Depression, it even sounds bad – deep.....pression – deep pressure and when you are depressed, it does feel like an immense pressure.
No-one is immune from depression, it can take hold at any time for a myriad of reasons, it will affect people in different ways and it will take different remedies to banish the depression.
Grief, trauma, financial problems, losing your job, illness, bullying, abuse, even winter are all causes of depression and there are more. These are all emotional reasons but there are also medical reasons such as a chemical imbalance in the brain, often an imbalance in serotonin can be the cause.
When depression is caused by a medical condition there is medication, a change in diet, exercise, relaxation techniques that can help the sufferer and even eliminate the depression. But what if the cause is emotional? What can be done?
The first thing to do is talk. Talk to your GP, talk to a friend, your human behaviour specialist, talk to one of the services such as Lifeline, The Black Dog Institute or Beyond Blue.
Do not keep your sadness to yourself. Do not think you are strange, that people won’t understand, that you will be seen as weak. The chances are your colleagues or your friends may have been in the same dark place as you. Don’t think seeing a counsellor, psychologist or psychiatrist brands you a “mental case”, these people are skilled in getting to the cause and advising you how to recover.
Learn to love yourself. It is not being egotistical or arrogant. It is loving who you are, your abilities and even love the fact you can’t do some things, none of us are perfect and it just means we can work with someone else to help you do them.
Respect yourself. Respect for others will come naturally when you respect yourself first.
If you don’t have love and respect for you, you will not be able to naturally offer this to anyone else.
You can always pick the person who is comfortable in their own skin, they look relaxed, they relate openly to those around them and they can just sit on their own without interacting and still look happy. They enjoy their own company. They love who they are.
Without the love of self, there will inevitably be self-abuse. It may not be physical abuse, you may constantly be thinking negative thoughts and how do you talk to yourself? Do you use abusive or derogatory language? Be kind to yourself, we all make mistakes but we don’t all think we are stupid or incapable if we make a mistake, just learn from it and move on.
It is natural to feel down sometimes, you may have an extremely busy week and feel mentally tired. You may not have won that last sales deal, so you are disappointed and then there is grief.
You lose someone dear to you and while it is good to celebrate the life they led, there is sadness because you won’t see them again, or laugh with them or tell them you love them. The best thing to do is talk about your grief, don’t contain it - let the tears flow it is a real relief, like opening the valve on a pressure cooker.
The good thing about these events in your life is that you can attribute your sadness to something specific. Recognising the cause allows you to deal with it and recover.
Try something new, go for a walk, eat well, occasional dark chocolate – it is great for boosting both endorphin and serotonin levels – remember to share! Get into sunshine, boost your vitamin D, it is essential in so many ways, do protect yourself from sunburnt. There are many simple things, which can be done to restore your belief in yourself.
Feeling good about yourself, accepting who you are, embracing the good, the quirks, the smile lines around the eyes will be evident to those around you. It makes you approachable; someone others want to be around, you won’t be lonely.
My toot? Be grateful for what you have, count your blessings, not just the big-ticket items, not just the material things, they could be small and it may have been the smile you shared on your way to work. You will soon realise there is so much to be happy about.
“Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness.” Martin Luther King, Jr
Sylvia Marina ND. – A Human Behaviour Specialist info@sylviamarina.com www.sylviamarina.com
Published Nifnex Business & Lifestyle Voice of Small Business Community Author: Sylvia Marina ND. The Human Behaviour Specialist & Communication Coach www.sylviamarina.com