depression

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh I am sorry that you have been suffering with depression. It is a very difficult disease for people who have not experienced it to understand because it can be when people cannot see it externally. Please be careful with other people’s advice, as people are often saying things that they think that would help themselves in that situation. Try to use your own judgment to see if their advice is good for you- You live in your own body and know yourself the best. I’m going to tell you about my experience hoping that it gives you some ideas on how to make it through this time. For myself, taking care of myself was important in my healing from depression. Trying to establish a routine for bedtime, eating well, getting up and taking a shower/doing your hair, getting dressed in the morning. Some people don’t have the strength to do these things and for others focusing on self-care seems minimal and frustrating. There was a point at which it was helpful for me to make a checkmark list of these things so I felt good about what I accomplished. But later on, I started to feel guilty about not being able to exercise that day, etc. (Exercise is very good to help boost your mood). In the end, I decided that I didn’t need a list but rather the value that it is important to take care of myself, and whatever I did that day, I was happy with because I simply did my best to survive. I have found some techniques I learned in counseling to be useful. For example, “chunking the day” which involves choosing a set period of time that you feel you can get through, say 10 minutes, and then doing an activity for that time and then reassessing. So I decide for example, to do art for 10 minutes. Then I reassess whether I feel like continuing or changing activities. It helps me get through the day. I found listening to shabads helpful to lift my mood and offer my mind some peace. I found writing down positive things about myself and reading them in the morning and night and posting to my wall to help my self-esteem. One piece of the puzzle is working on negative thinking- I’m not saying that if you think better your depression will go away though, because that’s actually a hurtful thing that people think is helpful. Focusing on the thinking is a piece. Medications is something you can also look into if you speak to your doctor. I found it useful to talk to my doctor even just to share what I’m going through with someone and have that support. I’m sorry your counseling experience was bad. Sometimes it’s a matter of switching counselors to someone with a different style, but I understand if you don’t want to go ... (more)