How to get out of the depression yourself?

If we talk about medicine, then depression isis a serious mental illness that affects about 20% of the population in developed countries. The main symptoms include low mood, inability to enjoy, pessimism, mental and motor retardation, apathy, lack of interests and vitality, and decreased self-esteem. Many people wonder: how to get out of depression on your own? In cases where we are talking about real clinical depression, this is impossible. Depression as a disease is caused either by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain or by serious psychological trauma. In such situations, the only way out is to see a psychotherapist. However, there are few such truly serious cases. Most often, because of their depression, a person experiences some depression and sees the world in dark colors. Unpleasant and sad thoughts creep into their head, and sometimes it seems to be filled with a heavy fog. A person feels tired, various physical illnesses appear, any other desires disappear, except for the desire to sleep and eat, apathy sets in. At the same time, he can work and take care of his family - but all this is quite difficult for him. He understands that he is depressed and thinks: "Can I overcome this? And if so, how can I get out of depression on my own?" You can find answers to this and other questions in this article.

The causes of depression

A mentally healthy person has depressionthe condition can arise in situations when there are serious problems in his life. Often they are not even realized, but the person experiences deep internal anxiety about them. For example, a woman accumulates dissatisfaction with her family relationships. But subconsciously she does not allow herself to think about it and does not realize when and why she has sad thoughts, depression and oppression. Therefore, one of the first steps to getting out of depression will be asking yourself the question: “Right here and now, is something upsetting me? Am I very worried about something?” You can write down all the things that worry you on a piece of paper. Then look at each one and listen to yourself - which of them causes the greatest sadness and oppression? Most likely, this problem will be the cause of the depression that has overtaken you. But not all problems can cause a state of depression. We don't fall into melancholy and depression because a bus driver was rude to us or a nail broke. All these events can be a reason for depression, but not its source. The most common causes of depression are:

Losing a loved one It can be a divorce fromhusband, the death of a friend or any other situation in which a person close to you and important to you leaves your life. First you experience shock and denial, then despair and sorrow. To cope with them and go further, you need to accept the loss and find her place in your life. Below are the psychological techniques that help to do this.
Stress caused by the desire to succeed in allspheres of life You turn as a squirrel in a wheel and try to do everything: to make a brilliant career, to bring up children, to spend time with your husband, friends and parents. But you are not superwoman, so you get apathy, fatigue, a sense of lack of energy, longing. Because of this, you still have the least time, which only aggravates the situation and increases stress.
Self-exertion and self-inflated demands Theserequirements may come from you, but more often they come from someone else. As a result, you begin to consider yourself worthless and worthless. These thoughts get into your head and are firmly fixed there. How to get out of depression? Evict these thoughts.
Loneliness It can be described as a separatereason, since many people who are depressed complain of loneliness. It can be real - for example, when no one really communicates with a person because of his personality traits, and subjective - when a person feels lonely even when communicating with someone.
Problems in significant areas of life Protractedconflicts, job loss, financial problems, serious illnesses, a difficult family climate – all these completely different situations have one thing in common – they seem hopeless. A person who has encountered such a problem has only one desire – “to give up and die”. But you can do it differently – start looking for a way out of the current situation.
Constant struggle with oneself Sometimes a personstrange and sometimes slightly abnormal desires arise. Sometimes we want to be bad, evil, stupid and useless. But if we constantly forbid ourselves all this and keep ourselves in an iron grip - the tone leaves the body, and it stops wanting anything, which leads to depression.

All these and many other problems and situationscan cause depression, a feeling of hopelessness and unwillingness to do anything, which together are called depressive states. You can’t let it slide and expect it to go away on its own. If you are really unhappy with your moods and attitude towards life, you can try to change them.

What to do?

How to get out of severe depression on your own?The first step was described above - understand the reason for your condition. After that, depending on the reason and your condition, you can choose one or more suitable recommendations from the following psychological techniques and methods for combating depression:

Work with loss

First you need to realize realitylosses. This is facilitated by long conversations about the person who is no longer with you and what you have lost along with him. After this, you will need to adapt to his absence in your life, fill in the gaps that were formed with his departure (communication, support, money, etc.). It will be useful to write a letter to him, where you can say what you did not have time to say and say goodbye to him.

