This blog is not meant as a substitute for treatment. If you think you might be depressed, please consider seeing a therapist! You can choose whether you want treatment by therapy or by medication. Medication is not necessary to treat depression, it is a choice.
Major Depressive Disorder affects more than 16.1 million American adults, or about 6.7%of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year. Less than 2/3 of them get treatment!
The treatments can be remarkably easy to apply. Well, that is, they aren’t complicated. They may be hard to do when one is lacking motivation.
I have written about the amazingly effective treatment of exercise. Research found that walking 45 minutes a day could make your brain grow, literally. This will help alleviate depression.
But what else works? Activity of almost any kind!
In my mood management group, I teach clients to track their mood on a chart daily. Then they brainstorm a list of pleasant activities. These include social activities, hobbies, chores, calming activities, and one’s favorites, (possibly from before the depression). Then they count, each day, how many activities they did and what their mood score was. After 2-3 weeks, they come up with an average and then make a goal to increase their pleasant activities, usually by one a day, to increase their mood.
For most people, this helps.
If it doesn’t then we have to look at which activities did you have on the best mood days. We have to consider what are your favorite activities? Which activities have you done in your life, that you enjoyed so much, you lost track of time? This (these) are the activities you need more of.
I know that if I am down, I need to socialize with a friend, go dancing, do something creative, and/or snuggle.
Do you know what makes you feel good? Then do it! If it is too hard, then, again, I recommend therapy.
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