Firstly, I want to tell you that you are not alone, despite often feeling like you are. Depression can happen to anyone, and is more common than we realise. Statistics suggest that one in four of us experience depression; over 300 million people are affected by depression, globally. Impacting individuals of all ages, lifestyles, backgrounds, nationalities and ethnicities.

What is Depression?

Depression can be described as a state of excessive sadness and lethargy that can influence an individuals cognitive function, thinking, feelings, behaviours and general well-being. This is different to the ‘low’ or ‘CBA’ that most people feel from time to time.

Symptoms of Depression: these can be categorised into four areas including, cognition (thoughts), behaviours, feelings, and physical symptoms. Everyone experiences depression differently, and may experience varying symptoms. That’s okay, it does not in any way lessen your own experience.

Cognitive symptoms: poor memory/concentration, difficulty in making decisions, expecting the worst/negative thinking, losing confidence in yourself. Individuals that are experiencing depression tend to think negatively about themselves, the future and world around them. It can distort their perceptions so that they start to view and think about things with a negative bias.

Feelings: sadness/despair or feeling numb, low, tearful, demotivated, isolated/lonely (even when around others), irritable/agitated, lack of interest in things you used to enjoy. You may notice feelings of guilt, shame and anxiety.

Behaviours: avoiding people, staying in bed for longer or not getting up at all, lack of self-care, being inactive or doing nothing for long periods of time, stopping doing your usual activities, feeling overwhelmed with things that used to be manageable.

Physical symptoms: decreased/increased appetite, change in weight, lack of energy, restlessness, sleep difficulties (sleeping too much, interrupted sleep, sleeping too little).

What causes Depression? Causes of depression can be divided broadly into three categories; stress and loss (common triggers for depression e.g. bereavement, loss of job, loss of/or change in financial stability, divorce), chemical imbalance (chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine are low in the brain during major depressive episodes), and unknown reasons (everyone is unique and individual, varies from one person to the next, it’s important to become aware of your own triggers).

Can we change our mood? YES!

Treatment Guidelines: there are many treatments available for depression. The NHS National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends; Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, medication and Counselling. Remember, everyone is different and unique, and so not all treatments will work the same for everyone. If you speak with a mental health professional, together, you can identify the best treatment for you. Manage your expectations, because it might be that one treatment doesn’t have the desired result. That’s okay! There are lots of treatments, and a health professional will take time with you, to find what’s right for you. If you feel that therapy or counselling is something you want to try, speak to your GP and request a referral to an appropriate service.

Self-Help Strategies: seeking professional support and treatment is important, but there are things that we can also be doing for ourselves. When we experience depression, it can sometimes feel that everything is so far beyond our control. Some of these tips and techniques can help you to gain back some of that control.

Stay Active! Research shows that keeping physically fit, and doing regular exercise can be as effective for mental health problems as medication. By engaging in physical activity, we help our bodies to produce a cocktail of natural anti-depressants. It also helps us to establish routine and increase our motivation levels (which we struggle with during depressive episodes). It helps us to feel better about ourselves, helps boost our energy, improves our cognitive function, serves as distraction from negative/unhelpful thinking, gives us a sense of achievement, and improves our general well-being.

Look after yourself! A balanced diet, good sleep pattern, daily routine, relaxation all have a positive impact on our physical and mental health. If you need support with this, I will be posting more resources in the future, alternatively, there are a range of self-help books and resources online.

Be Sociable! Connect with others. Even if it’s an online community you feel part of. Seeing friends and family can be helpful. Or building up social support networks through local activities that you have always wanted to try.

Set goals and learn to challenge negative thoughts! Ultimately, individuals that experience depression have a tendency to think with a negative bias – this isn’t your fault – it’s part of depression. However, our thoughts are our own. No one else’s. And if we can become more aware of the way that we think, then we can challenge those negative/unhelpful thoughts. Challenge them and replace them with more balanced ones. This is important, because the way we think, influences the way that we feel. If we are thinking negatively, we will feel negatively. If we think something often enough, we will start to believe it.

Keeping a journal can be really helpful in helping you to identify those pesky thoughts you have that negatively impact your mood. My next post will be about negative thinking and thinking styles. So, if you would like to know more about challenging your thoughts, keep an eye out for my next post.

It won’t be easy to break the barrier. But living with depression isn’t easy either, yet you do that everyday. Each day, you survive! You’re strong, and you’re resilient. If you’re strong enough to survive every single day with depression, you’re strong enough to implement change. It won’t happen overnight, so take one step at a time. Baby steps. Don’t expect too much from yourself. Do expect sets backs. You can handle them.

For now, I hope you found this helpful. I hope that from this, you can draw back some of that control that depression took away. You can do it, I know you can.

– Laura