Top 10 Proven Ways You Can Overcome Depression

To save you from having depression, this article focuses on enlightening you about depression and how you can lose its grip on you.

One of the mental health disorders that has become a serious concern today is depression. You can face this mental health challenge without even realizing it.

Depression leaves you feeling overwhelmed and helpless for long. This, in turn, negatively affects you, your relationship, and productivity.

Your mental health and overall well-being are at risk when you are depressed.

You can felt unsure if you are battling depression. To help you gain clarity and understand yourself better, let’s discuss the signs and symptoms of depression.

Signs and Symptoms of Depression

Some situations can toil with your emotions. But it may not necessarily mean that you are experiencing depression.

You can experience mood swings and switches because of your daily experiences.

However, depression occurs when your life experience leaves a lingering negative effect on you for over two weeks. This is a cause for alarm.

If you are experiencing any of the following, then know that you may have depression.

Suicidal thoughts and attempts: The awareness of making a mistake alongside the continuous feeling of guilt can make you welcome negative thoughts of ending your life.

If you experience this, it shows that you have depression and your mental health is at stake.

The thought of ending your life is a sign of severe depression (clinical depression) which requires medication and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for treatment.

The prolonged feeling of loneliness: Excessive feeling of loneliness is an indicator that you are experiencing depression. The decision to stay strictly on your own can be a result of betrayal, grieving, business loss and physical abuse. Depression leaves you vulnerable and out of reach for people to help you.

Staying all by yourself and avoiding the company of caring family and friends can put you at risk.

Lack of enthusiasm to live and make a difference: Depression leaves you in low spirits.

As such, you lack the internal motivation to push through life when you are depressed. When you experience a lack of enthusiasm in approaching life, kindly seek help.

The feeling of failure and helplessness: Mistakes are still part of the learning process in life.

But, when your mistakes, failures, and disappointments guilt-trip you endlessly, this feeling plunges your mental health into a mess and depression is near to you.

When you experience the above, you may face depression. However, depressive disorder (depression) can have different symptoms for different individuals.

It can also occur once or in a recurring manner. If you are wearing this shoe, you are not alone. It is time to seek help on how to overcome depression.

If you are in a depressive mood, you can change the narrative. But how can you effectively overcome depression? Keep reading to find out.

1. Make Positive Affirmations

Depression brings up a lot of negatives. You may struggle with negative thoughts, attitudes, and feelings when depressed.

So, you need to speak the right words to your subconscious mind to overcome depression.

Speaking positive words engineers your mind to conceive yourself differently. It counters the negatives that come with depression.

You need to speak positive words like “I am strong, I achieve all I conceive in my mind, I achieve all my goals today, I live above circumstances, I am born to win, and I deserve the best in life”.

In doing so, you are intentional in creating self-awareness and projecting a positive self-image of yourself in your mind.

Make positive affirmations a daily practice for yourself, the day’s activities, and your work.

2. Practice Self-care

To live above depression, you need to implement daily self-care practices. Reward yourself for achieving any set goals.

The way you celebrate your friends, also choose to celebrate yourself and your wins. Embrace your strength and unique journey.

Create time to relax your body, rest, and sleep to improve your mental health and life. Be kind to yourself by forgiving yourself of the mistakes you made.

Eat healthy food. Don’t wait till you are in hospital admission before you eat fruits and vegetables.

Focus on getting adequate nutrition when you feed. Eating a balanced diet provides nourishment to your body.

Healthy habits like eating good food fuels your brain to be articulate and improve its general function. You can occasionally eat together with people of like minds.

3. Talk to Someone

Depression can keep you locked up not to admit that you are feeling depressed about seeking help.

One way to break free from depression is to talk to someone who truly cares for you.

You can choose to talk to your spouse, a friend, or a family member about the challenge you are facing.

Sometimes laying bare what you are facing can make you feel light from the weight of depression.

It will also make you seek solutions before things get out of hand.

Always remember that we need one another to survive in life. So, all you need to do is to reach out.

If you have a friend or family member living with depression. You can reach out to such a person since many people find it difficult to discuss their mental health challenges.

You can start by telling your friend how much you care and desire to see him succeed in life.

Then you bring up the person’s mood change and how you will support him to improve his mental health.

