Deals with depression in one form or anotherevery person. In this case, we are not talking about a medical problem or mental disorder that only a doctor can help cope with. Many people understand depression as a prolonged attack of bad mood, melancholy and despondency, which, of course, becomes very difficult to live in. Accordingly, working and effective options for how to get rid of depression will be of interest to everyone. Depression is characterized by a state of depression, sadness and melancholy. A person suffering from it is practically unable to experience joy and other positive emotions. The whole world is not nice to him, and he does not want to do anything. Everything falls out of his hands, and the future seems sad and full of disappointments. Depression is very exhausting and significantly reduces the quality of life. It is not surprising that a person wants to find a way out of this state as quickly as possible! Unfortunately, when it comes to serious clinical depression, then only a psychotherapist should provide assistance to a person. But in cases of prolonged bad mood, and even caused by explainable reasons, you can get by with only psychological help. You can even try doing it yourself using the exercises and techniques we describe below.
What can psychologists offer us?
You will not see among the various ones we have listedpsychotherapeutic trends of the most famous - psychoanalytic. Don't worry, this is not some kind of ignoring a whole milestone in psychology: it is simply impossible to engage in psychoanalysis on your own and get rid of depression with its help alone - the internal psychological defenses of the personality are too strong. They will not let you do this. In addition, a psychoanalyst is a specialist with many years of psychotherapeutic training, possessing high qualifications, so necessary for subtle psychoanalytic work. And only he can effectively "treat the soul" within the framework of psychoanalysis. Instead, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with other equally wonderful and effective trends in practical psychology that help get rid of depression.
Gestalt therapy: our experience - the son of difficult mistakes
Gestalt therapy is a daughterpsychoanalysis. It is based on the postulates of flexible and adequate adaptation of the body to constantly changing environmental conditions, the benefits of positive life experience and the need to understand yourself and your body. Each person is unique and original, and he has his own needs, feelings and sensations. If he does not listen to them for a long time, "hammers" them with some conventions and restrictions, then the body stops conveying this important information to the brain and apathy sets in. It is this that mainly characterizes depression in Gestalt therapy - a state of lack of desires and energy. If you recognized yourself in this description, then you need to take steps to restore bodily sensitivity. This will be the first step to getting rid of depression. You need to learn to focus on yourself and your body, listen to everything that it is trying to say. At first, a loved one who will be "outside" can help you with this. track all the changes that happen to you: what makes you cry? What makes you smile and what makes you afraid? What gestures, poses and looks are typical for you when you want something? All these reference points will help you learn to hear yourself again. Maybe at first you will even need hints like: “Are you hungry now?”, “Are you sleepy at this moment?”, “Do you want to have fun by watching your favorite movie?” etc. … Gain useful experience of paying attention to yourself, and your mood will improve. Sometimes depression is not something permanent – it is rather a guest that comes into life of its own free will. And in this case, it is very important to analyze the attacks of bad mood and understand what or who causes them. Each state (including depression) has its own mechanism for turning it on and off. In order to understand it, try to remember (or better yet, write it down in detail) in what situations melancholy and apathy overwhelm you, what precedes it, and what your feelings, sensations, and internal actions are at that moment. Try to find something common in these states - most likely, this will be a typical mechanism for how you plunge yourself into depression. Once the mechanism is found, all that remains is to replace it with something kind and positive. Try to focus on some pleasant memory. This could be a frame from childhood or your recent trip to the sea - anything that evokes strong positive emotions. You will need to try to imagine this memory in all its details, immerse yourself in it and wander around there a little. This can give you strength and a good mood. You can also come up with some activities or phenomena that bring you joy and try to bring them to life.
