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February 21, 2010 7 Comments

10 Things You Might Not Know About Depression

I recently spent nearly 3 hours researching the areas of mental fitness, self improvement, and self help that people are the most interested in – the areas they’re seeking the most help with and information about.  I have several self help and mental fitness blogs and websites and I don’t want to fill them with subjects I want to write about, I want to fill them with subjects people genuinely want (and need) to read.  That’s why I have contact forms on TMFC, Out of Bounds, and Self Help Daily – I want to know what’s on people’s minds.

Consistently, the following subjects are popular:

  • depression
  • anxiety
  • relationships
  • overcoming shyness
  • losing weight
  • public speaking
  • gaining self confidence

During the 3 hours of research, I found that depression and anxiety are amongst the most searched for topics in the world self improvement.  Last month, over 11,100,000 searches were performed on Google for “depression.”  Over 6,000,000 searches were performed for anxiety and countless others were performed for “depression help,” “depression and anxiety,” “overcoming depression,” and so on.

I had an idea what the findings would be, based upon the e-mail I receive and the replies on the contact forms. But, I have to say, I didn’t realize the numbers would be this high.  The thought of this many people feeling so down and so unhappy – to the point that they actively are searching for advice (like a cry out for help) – makes me profoundly sad.  It also makes me feel pretty helpless.  What can you do to reach out to so many people and let them know that life doesn’t have to be like this?  How can you, in essence, put a hand on their back and encourage them to hang on and dig deeper?

I guess the answer is the same answer that holds true for most things in life – you start somewhere and take it one step at a time. 

One post at a time.

Suffice to say, there will be plenty of upcoming posts involving depression, anxiety, sadness, happiness, overcoming the blues, the difference between the blues and depression, treatment options for clinical depression, books about depression, and so on.  I’ll still post a regular stream of articles and posts about mental fitness, brain games, relaxation, and our other favorite topics as well – they’ll just have a lot of company…  articles with one thing on their mind:  Reaching as many people as possible and giving them a greater quality of life and a larger number of smiles!

We’ll kick things off with a list of 10 Things You Might Not Know About Depression.

  • All of us experience the blues, feelings of anxiety, discouragement, and profound sadness throughout our lives. Many times people mis-label how they feel as depression.  This is a grave error and only makes things worse!  If you feel sad due to a recent traumatic experience (a death in the family, problems in a relationship or at work, a huge disappointment, financial problems, an empty nest…..), keep in mind that this is perfectly normal.  Feelings are a natural thing, even when they aren’t positive.  If something has affected your mood and your feelings, you simply have to ride it out and find ways to cope with your unhappiness or feelings of anxiety.  If, after time, you simply can’t find your way out of the pit or if (even after seeing a great movie or spending time with people who normally light up your world) you can’t seem to remember how to feel happy or “normal,” then seek help.  As with any health concern, never diagnose yourself Chief!
  • Of the estimated 17.5 million Americans who are affected by some form of depression, 9.2 million have major depression – also known as clinical depression. That’s a pretty intense number and I suppose the only positive we can take away from it is this:  At least people who suffer from depression know they aren’t alone – not even close.
  • Two-thirds of people suffering from depression do not seek necessary treatment. It’s obvious what this means, right?  2/3 of people with depression never get better…. only 1 in 3 allows themselves to have a life filled with the love, laughter, and happiness that they deserve.  Ony 1!
  • Of the people with clinical (major) depression who are proactive enough to seek help, 80%  significantly improve their lives. Hopefully the other 20 percent realize they aren’t getting the care they deserve and they keep looking until they do.
  • Women experience depression about twice as often as men.
  • Always remember that depression is a serious illness, it isn’t a sign of weakness or a personality flaw, any more than being diabetic means you lack character or strength!
  • Seasonal depression (SAD) is depression that occurs only at a certain time of the year. SAD, which is often called “the winter blues” usually occurs during winter, when the number of daylight hours is lower. Although it is predictable and understandable, it can be very severe. It’s compounded by the feelings of being “let down” emotionally after Christmas. So much time and effort goes into the holiday season that people feel a little bit of an emotional roller coaster after the festivities are over. Many people also greatly miss loved ones (who have either died or moved away) during this time. Given all of these factors, it’s a wonder SAD isn’t more prevalent than it is.
  • Bipolar disorder is a very interesting branch of depression. Bipolar Disorder is sometimes viewed as its own mental entity, as many people fail to realize that it is (at heart) depression with tricks up its sleeve.  Bipolar Disorder involves episodes of depression, usually quite severe, which alternate with episodes of extreme elation called mania.  Bipolar Disorder was once known as manic depression.  The depression that is associated with bipolar disorder, which is a sever mood disorder, is often referred to as bipolar depression.  People who suffer with Bipolar Disorder are privy to the type of emotional turmoil that most of us, thankfully, can’t even begin to imagine.   People with Bipolar disorder need to find the best doctor they possibly can and then they need to be as loyal to him/her as they are to their own spouse.  Going it alone with any type of depression is completely and utterly ridiculous (and dangerous) – but never more so than with Bipolar disorder.
  • The biggest barriers to overcoming depression? Realizing you are depressed, seeking help, and doing what the doctor says.
  • Teen depression can be very hard to diagnose. After all, so many things go on with a teenager that they’re often written off as adolescent hormones. If the feelings or symptoms seem to be more intense than what other kids their age are going through, it might be time to find out why.

