What are unconventional methods to deal with long term depression?

Long term depression has to be experienced to be believed and if you suffer from it, you know what I’m talking about. You look around you and see yourself living in a world where you feel you don’t belong. You wonder how everyone else gets up and faces the day filled with vim and vigor and the tenacity to get going. While you have to work extra hard to get out of bed and take a shower! Little tasks seem daunting. You lose concentration. Nothing you do ever feels right.

There is an underlying feeling that never goes away no matter how many sticks you shake at it. No matter how many books you read about it. No matter how many doctors you talk to about it. Even the pills you’ve tried over the years do nothing. You begin to feel that this is just how your life will be. You’ve stopped talking to friends about your feelings and have decided to accept it and work with it, end of sentence, done.

You may have noticed that your depression comes in waves and there are times when you catch yourself feeling happy or different and you wonder how you can keep up the good work. How can I be like everyone else? What happened in that moment, where for a second or a minute or an hour I lost myself in time and felt peaceful?

How did you do it? I want you to remember the last time you felt happy, even if it was a few years ago, or a minute ago! What initiated the moment? Seriously, think about it, write it down, feel it again, then smile about it! I know you can catch yourself smiling in odd moments even in your depression. I’ve spoken to people and heard the smile in their voice while they were in the midst of the worst moments of deep depression. We all have a smile hiding somewhere inside that we can pull out at a moment’s notice, especially when we are not focused on ourselves.

That’s right, I said it! When we aren’t focused on ourselves we can light up a room! When we can pull ourselves forward and focus on something outside we can flip the switch in an instant! I bring this up for a reason and it’s not to tell you to go out and start volunteering to help others, although that is an unconventional way to deal with long term depression. I mention it to call notice to what is inside of you. I believe that every single person has control over their own emotional well being in every moment of every day and to state otherwise about yourself is the difference between experiencing normal moments of depression aka sadness (that everyone has) and letting it continue on and on for months and years of your life.

I have read or been told that depression is unexpressed anger turned inward. This makes sense to me up to a point. As a long term “depressionista” I have noticed that I can get pretty angry when no one understands what I’m feeling and I can get pretty angry that my life feels the same way, where the anger turned inward comes in is the stuck part where I feel as if there is nothing I can do to change it. But, I can. But I don’t want to because I’m depressed! But, I can, but I don’t want to because I’m tired! But, I can and the “buts” stops there, honestly, it does!

So what can you do?

• Go ahead, have a good long cry. Some of the healthiest people I know cry at the drop of a hat. They happy cry. They sad cry! The point is they cry! When they feel it, they let it out. Depression is really unexpressed emotion.
• Go ahead get angry! Have at it. Call up a friend or a coach or the dog and ask permission to go on a raging rant! See if you can make it last more than 10 minutes. Seriously get out a timer, then, get it off your chest. If you can’t find anyone, get out your journal and get writing. Can you write your anger down for 10 minutes?
• Get physical! Yeah, I know! Who has the energy to punch a pillow? Try it you might like it! Physical movement is the best way to move depressed energy. If you don’t believe me ask a jogger.
• If you really can’t get out of bed or off the couch try crossing the room to insert the funniest movie you can find into your DVD and press play. Watch, laugh, rinse and repeat.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but these unconventional methods should be used to get you out of your state of depression in the moment so you realize that depression is a state of mind that can be conquered when you put forth some effort. And, it’s an effort you’ve used before but haven’t paid attention to. You will probably want to get to the root of these problems with the assistance of a qualified coach, but in the meantime actually use some of these methods and you will begin to understand that it’s always about what you decide to do that will make the difference between long term depression and the moments of sadness we all experience.