Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
It can be difficult for people who have not experienced the depths of mental health issues to understand just how impactful a condition can be. For example, if someone has never lived with the daily impact of depression, it can be lost on them that the condition affects you in ways you would never have imagined. Most profoundly, it takes away your ability to fight – just when you most need to find that strength.
For people who are dealing with depression, anxiety, and similar conditions, just being able to get out of bed in the morning can be a small victory in a world that seems filled with defeats. One of the most effective ways to get back to your best is by piecing together enough of those small victories – but as we have discussed, that’s easier said than done when you have a condition that is ebbing away your ability to join the fight. Any energy to keep that fight going is welcome – and below, we’ll look at ways to gain that energy.
Keep smiling – even if it isn’t how you feel
Many of us who deal with depression are familiar with the idea of putting on a brave face to spare our friends and family the trouble of seeing us in pain. Some of us even succeed in projecting a positive face when we’re feeling relentlessly negative. What many of us don’t realize is that there is a medical reason to rejuvenate your smile with BioClear or similar, and it can help us beat back the negative feelings. Simply the physical act of smiling can be beneficial because it releases endorphins and serotonin, two key chemicals that elevate mood and help the body relax.
Win one battle at a time
Dealing with negative feelings can be particularly difficult because it doesn’t feel like you’re fighting one single enemy. It feels like there are too many fronts on which to fight, and one can easily become overwhelmed. Ironically, this makes us less likely to address any of the issues in front of us, and things easily snowball from there. The answer to this problem is to refrain from trying to fix everything and focus on one thing at a time. Even if that’s just having a shower, or replying to an email, the obstacle of doing one thing can be surmounted, and can give you a boost that percolates through the rest of your experiences.
Don’t do it for anyone else
Overcoming a difficult time is always going to take a lot of energy, and there can be a tendency to listen to voices – external or otherwise – that seek to encourage you. The message that sounds most like it would motivate you can, however, have the opposite effect. You might resolve, or listen to other people advising you, to “do this for [x]”, where x means your spouse, your friend, or anyone else who matters to you. This, however, is not the best message to listen to – because if it’s hard to overcome this tough time anyway, it gets even harder by adding extra pressure. You need to get better for yourself; everything else will fall into place from there.