The Symptoms of Depression

  • a persistent sadness
  • feelings of being anxious or on edge
  • feeling empty or “not yourself”
  • sleeping too little
  • sleeping too much
  • reduced appetite and weight loss
  • increased appetite and weight gain
  • loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed
  • restlessness
  • feelings of irritability
  • a tendency to snap at people for no reason
  • a tendency to tear up often
  • persistent physical symptoms and ailments that don’t respond to treatment (such as headaches, chronic pain, or constipation and other digestive disorders)
  • difficulty concentrating
  • inability to make even simple decisions
  • fatigue and loss of energy
  • feeling guilty, hopeless or worthless
  • wanting to be alone and finding ways to be alone
  • thoughts of death or suicide

Again, there are many times during our life when we feel most of the feelings named above – there are even very low times in our lives when we may feel a combination. For example, if you’re going through a personal crisis (death of a loved one, divorce, strained family relationships….), you will cry more often, you will want to spend more times alone (trying to wrap your mind around everything), you will lose interest in things that once interested and even delighted you, and you may feel guilty or hopeless. Your sleep and eating patterns will also be affected. The difference is, most of us come out of this valley – often stronger than before! – but people who suffer with depression simply can’t find the way out of the valley by themselves.

What Causes Depression?

  • Biological Factors. People who suffer with depression may simply have an excess of or a deficiency in certain brain chemicals.
  • Cognitive Factors. People who tend to think negatively and possess very low self-esteem are more likely to develop clinical depression.
  • Gender. Women experience clinical depression nearly twice as often as men. Experts point to hormone problems as a factor.
  • Co-occurrence With Other Diseases. Depression is more likely to occur along with certain illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Epilepsy, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, respiratory disease, and hormonal disorders.  Understandable, right? Any type of disease brings extra stress, worry, fear, and burdens into a person’s life.
  • Medications. Some medications have depression as a side-effect.  Needless to say, if you ever take any medication that throws you into an extended period of sadness, speak to your doctor about alternative medication.
  • Genetic Factors. A family history of clinical depression increases the risk for developing the illness.
  • Situational or Life Factors. Difficult life events, including divorce, financial problems or the death of a loved one can contribute to clinical depression.

If you believe that you (or someone you love) may have depression or seem to be headed in that direction, please don’t expect it to get better on its own and never, ever think you have to just live with it.  Your tomorrows can be brighter than today but you have to be proactive and determined.

***********************

Here’s something I found pretty interesting: There’s a direct correlation between fish consumption and lowered levels of depression. A glance around the world really drives the fact home:  The United States has 24 times the incidence of depression as Japan, for example, where fish intake is much higher.  24 times!

