so you decide a couple of those couldn’t hurt. The codeine numbs the pain to such a degree that you’re not aware of the localized pain in the right side of your abdomen. In this scenario you’ve just managed to prolong treatment of appendicitis, an easily curable yet deadly situation if left untreated for longer for very long at all. Pain is your body telling you where the problem is.

Similarly, depression is some deeper aspect of ourselves telling us where our mental or emotional pain is located: in our happy-sad indicator. Depression is just a sign that we should take a step back and reexamine what it is that makes us feel most satisfied, productive, helpful or complete in life. No one is happy all the time, but things like satisfaction and feeling comfortable with our niche in life are what makes life feel worth living. If we’re feeling depressed it’s time to redefine what it is that gives us these happy-feeling sensations of accomplishment or belonging.

It’s okay to be depressed. Realize mentally that it’s part of a cycle of discovery and redirection, while giving yourself emotional room to just feel it for a while. Ride it out and see what tomorrow brings.

Depression

What to do with depression

Depression can be an opportunity for growth in disguise, it can be short lived or progressively intense for longer periods of time, but one thing we should try to avoid is medicating it without first trying to discover what it symbolizes.

In much of today’s modern and Westernized culture we look for solutions. We isolate and classify every bit of information we encounter rather than looking at things in terms of a larger perspective. When it comes to physical, emotional or mental discomfort this has come to mean looking for simple solutions to whatever ails us. If you get a headache, take some aspirin. If you get depressed, go to the doctor and he/she will give you some ‘anti-depressants’.

What is Depreesion

Treating symptoms rather than looking deeper to root causes or at the image of whole mind-body health tends to… treat symptoms and little else. Symptoms are the body’s way of telling us that it needs something it’s not getting, that it’s getting too much of something, or that it’s fighting off an infection, in which case symptoms can help us determine what it is that will assist the body in its fight.

When we get the flu or a cold we sometimes find that we suddenly begin craving juice and things with vitamin C. Sometimes when we’re ill we lose our appetites in order to be able to focus all the body’s energy on fighting the infection. We use a huge amount of resources during food digestion. Lack of appetite is a very effective way to redirect the body’s natural defensive powers.

Depression is also a sign, a sign that we’re not happy. That’s pretty obvious, but think about it for a moment. If some deeper layer of ourselves is trying to make us realize that we’re unhappy is it likelier that taking some happy pills is going to make us truly happy, or taking the time to reconsider just what it is that makes us feel satisfied? In this way depression can be very much the hidden opportunity for growth. When we’re forced to reconsider our life choices, daily activities and the like we’re apt to discover or revisit different ways of thinking and experiences that fit better with the person we are today.

Youth Depression

With the exception of extreme cases where individuals truly feel they might harm themselves –where anti-depressant drug therapy may help give some extra ‘space’ to tackle depression in manageable packets—depression should be seen as the heralding of a burst of change. Change, after all, is the only constant. We feel death pangs as we outgrow old perspectives and ways of living; just as night unfolds to the next day, depression always yields the birth of new happiness, fresh ideas about what is satisfying and how to manifest these inspirations in our lives. In the meantime go ahead and let yourself feel bummed or downright crushed and hollow. These are the ‘little deaths’ that signal our personal evolutionary milestones.