4. Engage in Physical Exercise

Depression cripples you from engaging productively in your daily activities. To overcome depression, ensure you exercise your body. This keeps you alert, agile, and full of energy.

Physical exercise enables you to relieve stress, which improves your mood and overall well-being.

After a difficult time, instead of lying low in defeat and self-pity, intentionally engage in physical exercise.

You can take a walk, breathe deeply, and jog. It enables you to starve your worries and adjust your mind to more important things. You can also swim to cool off after a stressful week.

Other effects of physical activity on mental health include easing anxiety, improving sleep, and reducing depression.

5. Join a Supportive Community

Not everyone understands the reality of depression. Yet, some groups understand it and commit themselves to raising awareness about depression.

They also provide support to people who are depressed. These groups can be government organizations, non-profit organizations, and social groups.

We all need a community to grow. You need a community that advocates for mental health that can help you journey through depression and overcome it.

Joining such a community will help you eliminate the feeling of loneliness. The right community has a way of creating a safe space for you to talk about your challenge and get real help.

In receiving help from a mental health support group, you find your feet in helping others overcome depression.

6. Practice Meditation

In a busy world, meditation can help you stay quiet and manage depression effectively.

Meditation is simply an act of being quiet and focusing your mind on a particular thought or feeling.

As simple as this may sound, continuous meditation can help you overcome depression and live a purposeful life.

Negative emotions tend to easily get a grip on you, but with meditation, you can set your mind on the right emotions.

You can choose today to have a lifestyle change of making meditation your habit.

Some of the common meditation are

• Sitting meditation

• Mindfulness meditation

• Walking meditation

• Breath awareness meditation

• Spiritual meditation

• Visualization meditation

Meditation is a powerful means of managing depression. 

7. Spend Time with Loved Ones

Spending time with the right people who genuinely care for you will relieve you of anxiety and bring you comfort.

Sometimes, all you need to bounce out of depression is to be amid real people who are humane.

This real person can be someone who listens to you without condemning you, even though you have made many mistakes.

Sometimes, spending time with loved ones implies leaving what causes the depression to move to a peaceful environment.

It can still leave a toxic work environment to a more supportive workplace.

8. Talk to a Psychologist

Anything that tampers with your mental health is a threat to your well-being. So, depression is not an exception.

If you are experiencing a hard time that you are down emotionally and socially, talk to a psychologist.

Some places you can walk in to talk about your problems for free are student support centres and mental health-oriented Non-Profit Organizations.

Speaking out about depression to the right person is the beginning of your healing process. Don’t let depression end your life in silence.

If you have reservations about spilling your struggle with depression to your family or friends.

Then, you need to speak with a Psychologist. Don’t keep silent about depression.

9. Keep a Gratitude Journal

Staying grateful and keeping a gratitude journal can help you overcome depression.

It is easy to remember the problems that you are facing any day anytime, even when you are eating.

But, it is easier to forget many things that have happened right in your life and start feeling terrible.

This shows that it requires extra effort to always stay mentally balanced and live above depression.

Keeping a gratitude journal is a sure way to monitor your progress and overcome depression.

A gratitude journal is a recording tool that makes you look deep within and appreciate even the little things around you.

Often, you may admire the successes of others and you overlook your wins, achievements, and milestones.

Staying grateful for the little things that happen in your life will help you maintain positive mental health.

Looking through the pages of the gratitude journal creates a positive feeling and outlook towards life.

10. Stay Positive

One way to overcome depression is to stay positive. Your past experiences can make you pessimistic and irritable.

It can further make you lose faith in your abilities and see only the negative in everything.

Also, you can intentionally avoid the news and social media so they don’t affect your mental health.

Worry and anxiety add nothing positive to your life. Instead, they make you wallow in depression.

You need to set your priorities right and stay positive. Cultivating a positive mindset can help you face each day with strength and vigour.

In staying positive, you challenge your negative thoughts and endless assumptions.

Conclusion

While depression is not a death sentence, it is important to seek help if you experience it.

Do not ignore your prolonged feelings of loneliness, frustration, hopelessness, and thoughts to end your life.

Reach out to a psychologist and loved ones to discuss your depressed mood. You need the right people, mental attitude and therapy to manage your mental health.

To overcome depression, be more kind to yourself to speak positive affirmations, maintain a self-care routine, engage in physical exercise, and spend time with loved ones. You will be alright.

Frequently Asked Questions