4 Life-changing Ways to Overcome Depression

Depression can affect anyone, at any given time or age. It is generally a disorder that causes one to experience excessive sadness, loss of interest in once enjoyable activities, and a lack of motivation. Commonly, sorrow or despair results from a loss, significant life change, stress, disappointments, and so on. Although these feelings may seem ‘normal,’ you cannot just snap out of them. For starters, it’s imperative to face depression head-on and seek help rather than neglecting the feelings altogether.

Moreover, you should incorporate the following tips to help you overcome the situation:

1. Don’t blow-off or downplay your diagnosis

Are you losing interest in activities that you once enjoyed? Have you been struggling with feelings of hopelessness or helplessness? Is it harder and harder to get through the day? If your answers to these questions are yes, then you should seek a facility that offers brain treatment in Dubai for a proper diagnosis.

Once it’s clear, that indeed you are suffering from depression, don’t push aside the diagnosis as insignificant. Your mental health should be your priority, regardless of what other things may be happening in your life. Not neglecting the condition means having the upper hand of the situation and complying with treatment recommendations.

Moreover, don’t limit your treatment options. It’s healthy to incorporate holistic treatment options to deal with depression rather than just relying on medication. For instance, psychotherapy, exercise, and mindfulness meditation are also successive ways you can tackle depressive symptoms.

• Seek help

Although people cope with depression differently, it’s essential to understand that you’re not alone. Getting support goes a long way into your road to recovery, mainly because it offers reassurance that you’re not alone. Hence, it helps you retain perspective and sustain the effort required to beat the condition.

While the very nature of depression makes it challenging to ask for help, maintaining close relationships and social activities is paramount to your mental health. Reaching out to your friends, family members, or your community’s mental health group isn’t a sign of weakness. To ensure that you are effectively reaching out and establishing beneficial relationships, try:

• Talking to at least one person about your feelings daily
• Volunteer to help others
• Going for lunch, coffee or movie dates with your loved ones
• Asking a friend or relative to check in on you regularly
• Going for a walk or jog with your workout buddy
• Joining a club or taking a class to establish new friendships
• Confiding in a therapist or counselor

• Be kind to yourself

Depression has a way of negatively spinning everything, from your self-image to the circumstances you come across to your future expectations. While you can break out from this pessimistic mind frame, positive thinking won’t cut it. But, you can replace the negative thoughts with balanced thoughts. The gist here is to avoid being so hard on yourself and learn to be kinder, gentler, and compassionate. Allow yourself to be less than perfect and try as much as possible to socialize with optimistic people to see how they tackle negative situations or thought and emulate that.

• Invest in a healthy lifestyle

Make healthy changes in your life that align with your goals to get better. For instance;

• Eat healthily

Your diet affects how you feel. Therefore, stick to a healthy balanced diet with low-fat protein, fruits, complex carbs, and vegetables. Moreover, avoid foods such as alcohol, caffeine, saturated fats, and those with high levels of chemical preservatives as they affect your mood and brain.

Additionally, avoid skipping meals and minimize your intake of sugar and refined carbs such as French fries, baked products, sugary snacks, or any other comfort foods as these can dampen your moods. In general, eat leafier greens, citrus fruits, beans, eggs, chicken, and omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, sardines, herring, tuna, among others.

• Exercise

Your energy levels tend to improve with regular exercise, which means the feeling of exhaustion that comes with depression subsides. Moreover, physical activities promote the release of a feel-good hormone, which boosts your moods. The best part is that simple activities such as dancing, walking, swimming, or even martial arts are enough.

Recovering from depression requires action. Although it may be challenging, it’s possible to overcome this period of your life. The key is to take the first step, start small, and build from there.

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Dr. Harry from German Neuroscience Center in Dubai is a UK-trained Clinical Psychologist, originally from Ireland. He completed his master’s degree in Health Psychology with the University of Ulster and completed his doctoral training in Clinical Psychology at the University of East London. He has almost a decade of experience working across a diverse range of mental health and other specialist psychology services in Ireland and the U.K.