How to cope with depression and anxiety
Depression is one of the nastiest conditions. A person becomes irritable, feels exhausted and hopeless, cannot focus on something, his thinking deteriorates, and anxiety arises. But how do one cope with depression and anxiety? There are several ways to do it.
Overwhelming often arises from excessivenesses, such as too much work or not enough time and money. Making not entirely correct logical conclusions, a person may think that he will not succeed because he lacks some kind of resource. He feels that he has lost control of the situation at such moments, and all that remains for him is to lie in the fetal position and close in himself.
Feeling overwhelmed affects both mental and physical health, so you should get rid of it as soon as possible. How to do it? There are several ways.
Bring organization into your life
Having a mess in your head is not conducive to your mental health. You start rushing from one task to another, and the brain considers them more and more impracticable with each such transition. This leads to depression, the feeling that you will not cope with your task.
What can help you organize your thoughts and actions? There are many tools, from a simple notepad to electronic notebooks, to help you create a to-do list and categorize them according to their importance. Start each day with a to-do list, order tasks by importance and due date. Before you go to bed, check your to-do list for tomorrow and see if there are any more important tasks to complete first.
Focus on one thing at a time
Multitasking, often passed off as a positive quality actually harms the brain. The fact is that our brain is not particularly designed to perform several tasks and begins to malfunction as soon as you switch between one activity and another and back. You may feel like doing multiple tasks is saving you time, but this is not the case. When you multitask, your work efficiency is reduced. In addition, it leads to the production of stress hormones that suppress the psyche.
Therefore, to avoid depression or get out of this state, focus on only one thing. When you complete this task, you can move on to the next. If the task cannot be fully completed now, put it aside and do another.
Get rid of unnecessary obligations
Trying to seem as independent as possible, many people take on an unbearable burden, which leads to excessive workload and busyness. This is one of the most common triggers of depression.
What can you do about it? First of all, delegate some of your powers. This concept includes a shareware separation of duties, such as a request for help from relatives and friends, and a paid one, such as outsourcing. Stop thinking that if you don’t do the task yourself, other people will do it wrong or not do it at all. Yes, there are serious tasks that you need to do yourself because of the experience, but they are worth sharing, and the rest of the cases that do not require such an approach can be entrusted to others.
If finances allow you, outsource some of them not particularly pleasant actions. These include cleaning the house, helping with the child, and so on. While it can cost you a lot, it can help you unload and relieve feelings of depression. Think of this spending as a contribution to your psychological health and longevity and not as an expense for things that you yourself are capable of doing.
Introduce as much automation as possible
Today, there is no need to perform many tasks manually. It is enough to set them up once, and that’s it, you no longer have to deal with the dull repetition of the same thing. And if so, then you will free up more time to perform really important tasks, which will help you unload your psyche and reduce the likelihood of feeling overwhelmed. Such tasks, for example, include paying utility bills, sending mail, and so on.
Learn to say no
In the film “Always Say Yes,” the main character, who constantly refused everyone around him, including himself, was forced to participate in a kind of experiment and agree with everyone. You need to learn to say no and not only to other people but also to your desires and ambitions. And when it comes to saying no, I mean an adequate assessment of one’s capabilities and not turning into a sad curmudgeon who only knows how to refuse.
Understand that saying no is not selfish. When you give up something that doesn’t bother or hurt you but that can take away your time and energy, you reduce the risk of psychological overload and depression. The better you analyze the situation and set priorities correctly, the more you will free up resources, realizing how many unnecessary things were in your daily routine.
Bring the routine to life
Depression, unlike apathy, does not require you to add variety to your life in order to cheer up. Since depression is most often associated with overwhelming, on the contrary, you need to bring a routine into your life. Do something on a daily basis, make life more measured and calm. You will feel less worried about what you have to do or have not done yet because you will understand that everything is going according to your plan.
If you are getting bored and feel that you have already gotten rid of the depression, you can gradually bring new things to the routine.
Give up perfectionism
Have you heard the phrase “the best is the enemy of the good”? This is indeed the case. Trying to achieve perfection, you do extra work because nothing is perfect. Come to the idea that this world is not ideal, and any object, any action contains errors. This is fine. It is enough to fulfill the set goals well and stop there. Without striving for perfection, you will free your mind from constantly interfering thoughts that push you to do extra work.
Do breathing exercises and meditate
It seems that the growing popularity of breathing exercises is just another round of fashion, an unsubstantiated phenomenon like homeopathy. But in fact, breathing exercises are one of the most effective ways to relax your psyche. The fact is that slow and controlled breathing stimulates the vagus nerve and activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is also responsible for rest. It is enough to perform breathing exercises for five minutes to reduce the effect of stress arising from emotional overload.
Meditation also helps in this matter. This is not about some kind of paranormal practice but about quite scientific things. Relaxing postures, coupled with breathing practices and clearing away unnecessary thoughts, can help get rid of the feeling of depression, or at least reduce its effect on the psyche.