Filed Under: Depression Tagged: , , ,
October 26, 2009 3 Comments

Keeping Small Issues Where They Belong

Relaxed Squirrel!

One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this:  To rise above the little things.  – John Burroughs

The quote above is a lesson in self improvement, self help, stress management, health, and happiness.  I think everyone should write this quote down on an index card and place it in the place they’ll see it the most often – on the refrigerator, by your desk, on your bathroom mirror… Small things (like the ones listed below) simply aren’t worth getting riled up over:

  • A leaking faucet.
  • Finding yourself low on gas.
  • The cost of gas.
  • A driver who pulls out in front of you.
  • A barking dog.
  • Having to run to the store for butter or milk.
  • Your team losing a game.
  • The server not bringing your refill as quickly as you’d like.
  • A slow internet connection.
  • And so on….

Think about it – these things are so trivial, they’re almost funny!  Yet how many times do people get hot and bothered over these very things… and often things even sillier.  Recently, my husband and I were eating at an Outback in Nashville, Tennessee (Amazing food!).  A group came in and were seated in a booth, by the window no less.  One of the women got ticked off because they didn’t get to choose their own booth.  There were only a handful available anyway!

If a person can get to the place where small things barely even register a response from them, they’ll be happier than they have ever been.  What’s more, they’ll experience stress so rarely that they’ll think they’ve been given a new lease on life. We spend a great deal of emotions needlessly on small things.  Then when then the larger problems arise – we don’t have much left in our tank.  The larger problems overwhelm us because we’re spent!

Start challenging yourself to handle life’s small disappointments and setbacks better.  Amaze everyone around you by smiling and even laughing when something cooky happens.  Several great things will happen: You’ll feel happier and more relaxed.  What’s more, anyone who sees you handling life’s little annoyances this way will think, “Wow. I want to be more like that!”  Before you know it, you and everyone you know will enjoy a much happier and calmer life.

Worth trying, right?!  The next time something starts to register on your stress scale, take a deep breath.  Then ask yourself, “What if this is the worst thing that happens to me this week?”   The diminutive nature of the problem will leave you amazed and probably even laughing!

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

Filed Under: Mental Fitness, Positive Affirmations, Quotations, Relaxation, Stress Tagged: , , , ,
June 28, 2009 3 Comments

The Key to Happiness – Have You Hidden Yours?!

Plants and fence

On Self Help Daily and TMFC, I have “Subject Request” forms because I don’t want to research and write about what interests ME – I want to write about what interests YOU.

A popular request is for information or tips on how to be  happy.  A recent request came from a lady who included the paragraph you’ll find below (I asked if I could use it because I know others will recognize themselves, in varying degrees, in her words.  I changed a few details – such as the states.)

It seems like I have forgotten how to be happy.  I should say first off that I am not in menopause and Idon’t have empty nest syndrome. I am happily married.  I am in my early 30s and have 2 sons ages 8 and 13.  They do well in school.  We have 2 cats that are my “girls” – they keep me company when all of my guys are away.  In fact, sometimes I prefer their company to the three loud boys!  My husband and I both work and we make a decent living.  Some have more money than us, but most probably have less. Money just isn’t an issue.   We get what we can, we do without what we can’t.

I don’t have family problems, health problems, or money problems.  Shouldn’t I be happy?  But I am not.  I cry a lot.  My husband wants to go places and I don’t want to go.  He wants to go to the movies each week, but I don’t want to.

Here is my problem. When I think of my dream life, this is not it.  I want to live back up north again.  I am from Minnesota and loved it there .  About 4 years ago, we moved to southern Texas because of my husband’s job and we have lived here ever since. And I just hate the heat.  I miss the snow and cold wind.  I miss my sweaters and coats.

