*I am by no means a medical professional. These are tips that have helped me deal with my depression over the years. If you’re looking for a long-term solution, you should seek medical treatment. Depression is a serious mental health concern, and it should be treated as such.*
Depression is something that I have dealt with for the majority of my life. Ever since I was little, I would always get in these serious funks, and it would be almost impossible to get over it. Granted, I did go through my emo/punk phase, but I always knew it was something more serious. The older I got, the more intense these feelings became. I used destructive ways to “treat” my depression which actually made it worse.
Once I got to a certain point, I literally hit rock bottom. The good thing about rock bottom is that you can only go up from there. By acknowledging my mental health issues, I was able to resolve those feelings. I still have bad days every now and then, but these are three ways that really helped me get a hold on my life again.
Don’t lock yourself away
When I was “self-treating” with destructive tendencies, I never had a second alone. While it kind of helped for a brief moment of time, I wasn’t able to acknowledge how I was really feeling, and it’s like the different levels of my depression were stacking on top of each other. There is something to be said for spending time alone with yourself, but you shouldn’t lock yourself away. Until I was able to talk about how I was feeling, nothing changed.
- Become aware of how you are feeling. No one is going to care more about you than yourself.
- Find someone who you can talk to, getting out what is bothering you can be the turning point in your life.
- If you’re looking for somewhere to turn, there are a ton of resources from the National Network of Depression Centers
Self-Love is more than just a trendy term
Over the past few years, Self-Love has been a hot topic. Personally, I practice self-care all of the time, and really attribute it to being a great healing tool for my depression. There are HUNDREDS of blog posts that have tons of interesting ways that you can practice self-love in your own life. I’ve actually written a post about it here if you’re looking for some quick tips! It is worth finding a few minutes or hours of your week to take care of yourself.
Find an outlet for your depression
When I began blogging, I was actually in a REALLY bad place. I didn’t have many things going on in my life, but I had always been a person that needed some sort of outlet. That is when I began blogging. When I was younger I kept about sixteen journals that all had different themes. One was for when I was happy, one was for all the boys I had a crush on, and one was for when things just weren’t going right. If you’re thinking about starting a blog as your creative outlet, then check out this post which can help you start one in 15 minutes!
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