5 Healthy Habits To Fight Depression

Depression is one of the most common and silenced mental health problems today. According to the WHO, it  affects more than 300 million people and is the world’s leading cause of disability.

It is a mood disorder characterized by the presence of a set of symptoms related to sadness, negative thoughts and anhedonia or loss of the ability to experience pleasure. However, it is important to bear in mind that the severity, duration and intensity of symptoms vary from one person to another, that is, each individual experiences depression in a way.

This mood disorder does not happen overnight, but slowly. It is as if little by little the person is lost in a kind of thick fog that encompasses everything around him. The problem is that almost 50% of depressive disorders do not receive treatment or at least not the most appropriate. Hence, depression is sometimes spoken of as a silenced psychological reality.

However, it is important to bear in mind that not all situations in which sadness is experienced involve suffering from depression, despite the popular use of the expression “I am depressed.” A diagnosis of depression requires a specialized professional, in addition to meeting a series of criteria.

Although depression can be thought of as a complex enemy that hits where it hurts most, it does not mean that it cannot be overcome. The fundamental thing is to activate the willpower to implement different strategies, in addition to seeking help. Depression can mean a long process of change and transformation that requires great personal commitment.

Here we share five healthy habits that will help you clear that fog that surrounds you and that does not allow you to see beyond. It is about applying to your daily life a series of habits, approaches and strategies to provide you with an appropriate psychological approach to fight against depression. Let’s go deeper. 

5 healthy habits to fight depression

1. Express your emotions

Accumulating everything that hurts us turns against us over time. Walking with the weight of stressful situations, repressed emotions and negative experiences on the back affects us both physically and mentally. Because it is not the same to move forward with open wounds than with those that have already been healed and have provided us with learning.

Expressing how we feel is key to venting emotionally. Therefore, it is important that we talk with people around us, that we tell them how we are and what we need despite not always wanting.

Being close to people who understand us on an emotional level, who understand our moments of silence and who know how to accompany us can be a great help to fight against depression.

2. Manage ruminant and negative thinking

Ruminant thinking is one of the pillars that underpin depression. Going around and around what worries us is not going to solve it, quite the contrary. Little by little we will be feeding more pessimism in all areas of our life until we end up contaminating ourselves with a negative emotional state. Hence, learning to manage them is key to fighting depression. For this we can take into account the following keys:

• Spend a few minutes a day thinking about what worries us. In this way, we will limit our concerns to that moment and prevent them from flooding the rest of the day.
• Identify negative reasoning and dialogue. The way we speak to each other influences us. It is not the same to criticize ourselves and blame ourselves than to motivate ourselves, value ourselves and push ourselves to be better. For this reason, it is very important to identify how we address ourselves and if it is negative, transform it into a positive one.

• Test concerns. To what extent are the negative thoughts we have justified? What proof do we have that what we think can happen 100%? Just because we think about something does not mean that it is true or that it will be fulfilled. So let’s look for evidence for or against each of our ideas.

3. Practice meditation

Meditation is a highly recommended practice to manage all the mental noise that we generate, as well as to connect with ourselves, to know ourselves and grow personally. In addition, it also improves concentration, memory and learning ability.

On the other hand, the psychologist Daniel Goleman affirms that “most of the times people believe that meditating means not thinking about anything, that the mind becomes completely silent. But it’s not about that, it’s about recognizing when the mind is lost and wandering and working to bring it back to where it should be ”. As we can see, meditating helps us manage our thoughts and emotional states. Hence, it is one of the most recommended activities to fight depression.

• Plan times of the day to meditate. Find a comfortable and quiet place, close your eyes and focus on your breathing for a few minutes.

4. Create healthy emotional bonds

Surrounding ourselves with people who love us, who care about us, and who allow us to grow can be key to fighting depression. Emotional support can be a great relief for those times when we feel lonely or overwhelmed.

Feeling heard or simply accompanied can be some of the ingredients we need to get ahead. Knowing that there is someone who cares about us and who we can count on can help us clear the negativity that accompanies us when we are depressed.

5. Change the routine

Depression often plunges us into a state of sadness, apathy, and loss of interest in which we feel like nothing, nothing fills us up, or motivates us. In this way, we stop doing everything that at some point we were interested in to move into the universe of inactivity.

One of the keys to ending this routine is to react : make plans, carry out activities, seek new interests or meet a friend. The important thing is to break that habit of letting time go by without doing anything else, even if we don’t feel like it at first.

As we can see, people with depression tend to acquire habits that feed low mood and apathy.  Hence, to overcome it we have to do exactly the opposite of what she urges us to do. The important thing is to be able to break that cycle to introduce new habits that make us feel better.

Finally, we must not forget the importance of attending the consultation of a professional, especially when we notice that we cannot control our thoughts or how we feel. With your help, walking the path of depression to overcome it will be much easier, which does not mean that it is necessary to do our part.