Call your local emergency number, such as 911. [2] X Research source Call a suicide hotline such as The National Suicide Prevention Hotline (U. S. A) at 1-800-273-TALK(8255), or use an online chat help line. Go to the nearest emergency room with an explanation of how you feel. Tell them that you are feeling suicidal.
Contact your medical insurance company for a list of approved clinicians in your area. Make sure to inquire about what types of services your plan covers. If you do not have medical insurance, conduct an online search for sliding scale, low-cost, or free mental health clinics in your area. Or contact your local social services or government organization to inquire about financial assistance or programs that help low-income families. If you find a therapist that suits you, keep going as long as it works for you. Find out if you can call between visits if something unexpected happens. Find or ask for referrals to therapy groups. For example, Coping with Depression (CWD) therapy is an effective treatment for reducing existing depression. [3] X Research source
Before thinking that medications is the best way to help one’s depression, please remember that it can take months to years to find the right medication for you. However, it does not need to be this way. Pharmacogenetics testing is a type of genetic test that in some instances can predict how a person will respond to specific medications. This is also known as a PGx Test. [5] X Trustworthy Source US Food and Drug Administration U. S. government agency responsible for promoting public health Go to source This test is the first step to Precision Medicine, and removing the trial and error method that takes months/years. After taking the test, one will receive a report that identifies one’s ability to metabolize specific medications (such as depression medications). Starting your treatment with the correct medication is called Precision Medicine, and removing the trial and error method ensures that one will not have any adverse side effects or drug reactions should one follow the readings in their PGX Test report Even if you are taking prescription drugs already, do not think that pills will be an easy fix. There are many other methods to fight depression that are worth trying. Accept that all psychiatrists are not created equal. Ask your psychiatrist about what sort of treatments he often suggests to people in your situation. Be inquisitive about which medications he uses, whether he will prescribe more than one medication, and how he decides on dosage adjustments. If he doesn’t seem like a good fit, it’s okay to find someone else. If you decide to use medication as a way to help your depression, different medicines will affect you differently. Some may worsen depression for a period or of time or increase suicidal thoughts before they start helping. If this happens, contact your doctor or therapist. Never stop a medication cold turkey. This may produce negative reactions (shaking, hot and cold flashes, etc. ) and can worsen depression. Only modify your prescription or taper off of a medicine under the care of a psychiatrist.
Depression is a hereditary mental health issue. Look around your biological family. Are there other depressed people? Watch them and see what they do that seems to work. If some individuals in your family are more supportive than others, seek help from those individuals first. If you don’t feel comfortable seeking support from any close family member (parent, sibling), look outside your nuclear family for support from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. If you still find a lack of support, venture outside of your family to close friends. If your therapist is the only person you can currently count on for support, that’s okay. Your therapist may be able to connect you with group therapy, which can provide social support if you don’t have friends or family you can count on.
Talk to your friends. If you feel even worse than usual, having a friend to listen and support you, even by just being there, can save your life. Sometimes it is hard to get started when you are depressed and there is no shame in having a friend get the ball rolling. Crying with a friend or family member can be emotionally cathartic. If you are ready to be cheered up, ask your friends to do something fun with you.
Healthy relationships are respectful, trusting, collaborative, and accepting. They involve physical affection, open communication and fairness. Unhealthy relationships are typically intimidating, humiliating, threatening, dominating, judging, and blaming. They are also associated with abuse (verbal, physical, sexual) and possessiveness. Take an inventory of your current friendships and relationships. Are there individuals who bring you down or criticize you? Perhaps these individuals do more harm than good. Consider if you need to create distance in unhealthy relationships, or build new ones. [10] X Research source
Psychoeducation is the specific term for becoming educated about your particular disorder. [12] X Research source You can ask your therapist for psychoeducation about your disorder and work it into your treatment plan. Get books, research articles, watch documentaries, and conduct internet searches to learn more about your specific condition.
Ask yourself what you want to achieve in terms of dealing with your clinical depression. How do you want to deal your depression? Do you want it to be less severe? Do you want to learn new coping strategies? Be specific and set time-limited (one week, one month, six months) and attainable goals. For example, completely eradicating your depression in one month may be an unrealistic goal. However, reducing your depression on a scale of one to ten (ten being most depressed, and one not at all depressed) from nine to seven may be more attainable. Make a plan to reduce your depression. Use the coping strategies listed here as guidelines for creating specific goals. For example, one goal could be to conduct research about your mood disorder at least once per week. Evaluate whether your plan is working. Change the plan if you need to in order to include new strategies that you haven’t yet tried.