I always picture all of us living in a cabin in northern Minnesota, on a lake.  I dream of sitting by a fireplace.  And I dream of being happy again.  I feel mad and cheated that I can’t be happy.  My sons and husband love it here because they get out and play baseball and soccer all the time. My husband coaches them.  I don’t even go to games because it’s so hot.  Then I get mad at them for going and for being happy.

I am tired of crying and tired of being b!tchy.  I have forgotten how to not be this way.  Please help me, I am miserable.   – Miserable in Texas

A lot of times, I’ll read article requests or e-mails from people that will seem so heartfelt and riddled with pain that they make ME want to cry.  This particular letter certainly got to me.  While reading the note, I was already feeling horrible, but when I got to the part where she says, “I have forgotten how to not be this way.  Please help me, I am miserable.” – my heart broke.

Miserable in Texas (not the actual state, by the way) is making the same mistake that a lot of people make:  Theyspend so much time looking at how they wish things were (their dream life) that they develop a grudge against the way things are (their reality).  Sadly, they often develop a grudge against the person they hold responsible – in this case, the husband.

In many situations, visualizing a certain thing can be helpful.  For example:

  • When trying to lose weight, it’s a great idea to visualize how you’ll look when you lose the extra pounds.
  • When painting, a lot of artists will visualize how the painting will look when it’s through.
  • Many salespeople will visualize themselves making a sale before they even approach a potential client.

When you are physically working toward a goal or end result, thinking about your victory is a positive practice to get into.  However, when you are “stewing” over a particular situation – thinking about the way you wish things were is something different altogether:  It’s poisonous.

The only thing these poisonous thoughts do is set you up for a fall as soon as you snap back into reality.  And I have to tell you, sometimes it’s an absolutely beautiful reality that your thoughts are poisoning!  Such is the case with this particular lady.

If you are allowing your “dreams” to interfere with your reality, I urge you to recognize the thoughts for what they are.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with having dreams – we all have them.  I have a few that I know perfectly well will never come true.   Does that stop me from occasionally thinking about them?  No, of course not.  But I know not to dwell on them to the point that they lessen my life as it is now.  I love every inch of  my life – even the dusty little corners – and I would never allow anything to cast a cloud over my happy life.

“Miserable in Texas” also stated that moving back to Minnesota is completely out of the question.  She said that her husband’s job is extremely secure and that, especially in this economy, both of them leaving their job would be something they wouldn’t even think about.

If the situation were different, I might advise her to start looking for ways to get her overheated self back to her sweaters and fireplace – but, as it is, my advice is to learn to love the southern sunshine!  Besides, her family loves it – taking them away from a place they love could be considered selfish.

Learning to accept things you may not necessarily love is one of the most reliable routes to happiness.   Being discontent and dissatisfied are stumbling blocks along the route – they’ll trip you up every single time. Being happy is as much a decision as being physically fit.  You have to truly want to be happy.  If you get “set” in the role of being unhappy (either as a punishment to someone you blame for your situation or simply as a habit), you will, in fact, nearly forget how to be happy.  Snap yourself out of your rut!  Life is too short to spend wearing a long face and driving everyone away.

First of all, look at your life and find all of the wonderful things you’ve been taking for granted.  They’ll knock your socks off!  If you have people you love around you, you should feel like the king or queen of the world. Smile every time you see them and never, ever take them for granted.  Truly, can you imagine life without them?!

Second of all, get out there and enjoy life.  Stop sitting on the sidelines thinking about how you wish this were different or how you’d be happy if only that were different…  You’re wasting time and energy and, well, you’re making a perfect donkey out of yourself!  If your spouse wants to go to a movie, go and buy the popcorn.  If your children are playing a baseball game, don’t you dare miss a single pitch.    If your beagle is chasing a squirrel, join in the fun (but, please, help the squirrel get away!)

stopNever get stuck in a rut of sitting around feeling sorry for yourself and thinking about how you wish things were.  You owe it to yourself and to those around you to get your nose out of your  fantasy world and to make the most out of your real world.  If you  aren’t happy and you’re making people around you unhappy, you aren’t making the most out of  anything.

