Hina Ansari M.Ed., LPCC
A lot of people seek therapy when they are face with debilitating depression. Depression symptoms are uniform but what is feels like and how it starts id very subjective to a person’s own experience. Some of the symptoms may look like depressed mood, loss of interest and pleasure in activities, indecisiveness, excessive guilt, isolation from people, lack of energy and fatigue, difficulties with concentration, agitation within in the body and sleep and appetite disturbance. In more severe cases, we may see a deep sense of hopelessness and suicidality. The question is how do you help these symptoms? The most important thing here is to seek professional help immediately if you feel the need to harm yourself or others. As a cautionary note, if you see someone struggling with depressive illness you can help them with connecting with resources like NAMI, suicide helpline that can connect them to the necessary people and resources to provide them with the help they need. Let discuss some small ways to help with depression.
1. Make a connection with others to seek support.
Your depression is telling you to stay away from people: to help your depression you would engage in opposite action
Which is, that to fight the urge of isolation you move towards seeking peer support and establishing connection.
2. Making goals.
The depressive symptoms may make you frozen in inaction, creating goals for the future help you to refocus on your values and priorities in life, it diverts your attention from the past and makes you focused on your future.
3. Using Mindfulness techniques.
Using coping mechanism and distractions to stay away from the trap of constant rumination of depressive thoughts.using breathwork and regular meditative practices helps to calm the limbic system; where the distressful material is store and is activated. Engaging in a regular meditative practice has far reaching benefits as proven by numerous research. Mindfulness is being aware of what is happening in your mind, and how is it effecting the emotions within your body at the present moment. When you practice regular meditation, you are able to detect changes of small or shifts in emotions and you can regulate those shifts using breathing techniques and meditation.
4. Using coping mechanisms.
You can help your symptoms of depression by using coping mechanism. What are coping mechanism? Coping mechanisms are ways we regulate our negative emotional state to regulate our day-to-day emotions by keeping a watchful eye on emotional distress and dysregulation that is happening with in our bodies. Coping mechanism can be described as things that lift your spirits.
Coping mechanisms serve as a diversion from ruminative things and negative emotions.
5. Using affirmations.
6. Being grateful.
