7 Tips to Care for Your Depression

Written by: Joe Jardine

Depression affects millions of people in the United States. It can be caused by things like genetics, life events, and even chemical imbalances! Depression can make it difficult to do everyday activities, and can even lead to thoughts of suicide or self-harm. If you're struggling with depression, it's important to seek professional help. However, there are also things that you can do on your own to care for your depression. In this blog post, we'll discuss seven tips that can help you manage your depression and improve your life!

1) Understand your depression

As with all things mental health, depression is complicated. Why? Because humans are complicated. It's important to understand your depression in order to know how best to manage it. Before you get to the next point (seek professional help) there are things you can do to start to wrap your head around how depression is affecting you. Grab a journal or notebook, take some time and ask yourself the following questions. What are the symptoms of your depression? What triggers them? When do they occur? What makes you feel better or worse? Taking the time to answer these questions can help you understand your depression on a deeper level, which will help you manage it more effectively.

2) Seek professional help

If you are experiencing symptoms of depression, it's important to know that there is help available. For example, if your depression is making it difficult for you to go to work or school or participate in other activities, antidepressants may be a good option. You can also get counseling and therapy from licensed therapists who specialize in treating mental health issues like depression.

We watch it time and time again with clients we work with: they thought they were hopeless but when they came to a professional, they realized that overcoming depression was actually possible! While deciding what professional help you are going to seek out, a few things are worth considering:

1. Do they specialize in what you're facing? Many professionals specialize in certain populations (marriage, family, or substance abuse, for example). It's important to know if the person who's helping you can help with your specific struggle.
2. Are you looking for something in-person or virtual? There are benefits and drawbacks to both. We offer most of our counseling virtually to fit with our clients' schedules and because we serve clients across the country.
3. What is in your budget? Some therapy services can be expensive! If it seems like it's out of your reach, you can check if your health insurance will help cover your services. Or, you can look into other options like our reset groups. They are groups that meet every other week with one of our licensed mindset coaches that provide real-life help to real-life problems.

3) Connect with others

One of the best things you can do for your mental health is to connect with others. This could mean joining a support group, talking to friends and family, or even getting involved in a church. We recommend that you find what works best for you and make it a priority to connect with others on a regular basis! We have two different types of reset groups that might be a good fit. One focuses on performance mindset, geared primarily for athletes. The other focuses more on mental health in general and helping people overcome obstacles that are holding them back in life.

Mental health is a team sport. Often, the scariest part is opening up to a friend or family member about your struggle with depression. But we see all the time in our practice that when people let others in on the challenge, they feel a burden lifted, not added.

4) Take care of yourself physically

When we're feeling down, it's easy to let our physical health slide. But taking care of yourself physically is one of the most important things you can do to help manage your depression! This includes eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, and maintaining personal hygiene.

One thing that's been proven time and again to be helpful in managing mental health is exercise. The research has been done and it's clear: moving our bodies helps us manage anxiety, depression, and stress. We're all busy but if we can commit to getting some kind of physical activity every day, it will help with our mental health tremendously! Even if it's just a brisk walk to start our day, it makes a big difference in clearing your head and resetting your mind for whatever lies ahead.

5) Get enough sleep

This one is a biggie! Sleep affects you more than you may realize. As much as it can seem like the answer to your depression is escapism behaviors like binging TV, or staying up late. Sleep actually works wonders. When we are low on sleep, we are usually more irritable, have a harder time focusing, and feel less in control over what we do, think, or feel.

On the other hand, when we are in a rough spot, our first instinct is often to hibernate and get as much sleep as possible. And while it's important to rest when you're feeling down, getting too much sleep can actually backfire. It can make you lethargic, apathetic, and just bleh.

If you're having trouble getting enough sleep, try to limit your screen time before bed. The blue light from your phone or computer can make it difficult for our brains to wind down and prepare for restful sleep. You could also use an app that helps track and improve your sleeping habits like Sleep Cycle (IOS only) or Pillow (IOS and Android).

6) Take breaks from social media

Social media can be a great way to stay connected with friends and family, but it can also be a major source of stress. Even if we don't realize it, social media is a natural gateway into comparison, jealousy, and fear of mission out. Whether you see it as a problem or not, try taking a break from social media for a week and see how you feel. For that week, delete the apps from your phone.

You could also limit how much time you spend on social media each day. Instead of checking Facebook first thing in the morning or spending an hour on Instagram before bed, try allocating a set amount of time for each. That way, you're still staying connected, but you're not letting social media take over your life!

7) Be intentional about who you spend time with

When you're going through a difficult time, it's critical to be intentional with the people who are in your life. There are some people that bring you up, and others that tear you down. Life-giving relationships are one of the best things for you when you are battling depression. But, if there are toxic relationships draining all your energy and self-worth, it's time to cut those out of your life, it's time to start stepping back from those relationships.

If you're not sure who to spend more time with and who to distance yourself from, ask yourself these questions:

Who is most supportive when I'm going through a hard time? Who makes me feel loved and understood? These people should be your go-to people when you're feeling down.

Who makes me feel worse about myself? Who is always negative and critical? These people should be avoided when you're feeling low. Spending time around them will only bring you down more! Side note: before you take steps to distance yourself from others, consult with your counselor on how to do that without wrecking the relationship.

There's no magic number for how many close relationships we should have in our lives, but what's important is that we're surrounding ourselves with people who lift us up instead of bring us down. We all deserve to have people in our lives who make us feel loved, understood, and worthy.

Final thoughts

Jeannette Walls said, "Depression is like a bruise that never goes away. A dull ache that's always there." If you’re struggling with depression, all of these are important but the most important thing is that you find support. Support from friends, family, and professionals. This really can't be a battle you can win on your own. If you're wanting to take steps towards overcoming depression, you can learn more about mindset coaching or reset groups here. We want to be your tribe cheering you on, and helping you see a better tomorrow. You can do this, we know you can!