I don’t care what the weather is where you live – get out and live your life out loud.   Walk in the rain, lay out in the sun, throw snowballs, wash your car, walk your dog, play with the water hose, and on and on.

Life is beautiful irregardless of where you live or what you’re wearing.  Dress yourself up or dress yourself down.  Layer on to stay warm or peel off to stay cool – but whatever you do….   suit up and enjoy the ride.  The key to happiness can’t be found looking at everything you don’t have – it can only be found when you’re looking at (and loving) what you do have.

Always remember, when you hug life, it hugs you back.  Every single time.

One final thought:  You will always, always, always be happier if you put the happiness of other people ahead of your own.  If you spend time going out of your way to bring happiness and joy to people around you, you’ll be far happier than you ever thought possible.

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

Filed Under: Mental Fitness Tagged: ,
April 23, 2009 Leave a Comment

Defining Success and Happiness – On Your Own Terms

The following is a guest post I’m happy to publish from Kat Sanders. It’s subject involves something that’s high on everyone’s list: Happiness. Enjoy!

How to Be Happy - First Define Happiness

I recently attended a high school reunion 15 years after graduating. I was meeting most of my classmates for the first time in a decade and a half, so I was really surprised that I was able to connect with most of them really well. Another fact that really surprised me was the level of success each one had achieved – most of them had given up cushy corporate jobs and fat salaries to set up their own consultancies, simply because they were not satisfied in their positions. Some of them had moved back to their smaller hometowns leaving behind the hustle and bustle of the cities, even though there were fewer amenities and less of a social life back home.

This taught me something about my erstwhile classmates – they did not define success on terms set by society and other people; they created their own definition of the term, one that gave them peace, satisfaction and happiness. We live in a world where we’re expected to adhere to certain norms and standards; we’re supposed to meet certain expectations in order to be declared a success; we’re judged according to standards set by people who think they matter. So it’s a matter of pride to do well at school, graduate as your high school valedictorian, gain admission to an Ivy League school, and secure a position with a firm that pays the big bucks and offers a great deal of esteem.

If you take an alternative path, you’re pitied or looked down upon, unless you achieve worldwide success that is. An artist, writer or sportsperson who aspires to take the road less traveled does not gain recognition or support unless they become renowned in the field they’ve chosen. The point I’m trying to make here is that your personal happiness is linked inextricably with your idea of success. So if you define success by society’s or your parents’ (or anyone else’s) standards, you’re never going to be happy unless you reach those standards. And though your heart may lie elsewhere, you’re going to ruin your life by trying to achieve something that’s beyond your reach, just because you think that that’s what success is.

The best and shortest way to happiness and personal satisfaction is to love what you do. And if that’s not possible, then try and do what you do love, even if it does not pay as much, even if it’s not associated with as much prestige as the job you do have now. So if you wear a suit and tie to the office each day, if you spend hours in meetings with clients who pay your firm millions in fees each year, you’re likely to have a bank account that’s rich with money. But if your heart is out in the open, if you want to paint nature and experience the outdoors and the wild, you’re likely to have an emotional account that’s poor with satisfaction.

It’s true that you can’t buy happiness even if you have all the money in the world. And it’s also true that you cannot live on happiness alone. So the ultimate key to happiness and living a good life is to achieve a perfect balance, one that’s just right between your bank account and your emotional account.

By-line:
This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of surgical tech schools at her blog iScrub. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com

Filed Under: Inspiration, Motivational Tagged:
April 2, 2009 1 Comment

The Pursuit of Happiness or How to Be Happy

I’ve been thinking and writing a great deal about happiness lately.  As I explained on another blog (Self Help Daily), I’ve received a great number of e-mails from people lately dealing with the blues, depression, and the pursuit of happiness.

One of the things that strikes me the most about happiness is that most people think of it as something they have to earn or “attract.”  There are a lot of different approaches to happiness and, like most of my approaches, my own are pretty simple.  I believe that happiness begins and ends in your mind and in how you approach life.

