Coping With Depression | 6 Effective Ways to Cope With Depression.

Depression is an illness that affects us both physically and mentally. Depression drains your energy and hope thereby making it difficult to take the steps that will enable you go forward and become better. Sometimes, just thinking about the things you should do to feel better, like exercising or spending time with friends, may seem a little exhausting or impossible to put into action. Depression on its own can make a person exhibit unruly behaviour that never existed before. Here in this article, I'm going to show you 6 effective ways to cope with depression.

Here's the deal:
People can easily become depressed as a result of very little things or unfortunate circumstances. The way back on your feet might not be easy at all times. Some people copes with depression easily while others go through a lot of stress during this period. In a short while, I'm going to show you 6 effective ways to cope with depression. Read the story below;

BUCK'S STORY OF DEPRESSION: 
Buck was a guy who was depressed and he always went to the gym to cool off. If you want full info of the story, read it through the link provided above.

SOPHIE'S PERSONAL STORY OF DEPRESSION & ANXIETY: 

Now before I show you some effective ways to cope with depression, I would like to tell you some other things you should never ever tell or do to a depressed person. If these things are repeated continuously, it might lead to mental illness and disorders.

a) "There are Others who are in worse condition than you are":
This message you're trying to pass across is good and should be encouraged but in the receivers perspective, it may not be seen that way. This may lead to something else which may be worse than the previous condition.

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b) "Be Strong, Suck It Up and Be Positive":
Your Statement may not be to hurt or affect the victim in any negative way. But with the phrases mentioned above, you might end up doing just that. What many do not understand about depression is that depression makes a person loose focus and concentration in life for that particular time and also reduces the sleeping time of the person.

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c) Lastly never say "I know How You Feel":
Saying this only worsens the condition of the person. If you have never experienced depression, then you have no idea of what's going on with the individual. But if you have gone through that before then you can share some of your experiences with the person and make sure you don't focus on only yourself.

You might be wondering:
Now I know what I shouldn't do and say to someone that is depressed, what are the ways in helping them cope with depression. Well, I was just about getting to that. Below are 6 effective ways to cope with depression:

1) Connect With Your Environment and People Around:

This method is not known to all but is an effective way to cope with depression.
People that are depressed tend to withdraw from others and they prefer being on their own but this only worsens the condition and situation for them as there will be every tendency for them to be lonely and thereby leaving them lost into their own thoughts.

Now, from the photo above, we can say that in a depressed state, a person tends to remember other sad events and happenings in his life and other life problems he has to fix too.

Want to know the best part; exercises can help a person when he or she is depressed. If you read one of the stories with the link given above, you will see a young man called Buck who was depressed. He got rid of his own by going to the gym on daily basis for a period of time.

Again, when we talk to someone we can easily confide in about our feelings, it helps to reduce depression a long way. Contact one of your friends that you haven't seen in a long time by either calling them, sending them a text or even through email. Have a good time by going out with a partner or friends either to watch a movie or just for a nice stroll.

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2) Medication:

Depression is a mental illness. So one of the effective ways to cope with depression is to take medication prescribed by an health professional. Medications really go a long way in helping us cope with depression. An health professional gives us some basic medications that we should take in order to get rid of depression. It doesn't work like magic but it helps us reduce the rate at which depression affects us. Let me show you this.

This story is of young girl who was depressed and decided to go on self medication which is totally wrong. Since she didn't know the right drugs to take she ended up taking different drugs and took overdose of all the drugs she self prescribed and it later ended up taking her life.

What am I trying to say in essence here, taking medications is not a bad or wrong idea. It becomes wrong when we solely decide not to consult an health professional who knows the exact medications to prescribe to us.

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Some even end up taking hard drugs which is way more worse than self prescription. Hard drugs changes the way we think. It changes our perspective of life and reality. Taking hard drugs might only make our depression worse at the latter.

3) Therapy:

Going for therapy is a great and effective way to cope with depression. Therapy teaches the depressed person to manage and control his or her thoughts which are mostly negative and leads to the feeling of worthlessness and depression. It also helps us to combat our frequent loss of energy even when we are not physically active.

Therapy is most recommended to people as a result of the positive impact it has had on others. Therapy has proven to be very effective and one of the best ways to cope with depression. Almost 75% of people with different stages of depression who go for therapy have been known to improve and get better with time.

There are two different types of therapy;
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (which is also know as CBT) and in severe cases, Electroconvulsive Therapy (which is also known as ECT).

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is very effective in helping others cope with depression. This method is for those with little or minor behavioural depression issues. Therapists here use different methods to handle their patients. While Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is meant for people with severe depression cases and this sometimes requires the use of force on patients.

4) Stay Healthy:

Depression causes different things which will in turn deteriorate our health level. Keeping a balanced healthy life is an effective way to cope with depression. Depression deprives a person of sleep, brings loss of appetite and also simulates stress along side with it. So make sure you set a target of sleeping for exactly 8 hours at night because depression can cause someone to sleep less or sleep too much which has its own effect on our brain.

Create a sleeping schedule for yourself in order to keep a balanced healthy life.

Healthy living also involves eating good meals. We can easily cope with depression by trying to get rid of our loss of appetite. If we feel no need to eat, then we should invite someone over and preparing a nice meal for both of you. If it's possible, invite your family over for a special dinner night. That will help you to overcome your loss of appetite.

Lastly on this point, we should find a way to keep stress in check. Many things can trigger depression and that includes stress. Find out and gather information on all the things that stress you out; it can be work, it can be your kids or anything at all. Find out how to be in control of the whole situation and reduce pressure.

5) Education & Enlightenment:

People who are feeling depressed should be enlightened and given basic education as this goes a long way in helping them cope with depression. Education is also one of the effective ways to cope with depression. Education & enlightenment gives the victim basic knowledge and understanding of their current predicament and helps him or her gain control over depression.

Some of those people who are depressed are still suffering because they don't know any way out and they have no idea on how to control and manage the disorder. Education is not only important to the victim. Families and caretakers should be educated because this will increase the assistance a family can grant to any of their member who is under depression.

Information should be passed across that even if a person is going through a critical stage or episode of depression, there is a solution and treatment for them.

Like we all know, "Being ignorant is really dangerous". If we say we don't know how to handle depression on our own, then I would refer you back to my first point.

6) Engage in Activities You Enjoy:

When feeling depressed, its best you engage in your regular activities that gives you joy and males you happy. In order to achieve and maximize this effective way of coping with depression, do things that gives you relaxation and things that energize you.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and keeping stress in check also helps when you engage in activities that makes you feel good. Create a fun schedule every day that is set to make you enjoy your day without any stress.

Do things that make you feel good
In order to overcome depression, you have to do things that relax and energize you. This includes following a healthy lifestyle, learning how to better manage stress, setting limits on what you’re able to do, and scheduling fun activities into your day.

As we know, you can't just will or force yourself to have fun but it is very possible that you can make yourself engage in one or two activities that will help you relax each and every day. Doing this regularly will gradually help you in managing and coping with depression.

What's the bottom line?
Depression doesn't come when we are happy and in the right mood. Most times, depression comes when we are sad. Do things to keep you happy.
I bet if we follow at least two of the effective steps mentioned above, we will see that depression will gradually leave our lives.