How To Overcome Depression
Do you feel sad, depressed, lonely, have no purpose, no drive, always asking why me?
This was me over 15 years ago. I have experienced depression and it was not fun. The good thing about my experience was how I was able to overcome it. Not a lot of people talk about ways to solve it, they just prescribe a pill to mask your symptoms. I don’t know about you but that is not the solution to solving this issue.
How Doctors Like To Treat People With Depression
This is not medical advice but basically a personal opinion. Doctors like to prescribe medication to clients as a means to solve everything. If you look at natural ways of healing yourself aka alternative medicine, they will help find the root cause of it. Doctor’s tend to prescribe pills to mask the symptoms. Masking the issue doesn’t make it go away. On top of that, most of these prescription pills have side effects that can be deadly to your health.
How To Overcome Depression Yourself
You can choose the alternative medicine route where they can help identify the root cause of it.
Another route is just doing it yourself. In my personal experience, when I was depressed growing up, it was because I didn’t have goals in life. I wasn’t focused, I was letting life go by as if I was on autopilot. When strangers walk by I did not properly answer when asked how my day was. Instead of having an optimistic outlook on life I just said I was fine. Is this the way you want to live your life? I am glad I was questioning my life and making a change that solved my depression issue.
The first step in solving my issue was to think of what I wanted in life. What do I want to achieve? How do I want my life to be in 5 years from now? 10 years from now? What house do I want to live in? What car do I want to own? What lifestyle do I want to have? Do I want to travel a lot? Do I want a big family of my own?
I questioned everything. Then I wrote down a list of things I wanted to achieve. This list of goals helped drive me to want more and create a sense of purpose in life.
The second step is getting outside the house. Being stuck at home all day, every day is not good for your health and well-being. We all should get outdoors to meet friends, family, take walks, and enjoy life. Social interaction is another plus we need. Attending live music, parties, friend or family events, or just hanging out at the mall will do wonders. We need to switch up our life once in a while and experience new things.
The third step is the most important one, and this is getting exercise. Go to a gym or set up one in your home. You need to break a sweat, build your muscles, and do cardio. You ever hear anyone complain after a good hard workout? Never. Your body will thank you.
Our bodies need to release sweat through the skin. This is one of the many ways our body detox all that junk out of our body. Sweat also helps us cool down and releases hormones that make us happier. That alone will help solve your depression issue. As weeks go by you will notice a difference in your body and emotions. You will be happier, and more ambitious as you work out. May even lose weight and gain muscle. Be sure to track your progress using a weight scale.
The fourth step is making sure you are not nutritionally deficient. Get a checkup from your doctor, and have them check your vitamin levels through blood work. Having a deficiency can also be the root cause of your depression. When our body isn’t functioning properly we get symptoms to alert us that something is wrong. This could be the cause of it.
The fifth step is to make small wins every day. Write down a list of easy tasks that you want to accomplish each day. Such as getting groceries, or checking the mail, or catching up with old friends or family on the phone. As you complete each task, cross it off the list. You will gain a sense of being productive as you do everything you needed to do that day. This will make you feel good.
The sixth step is to walk in nature where there are a lot of trees. I do not know why but this has been effective in my experience. There is nothing more relaxing than walking in a green environment. It has a calming effect at times. I invite you to try it.
The seventh step is to get your vitamin D levels checked. One sign of being deficient is depression. Taking vitamin D supplmenets is essential for everyone.
Conclusion
What is depression? For me depression is when I didn’t have a life purpose, it’s when I didn’t have goals. Create your goals, and your desires, get daily exercise, lose weight, gain muscle, complete simple and hard tasks every day, and get outside more.
Do that for a month or so and then come back and tell me how you feel. Have these steps helped you improve?