Some examples of good activities are: reading, watching movies, writing (in a journal or writing short stories), painting, sculpting, playing with an animal, cooking, playing music, sewing, and knitting. Schedule these pleasurable activities into your daily routine. [16] X Research source Spiritual and religious practices, if you are so inclined, have been shown to reduce depression, especially in the elderly. [17] X Research source
Sometimes interpersonal conflict can increase depression. Use conflict resolution if you have issues with other people. [19] X Research source For example, discuss your feelings in an open but non-aggressive way. Use assertiveness by using “I statements,” such as, “I feel sad when you forget to call me back. ” Avoid constantly seeking new information in order to put off action; this can be common in individuals who suffer from depression. [20] X Research source Work on accepting that, for things to change, you must eventually take action. Informing yourself about all your options is helpful when making a decision, but at a certain point you must move forward and make that decision, whether it’s about ending a destructive friendship or trying a new form of therapy. Focus only on what you can control. Re-focus on planning and problem solving things that are changeable, instead of thinking too much about what others are doing wrong or what is happening in your environment (traffic, loud neighbors, etc. ).
Do any exercise you can, including: walking, running, biking, using an elliptical, hiking, or weight-lifting. Try fun exercises you may not have tried yet, such as: Zumba, dance aerobics, yoga, Pilates, and kayaking.
Mindfulness exercises are great ways for beginners to practice being mindful. Try a mindfulness exercise such as eating a piece of fruit (apple, banana, strawberry, anything you like) mindfully. First, look at the fruit. What colors and shapes do you notice? Then, touch the fruit. What does it feel like? It is soft, smooth, or bumpy? Appreciate how it feels and notice everything you can about the texture. Then smell the fruit and enjoy its aroma. Next, take a small bite of the fruit. What does it taste like? Is it tart or sweet? What is the texture like in your mouth? Eat it slowly while thinking and focusing on the experience of eating the fruit. Notice any other thoughts you might have that try to distract you, and without judging the thoughts, let them go. Another example of a mindfulness exercise is going on a mindfulness walk. Simply take a walk in your neighborhood (as long as it’s safe) or a local park. Just like the fruit exercise, notice what you see, smell, hear, taste, and feel on your skin and body.
Try a mental grounding technique of naming all of the states, colors, or animals you can think of (from A to Z). Engage in a physical grounding exercise such as running cold water over your hands, taking a bubble bath, or petting an animal. There are many other grounding exercises you can research online. [23] X Research source
Avoid drugs and alcohol as means to cope with depressed mood or other depressive symptoms. Substance use problems are common in people who suffer from depression. [25] X Research source
At the same time, do not place all of the blame on others. Accept the responsibility you have and try to realistically appraise the situation.
Work toward thinking of alternative ways that the situation might turn out. For example, if you are sure you will not get the job you interviewed for, consider that the interviewers liked you and you still have a chance. Try to guess how likely it is that the worst possible thing will happen. if you think logically about it, there is probably a low percentage chance that the world will end. Another option is to think about the worst possible scenario and decide that you will still be okay in the midst of such and occurrence. Thus, if the worst thing is that you won’t pass that big test, the reality is, you will most likely survive it and persevere. You will not die from not passing the test. You will move on and learn how to do better the next time. Then perhaps the situation won’t seem so bad after all.
Set realistic goals and expectations of yourself. If you expect to lose ten lbs. in three days, you are setting yourself up for failure. This would be very difficult and not healthy for your body. However, if you set a more reasonable goal of losing eight lbs. in a month, this is a more achievable option and can reduce your perfectionist thinking. Try to expand your viewpoint to include your positive accomplishments, and not just what you didn’t do or think you could have done better. Instead of looking for flaws in your actions, include all the things you did right or did well. Give yourself a break. Think, “I don’t always have to do my very best at every moment. Sometimes I will be sick or tired. It’s okay to take some time off for myself to recuperate. " Set time limits for working on particular projects and stick to them. If you plan on spending one to two hours completing a small school assignment, then give yourself that amount of time and then stop. This way, you can’t continually analyze and re-read your work over and over again, as many perfectionists do. Just make sure you give yourself an adequate amount of time for your limit (not only one hour for an entire essay, for example).
If you have negative thoughts such as, “I can’t handle this. It’s too much. I can’t cope,” consciously change your thoughts to something more positive and realistic such as, “This is tough and I am depressed, but I have gotten through it before and I can do it again. I know that I will survive this feeling. ”
Try working on acceptance by saying or thinking to yourself, “I accept that I am depressed. It hurts, but my feeling is giving me valuable information that something needs to change. I’m going to find out what needs to happen for me to feel better. ”