Cognitive psychotherapy: grief from the mind
Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov was right when he calledone of his most famous plays, “Woe from Wit.” These words are directly related to the causes of depression attacks: as a rule, they are in our heads. Attacks of self-flagellation, melancholy and depression very often cause all sorts of negative attitudes that we acquire throughout life, for example, “I can’t do anything,” “I’m always unlucky,” “I’m ugly,” etc. ... They ruin our lives and make us believe in the worst. What are the possible ways to get rid of them? A technique called the “dysfunctional thought protocol” has proven itself to be excellent in combating such attitudes. Its essence comes down to the following: you take a piece of paper and draw a table with several columns. The first is the date of the unpleasant event that happened to you. The second is a description of the essence of this very unpleasant event. For example, a therapist was rude to you. The third is what feelings and emotions it evoked in you. Usually it is the whole spectrum of negativity from resentment to depression. The fourth is what negative attitudes were activated because of the event. For example, when it happened, you thought: “Well, that’s it! I’m so pathetic that everyone is rude to me!” The fifth column is the most important: you should write down alternative neutral or positive explanations of the situation. In the case of the “harmful doctor”, in addition to your “patheticness”, such explanations could be the poor health of the aunt, the boss who yelled at her, a small salary, and much more. The more such explanations you come up with, the better. And you need to do this with every event that knocks you off track. This technique helps to switch the focus of attention from depressive-pessimistic to positive-optimistic. In the case when some insoluble situation causes you to become depressed, try to look for alternative solutions. Here's a story that illustrates this technique: Marina, a thirty-year-old mother of three, was desperate because her husband had left her. She felt like she "couldn't survive without him" because she wasn't ready for independent living, didn't know how to earn money, plan a budget, etc. … First, she needed to identify the problems: budgeting, raising children, and loneliness. At first, they terrified her. But soon she remembered that she had a college degree. This prompted her to start solving the first problem - she looked for and quickly found a job as a secretary. After that, she felt stronger: the situation was no longer as hopeless as she had initially perceived it to be. Working through the other problems no longer caused her such horror: she thought about ways to instill discipline in her children, and also remembered old friends and acquaintances forgotten during her marriage. The focus on finding alternative solutions rather than on dreary suffering helps any person to become more active and come to their senses.
Art - therapy: the art of enjoying life
Art therapy has long been known for itseffectiveness in combating a wide range of psychological problems, including depression. Its main characteristic is the unlimited possibilities for self-expression. Judge for yourself: a person seeking to get rid of negative experiences can “splash out” them in any kind of art. The choice of direction depends on the depth of a person’s experiences and their skills. For example, with strong experiences of resentment or sadness, it is better to use clay or plasticine than paints. You don’t even need to set a specific goal for yourself; when doing art therapy, you can simply immerse yourself in the process and surrender to it completely. However, if you wish, you can use exercises. For example, set a goal to draw your melancholy. Listen to yourself and transfer to paper the image that comes to your mind when you think about your depression. Spend a lot of time on this, polish the details. After finishing the work, look carefully at the drawing. Do not worry about its quality: remember that the main thing is not the aesthetic appeal of the drawing, but the depth of self-expression. What feelings and emotions does it evoke in you? Perhaps you will want to do something with it. Or, on the contrary, you can draw something very pleasant that will evoke positive emotions in you. Help your soul to dive inside yourself: use all your imagination, because it is limitless! An interesting art therapy technique is creating a collage. Take a large sheet of Whatman paper and start placing on it everything that evokes positive emotions in you: drawings, color spots, photographs, magazine clippings, pieces of fabric and leather, some other things and materials. Glue it all to the sheet and watch what is happening inside you during the collage process. Remember that there are no restrictions, and you can do whatever you want with the collage - for example, paint over fragments of emptiness with color or, on the contrary, leave them. Finish the work at the moment your inner voice tells you to. Look at its results. How does the collage evoke in you? What would you call it? Try putting the collage aside and look at it in a few days. Has anything changed? And you? Psychology provides us with a lot of options on how to get rid of depression with the help of various techniques and exercises. We remind you that they can be effective only if they are used constantly, as well as in the absence of serious mental disorders, which only a psychotherapist can reliably tell you. Human capabilities are truly limitless. A mother can lift a car if her child’s leg is stuck under the wheel. A woman can stand at the stove for days with a temperature of thirty-nine degrees, just to create a festive atmosphere for her husband’s birthday. And what are the capabilities of a student’s body before a session? That's it! Therefore, do not lose heart and reveal your potential by at least another ten percent - and a bad mood will stop haunting you, and rays of happiness and positivity will come to replace it. We recommend reading:
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