Hello there
If you come on to this forum, chances are you're either depressed, or you want to give help and support to someone who is. Depression can be a scary thing, and comes with a lot of hopelessness, guilt, and even thoughts to harm yourself and take your own life. Luckily however, depression is something that can be treated, with words, actions, and sometimes even medications. Becoming depressed doesn't come with a manual, so you have to figure it out yourself or seek help from others. This is why I made this thread.
In this thread, I'd like to hear from people who have gotten over depression, or who are currently working on it. I want you to come here and share what you've done or are doing to win this battle. Share your coping methods, your activities, anything that you're doing that seems to be helping you along. The point of this is so that a depressed person can come into this thread and find new ideas and strategies that they may have never thought of. I hope this becomes something pretty big.
I'll start this off by sharing mine.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I'm a person who suffers from manic depression, or bipolar disorder. If you don't know what that is, basically, my mood can go from extremely depressed (major depression) to hyper, happy, irritable, and even delusional (mania). Luckily though, I don't have what some people have where they go between poles within hours of each other. For me it takes a couple of weeks for me to reach either pole without medication.
I've also found that even though I am on a mood stabilizer (lithium, the standard), I still have my mild ups and downs, they're just not extreme. I still have to deal with depression every now and then. Sometimes I just dip a little bit into depression where I feel as though I have no drive and don't feel like doing anything. Some suicidal thoughts even cross my mind sometimes. There are a number of ways that I get over this.
First, I just try to stay active. It's a known fact that physical activity raises mood, and I can vouch for that myself! You can do just about anything in this respect. I've personally started going for a 20 minute or so walk every day, and just today I got my bike fixed up to start riding bike on this trail near where I live. Not only does getting exercise lift your mood in the short term, you also feel better about yourself in the long term because you improve your health. Being healthy is definitely something to be happy about.
Also, even hobbies that don't involve physical exertion can be beneficial to your mood. For me, these include writing, playing guitar/singing, and even painting now and then. Dabbling with your creativity is always a great way to relieve stress, which can raise your mood. In the end, they also give you something to be proud of when you look at what you've created!
Your turn!
Linear Mode