Think about it, happy people are no better or worse than unhappy people.  Happy people aren’t always the richest and unhappy people aren’t always the poorest.  Happy people aren’t always the prettiest or brightest and unhappy people aren’t always the homeliest or dimmest.

Unhappy people aren’t always battling a weight problem and happy people aren’t always their ideal weight.   Not all happy people have perfect spouses and many unhappy people are married to saints in training.

What we see in the world around us doesn’t determine our happiness, it’s how we look at what’s around us that counts.  If we choose to dwell on the negative things, we will be unhappy.  If we choose to concentrate on the things we don’t have and aren’t able to do, we will be unhappy.

I know I’ve told you this umpteen dozen times,  but I have a great and varied number of bad traits.  I never keep any of them covered up.  My feeling is this:  If you cover your bad traits long enough, you’ll forget about them and never do anything about them.  But if you keep them in plain sight so you can remind yourself, daily, to work on them.

Anyway, having said that – one of my good traits is I’m a happy camper.  I am a genuinely happy person and my conditions and/or circumstances simply do not affect that.  Like most people, I’ve been on mountain tops that were so high that I felt like I walked on clouds and I’ve been in valleys so low that it was like, “What sky?  Are you sure one still exists?”

On one end, I was fortunate to find and marry Mr. Right, have three beautiful daughters, and a non-ending parade of pets I cherish. My family is close and we laugh on an hourly basis (always a good thing!).  However, I have also lost both of my parents far sooner than they should have died – my dad was only in his 50′s and my mom was in her early 60′s.  We also lost my husband’s mother as well as his sister, at a very young age.   I lost my dream house (when my husband’s company got hit extremely hard after September 11th and we had to move), and have had to move from several places that I loved muchly.

I’ve had a few illnesses and I get to take medications regularly, I’ve lived through two bad car wrecks (neither of which was my fault, believe it or not), and we witnessed a total upheaval at a church we’d attended for a very long time (also not my fault!) which cost us some of the closest friends we’ve ever had.

In the span of one particularly nasty year, we had to pack up and move out of my beautiful dream house (it was a new, beautiful home that was all I’d ever hoped it’d be) AND I watched as a  picture postcard type scene got smaller and smaller in my rear view mirror when we moved away from a remarkable place we lived on the beach in the Gulf of Mexico.

At one point in the second moving process, my husband said that I was “tough.”  I thought, ‘Not really.  Just happy and I refuse to be any other way.”  Having to move several times in a row like that was all part of his job.  It wasn’t life, nature, fate, or God picking on me.  I knew that.  I kept focusing on the fact that my family was all together,  healthy and happy.  When the blues came into the picture, I willed myself to focus on something else instead.  When I found myself missing pelicans and dolphins, I’d hustle to the nearest window to watch cardinals and robins.  They always made me smile, which was pretty much the plan.  I made sure to chase away negative feelings as soon as they showed up.

It’s honestly what kept me from crying a river.  It also kept me, you guessed it, happy.

I think that this is the secret.  You have to focus your mind on the positive and not sit, staring at the negative with tears in your eyes.  You have to look at what you have instead of what you don’t have – what life has given you rather than what it has taken away.

When you search the words “How to Be Happy” in Google, there are more than 92,500,000 results. Obviously this is a very popular and often talked about subject.  Ironic, isn’t it, that the answer to the question “How can I be happy?” is found inside of the person asking the question – not outside.   You can’t search for the answer “out there.”  The answer lies in a place that isn’t visible to the naked eye – it lies inside of each one of us.

We can be as happy as we choose to be – as happy as we make up our minds to be.  If an individual chooses to look around them and only see, or acknowledge, the things that he/she doesn’t have or can’t do, they aren’t ever going to be happy.  But if they dwell on the things they do have and the things they can do, they will have more happiness than they know what to do with.

