It’s all too easy to be overwhelmed by life and fall into a depressed state, but it’s also too easy to rely on medicine to help us out when we should be directly addressing the issues that lead to depression. If you’ve got the blues again, try a head-on approach to solving problems that may not only pick you up this time, but prevent you from become depressed again.The following read this article six steps battling depression without medicine.
Six Steps to Battling Depression without Medication
1. Avoid toxic people and stressful situations. No matter how much you try to convince yourself that you can handle it, these things really bring you down. Since you cannot change people, nor your capacity to handle stress, start avoiding the people and places that really get to you.
2. Start getting better sleep. This is not only a time for your body to regenerate, it’s a time for your mind to heal. Quality sleep restores your stress levels and repairs the damage of the day. If you are not waking up feeling refreshed and ready for whatever comes your way, invest time or money into creating an environment more conducive to great slumber.
3. Maintain a strict exercise routine. Keeping this commitment works for you in many ways. It harmonizes metabolism, manages weight and energy and gives you an achievable goal every day. Working out is also a great way to alleviate much of the stress that can wear you down and lead to depression. Have a healthy, strengthening routine and stick to it.
4. Eat well. Filling your body with comfort foods that are loaded with chemicals is very counterproductive to healthy thinking; your brain is an organ just like your liver or heart and it needs nutrients! Think twice about everything you eat and how it may be contributing to your blues, or at least not helping them. Where diet is concerned, if something isn’t part of the solution, it’s usually part of the problem.
5. Get involved with what interests you. Be it sports, art, volunteerism or anything else you may be passionate about, having a hobby is good for the soul. Creative energy builds up just like stress and having a healthy release for it will work toward fighting depression. If you create something, hang it up in your house. If you are thanked for your public service, frame it and display it in a prominent place. Highlight your work and achievements and let them fuel your next accomplishment.
6. Find an effective relaxation technique. In the comfort of your own home, at a friend’s house or even a class at the gym, actively engaging in methods of relaxation will heal your mind and body. Eliminating toxic, negative and self-defeating thoughts is a necessary part of battling depression, as is learning to think about absolutely nothing! This is certainly not as easy as it may sound and the time you put in learning techniques and mastering your thinking process will serve you well for the rest of your life, in managing stress, anxiety and depression.
It is possible to overcome depression in the absence of medications. Use the above battling depression plan as a rough guide, or write your own to once and for all resolve the underlying problems leading to your depression.