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How are you handling depression?

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Re: How are you handling depression?

#11

Post by picardo »

Like many on this thread, I've struggled with depression for a long time. What marked the turning point for me was discovering cognitive therapy[0]. It showed me that the way I talked to myself about what happened was the root cause of my depression. I'm a born pessimist. It took several years of intense effort to implement this technique in my own life, but thankfully it's allowed me to achieve serenity.

One addition I made to the CT techniques was visualizing my emotions as having distinct personalities –– Anger, Sadness, etc. I got this idea after watching the recent Pixar movie. It's silly but it really helps to picture your emotions as people who have their own agendas and are trying to manipulate you into carrying them out because then your depression becomes a people management problem. Consider the difference: 1) how can I manage Anger, Sadness or Fear so they don't drive me nuts? 2) how can I cure my depression? The first one is actionable, and the second one is not.

Despite having good results with CT, I'm convinced there is no magic cure to depression. You only manage it all your life. But that's a good thing because it means depression management is a skill you can cultivate, and that gives me hope.

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[0] http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/cognitive-therapy

Re: How are you handling depression?

#12

Post by dgudkov »

I used to have severe depressions in younger age that lasted for years killing my relationships and career. I tried various treatments but they didn't help. It went away when I learned a few things: first, how to not be enemy of myself - not force myself into doing what I don't want to do, being where I don't want to be. Second, learn how to let important things go out of my control and give life a chance to make me happy. Third, I started figuring out what I really like, and what I really want. It all took a lot of self-analysis, writing and being ultimately honest with myself. It didn't come in 1 day and it wasn't easy, but falling back into depression was a much worse scenario. So there was no silver bullet in my case, just lead bullets. But it worked.

Re: How are you handling depression?

#13

Post by panjaro »

picardo wrote: post #11

Like many on this thread, I've struggled with depression for a long time. What marked the turning point for me was discovering cognitive therapy[0]. It showed me that the way I talked to myself about what happened was the root cause of my depression. I'm a born pessimist. It took several years of intense effort to implement this technique in my own life, but thankfully it's allowed me to achieve serenity. One additio…

what was the movie name?

Re: How are you handling depression?

#14

Post by cyberjunkie »

panjaro wrote: post #13
picardo wrote: post #11

Like many on this thread, I've struggled with depression for a long time. What marked the turning point for me was discovering cognitive therapy[0]. It showed me that the way I talked to myself about what happened was the root cause of my depression. I'm a born pessimist. It took several years of intense effort to implement this technique in my own life, but thankfully it's allowed me to achieve serenity. One additio…

what was the movie name?

Inside Out presumably. I should watch it too.

Re: How are you handling depression?

#17

Post by teekaay »

I am dealing with a bipolar disorder since I was 16. After an episode of total motivation and some kind of reckless/risky behavior (cutting off friends because they "do not fit" anymore, excessive exercising whatever interest you in this moment and so on) a depressive episode is following, taking you and your motivation down. Dealing with depression is hard and it gets even harder when your social life and work performance is suffering because that takes you down even more. Also, eventually reduce your amount of work and consider taking a day off for a a consecutive amount of weeks. When you trust your boss, talk to him. Executives are also humans!

Some people mentioned doing sports and in my opinion, this is one of the most helpful things one can do. Running a mile maybe one or two times a week can clear your mind from lots of negative thoughts and make you feel happier. In addition to that, some people like Yoga/Pilates to calm down and rearrange themselves. After all, the very most important step is getting professional help! Depression can influence your whole life and it is always good to have someone who is listening.

Summarized: - Get professional help - Do sports - Write down what you feel - Reduce stress

Re: How are you handling depression?

#18

Post by srose3100 »

Sometimes depression is situation based and sometimes it isn't. As a general rule there are 3 aspects/areas of your life:

1. Home life: How our your living conditions, bills, people you live with. Are you comfortable?

2. Work life(e.g. Work/Study/Job hunting): Do you enjoy what you do and is it a good working environment?

3.Relationships: How are you getting on with Friends, Family, boyfriend/girlfriend e.t.c?

If one of these area's is off then it's ok and you can usually cope if two or more are off then you definitely need to try and change something. Alwyas talk to someone about these feelings/situations as it's very hard to think clearly or logically during these times you definatley need a second opinion. And somethign to be aware of that a lot of people don't seem to know is imposter syndrome which most people deal with at sometime or other. When you have the idea that although you can do something your actually just fakeing it and eventually wil be found out: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/nov/09/impostor...

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