Now let me point this out – I’m not saying to ignore the bad things, certainly not if they’re things you can do something about.  For example, if you despise your 35 year old sofa, save up money for a new one (or at least one that’s newer than the one you have).  We should all want nice things and there’s nothing wrong with wanting the best.  What I am saying is this:  Don’t sit on the maligned sofa feeling sorry for yourself.  Don’t keep saying how unattractive it is, how “embarrassed” you are by it, or how it just isn’t fair that other people have new sofas while you have to sit on a golden oldie! Thoughts like these are heartless thieves,  they’ll rob you of smiles, laughter, and happiness.  In the end, they’ll rob you of your quality of life.

Run negative thoughts out of your mind and you’ll be amazed by how much better you feel.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with wanting nice things – but I’m noticing that nothing seems to be enough for a lot of people these days.  They want more, more, more and new, new, new.   Instead of focusing on clicks and whistles, I wish more people would focus on their relationships and their enjoyment of life.   Quality of life is not determined by the quality of your home, furniture, car, clothes, etc.  Quality of life is determined by how well you get along with the people in your life, how often they make you smile and how often you make them laugh.

If you want a happier life, change the way you view the world around you.  Take off the negative glasses and put on the positive ones.  The view is so much better!  Be thankful for what you have but be even more thankful for who you have.

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

Filed Under: Inspiration, Motivational Tagged: , ,
August 3, 2008 1 Comment

How to Know if What You’re Feeling is Depression

Quote About Depression In the same way that when most of us say we’re “starving,” we’re simply hungry – many people say they’re depressed when they’re simply feeling down. Generally, it’s a feeling that’s the result of something that has happened in their life, and when enough time passes, the feelings will heal.  While feeling sad is a horrible feeling that we wouldn’t wish on anyone, we know that better days and sweeter emotions are around the corner. 

However, for those who ARE depressed, better days and sweeter emotions are positively unthinkable.  A depressed individual honestly can’t even phantom smiling again, let alone laughing.

So, how do know which category you fall into?  Ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Do I feel sad every day for most of the day?
  2. Have I lost interest in things that once delighted me?
  3. Am I sleeping either much more or much less than I once did?
  4. Am I restless?  Do I have trouble sitting still or shutting my mind off?
  5. Do I feel tired and lethargic most of the time?
  6. Do I feel worthless? Does it seem to me that I don’t serve a purpose to anyone or anything?
  7. Do I feel like I’ve been abandoned by everyone?
  8. Am I having trouble making decisions?
  9. Am I either eating more than usual or less than usual?  Is my weight up or down?
  10. If someone asked me if I liked myself, would my answer be NO?

Another symptom of depression is so fundamentally important that I didn’t want to list it above.  It deserves its own paragraph, because I can’t emphasize it enough. If you EVER have thoughts of suicide or thoughts of hurting yourself in any way – get to a doctor as soon as possible.  Whether it’s 4:00 in the morning or 12:00 at night, emergency rooms are always open!  People want very much to help you, please let them.  Never do anything to yourself or your body that you wouldn’t want done to someone you love.

Look back over the symptoms again.  If you answered “Yes” to 2 or 3 questions, you may be experiencing a “mild” form of depression.  If you can “pin” these feelings to a particular event, chances are good that what you need is time.  Don’t feel guilty for feeling down and don’t make the mistake of allowing these temporary feelings to identify you.  You are a vibrant and happy person who is simply feeling down at the moment.

If you answered “Yes” to 5 or more questions – you are a vibrant and happy person who probably needs help finding that person once more.  The thing many people don’t realize is that doctors can help with depression.  But you have to go!  And you have to keep going when they tell you to – if medications are involved, you have to work with your doctor to make sure your dosage is where it needs to be.

Never, ever try to doctor yourself.  No good ever comes from that.

If you have been thinking about suicide, or hurting yourself in any way - please see a doctor immediately.  Your world doesn’t have to stay dark, there are plenty of wonderful people who can help you find the light again.

If you are on the “mild” end of depression or if you are simply feeling blue, begin (as in RIGHT NOW!) looking for ways to make you feel better. The next post will contain a long list of ideas for you to pull from – from meditating to exercising, you’ll find so much to do you won’t have time to feel anything but busy!

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

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