Four Ways to Handle Feeling Depressed

Depression is a difficult beast to manage.  There can be a brain chemical component to it.  Or a trauma component to it.  But no matter what may cause it, it’s difficult to handle.  Partly because depression makes it hard to be motivated to do the very things that may help us the most.

Despite that, there are some things we can do to try to help deal with this.

1. Manage what’s causing the depression.

Sometimes it can take some time to figure this out.  But if it’s clinical level depression that’s more of a brain chemical imbalance, that would be helped with medication.  If it’s caused by trauma, then processing through that trauma would help the depression.  The idea is that if the depression is being caused by something, then addressing that thing would help that feeling of depression.

2. Work on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with a therapist.  

CBT is a therapy that has quite a bit of evidence behind it.  And the research shows that it can be effective with depression.  Not only that, but CBT is most effective when used with medications.  So if you’re experiencing feelings of depression, a combination of CBT and medication is something to consider.  

3. Keep it simple and make daily goals.  

If we’re already struggling to get out of bed, then trying to give ourselves huge goals isn’t going to help the situation.  It just sets ourselves up for failure.  Give yourself permission to do a daily goal.  And keep the daily goal realistic for what you can accomplish, considering your energy levels.

4. Keep a gratitude journal.  

If we’re feeling depressed, then we’re often getting very wrapped up in negative thoughts.  And it’s hard to see outside of that.  Keeping a journal, where you write down things that you’re grateful for every day, helps remind ourselves that there are some positive things in our lives.  It isn’t just all negative.  And there’s quite a bit of research out there to suggest that this can be helpful.

I don’t want to suggest that these are miracle cures for depression.  But when we experience this emotion, part of the biggest struggle is that we struggle with having no motivation to do the things that would help us.  And these kinds of things help us address that aspect of depression.  So we can do some of the other things that we know could help us.