Work with emotional trauma

It happens that depression occurs as a resultprolonged suppression and accumulation of negative feelings. In this case, the exercise "Circle" will be useful. You will need to find a place for yourself (create a circle) in which the strongest emotions can be expressed. At the same time, when you leave the circle, you leave them there.

Work to relieve stress

There are many ways to quickly relieve stress:sports, relaxation, communication with friends, hobbies and much more. However, if you are constantly experiencing severe stress, then you need to rethink your life and set priorities. Look at what in your life takes up the most energy, and whether this area of activity is really so important to you. Get rid of what you do not need, or at least try to spend as little energy on it as possible.

Work with self-flagellation

Two methods can be effective - techniquereattribution and the negative thought protocol. They can be used if you blame yourself and only yourself for all the troubles: incompetence, lack of diligence and other shortcomings. The reattribution technique consists of an objective analysis of all aspects of an unpleasant situation, during which you realize those things that could have influenced the outcome of events. This will allow you to clarify your mistakes, develop ways to correct them and prevent them in the future, and also remove the blame from you for something for which you cannot be responsible in principle (for example, as a bank employee, you issued a loan to an insolvent client on a fake certificate, which you found out about only a month after the incident - in this situation, you did everything according to the rules and could not have foreseen the forgery of the certificate. The best thing you can do now is to tell your superiors about it). A negative thought log is a piece of paper with the following columns: “date,” “event,” “emotion,” “automatic thoughts,” “rational response,” “result.” You write down the date, the essence of the event, the emotions and automatic thoughts it evoked, as well as all rational responses and all other possible explanations for the unpleasant event. For example, a nurse yelled at you in your therapist’s office. Automatic thought: “she doesn’t like me.” Rational response: “this woman is always in a bad mood,” “she has a lot of work,” etc. You need to write down even thoughts that are alien to you and momentary. Gradually, you will see how your negative attitudes affect your life, and you will also learn to evaluate events more truthfully.

Working with loneliness

In case of real loneliness, think about whatyour character traits and actions upset others the most, what would they like to get from communicating with you, and try to implement similar or some other behavior options. The case of subjective loneliness is somewhat more complicated, since in this case you communicate, but do not receive true satisfaction from communication. Listen to yourself at the moment when you are with someone, but at the same time lonely - what is happening to you? Perhaps you are bored because you are shy when communicating and do not say anything? Or vice versa - you talk too much, and your partners practically do not? Think about what you would like, and try to bring it into communication with the people around you - and, perhaps, loneliness will go away on its own.

Working with "hopeless" situations

The technique is called “searching for alternatives.”Think about what is causing you the most difficulty in the situation. Then try to come up with as many ways to solve these problems as possible. These ways do not have to relate to you and your situation, they can be anything. Once you have made a list, look at these options and think about what you have to implement at least some of them. In this way, having identified the essence of your problems, you can quickly and spontaneously come to a solution to situations that seemed insoluble. For example, a woman whose husband left her feels that she will not survive without him. This “will not survive” for her comes down to problems of finances, loneliness and raising children. She solves the problem of finances by remembering her college degree and finding a job as an assistant to the manager. Her mood improves, she has more strength for communication and raising children. Thus, the totality of the statement “I will not survive without him” disappears.

Work with self-control

No person is perfect, including you.Allow yourself to be different - both kind and evil, strong and weak. Sometimes satisfy your "bad" desires, for example, eat a cake at midnight. Do not make it your way of life - just be flexible. Depression is a very difficult and unpleasant condition. It may be difficult to get out of this hole on your own, but it is possible. In any case, life will not change without your desire. And what does it mean on your own? After all, there are almost always friends and relatives who will help and support you at the right time. Depression is a very difficult and unpleasant condition. It may be difficult to get out of this hole on your own, but it is possible. In any case, life will not change without your desire. And what does it mean on your own? After all, there are almost always friends and relatives who will help and support you at the right time. We recommend reading: