I was very depressed for a very long time. Here is my philosophy.
First, I have learned to define depression as “A captulation to loss of control.” By that I mean, to be depressed you must (a) feel like your life sucks and (b) believe you can’t do anything about it.
This is effectively the story of the elephant who spent it’s life chained to a wall who, when the chain was removed, still acted like it was chained to the wall.
The cure to feeling out of control is to systematically start controlling small things and then working up to large things.
My method to get out of depression goes like this:
Wake up.
Get out of bed.
Make my bed (easy to control).
Brush my teeth.
Take a shower.
Get coffee.
Clean my room.
Clean & vacuum my house.
...(other stuff).
Address the thing that is actually bothering me.
After that point I add more and more challenging things. It is a ramp, from small and local to prove to myself I control my environment up to things that are really bothering me.
I call this my “stop being anxious and depressed plan” and I
do the plan. By the time I am up to item 5 I start to feel better.
Life is very, very complicated. Depression is very hard because it is frequently the result of multiple things at once that create a self fulfilling feedback loop.
The most important thing I ever learned was “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.” This is effectively the practice of arguing yourself out of limiting or negative beliefs.
If you are as depressed as I used to be, you are infested with lots of negative beliefs that are preprogrammed. To stop being depressed you need to trap and eliminate all these little beliefs.
CBT was the turning point for me, after that I stopped being depressed forever.
First, I have learned to define depression as “A captulation to loss of control.” By that I mean, to be depressed you must (a) feel like your life sucks and (b) believe you can’t do anything about it.
This is effectively the story of the elephant who spent it’s life chained to a wall who, when the chain was removed, still acted like it was chained to the wall.
The cure to feeling out of control is to systematically start controlling small things and then working up to large things.
My method to get out of depression goes like this:
Wake up. Get out of bed. Make my bed (easy to control). Brush my teeth. Take a shower. Get coffee. Clean my room. Clean & vacuum my house. ...(other stuff). Address the thing that is actually bothering me.
After that point I add more and more challenging things. It is a ramp, from small and local to prove to myself I control my environment up to things that are really bothering me.
I call this my “stop being anxious and depressed plan” and I do the plan. By the time I am up to item 5 I start to feel better.
Life is very, very complicated. Depression is very hard because it is frequently the result of multiple things at once that create a self fulfilling feedback loop.
The most important thing I ever learned was “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.” This is effectively the practice of arguing yourself out of limiting or negative beliefs.
If you are as depressed as I used to be, you are infested with lots of negative beliefs that are preprogrammed. To stop being depressed you need to trap and eliminate all these little beliefs.
CBT was the turning point for me, after that I stopped being depressed forever.