With depression being reported as the most common of mental health disorders, I wanted to shine a light on this important topic. It’s estimated that about 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. have been diagnosed with depression within their lifetime. That’s a significant amount of people coping and dealing with symptoms that create much suffering and despair.

Too many in my book.

With that said lets get into the signs, symptoms and ways toward healing any level or bout of depression that you or a loved one may be experiencing.

We’ve all had the blues. It’s inevitable to feel a state of low mood or sadness from time to time; it’s human.

However, when that low mood becomes a consistent pattern where there are way more downs than ups and your way of thinking and seeing the world becomes grim and compromised, it’s important to implement actions and steps to care for yourself.

The Gateway to Depression

Discomfort with our feelings lead us to escape mechanisms or coping behaviors: drinking too much, general busyness, overall distraction, overly achieving, doing & attaining; numbing out with our phones, tv, too much work, overconsumption of a relentless amount of things that we don’t need, over scheduling, overly social, lack of any connectedness. 

Maybe the opposite is true; you can’t get yourself to do anything, start anything, finish anything. You don’t have the want, desire or energy for the things that you used to have energy and want for. Whatever the case may be for you, we all have our unique signs and predominate symptoms of how our depression shows up.

*While reading this article be mindful to focus on how your mind/body/soul is speaking to you or reacting to any mental health challenges that you might be experiencing.

Living with depression can feel like you’re walking around the living world numbed out and half dead.

This is no way for you to proceed and live. My aim for this post is to provide education, resources and tools to clearly guide you toward options for positive change in order to revive your level of mental health.

Let’s begin.

on restlessness:

“we cannot be still. we do everything in a hurry, rushing from one thing to the next. wherever we are, we always think we should be somewhere else.”

“we’re longing for something and craving something, but we don’t know what it is……we do everything we can to forget the feelings of loneliness and suffering inside.”

book- the art of living

Symptoms & Signs of Depression:

Psychological symptoms

• Low Mood: Sadness, numbness, loneliness or emptiness

• Low self-confidence: feelings of guilt, shame, worthlessness or hopelessness

• Lack of Motivation in people, places or things that you once had interest in: Lack of interest or pleasure in activities, or no motivation at all.

• Difficulty with Decision making: Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or generally making decisions

• Anxiety & Restlessness: Feeling chronically anxious or worried, rumination of negative thoughts and feelings of hopelessness

• Confabulation: a type of unconscious memory error that’s filled with fabricated, misinterpreted, or distorted information. A lack of awareness that a memory is false or distorted with no attempt to deceive or lie. (think of it as making something worse than it is, but you believe your interpretation to be true; that’s confabulation.)

• Suicidal thoughts: Thoughts of death or suicide, or attempts

Physical Symptoms

• Low Energy: Fatigue, lack of energy, or feeling slowed down

• Difficulty sleeping: waking up too early or oversleeping. Getting too much or too little of sleep or interrupted sleep due to racing or negative thoughts.

• Changes in appetite or weight; decreased appetite or weight loss, or increased cravings for food and weight gain

• Unexplained body aches and pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems without any clear physical cause 

• Easily frustrated or irritated from things ordinarily not bothered by

Tips on Healing

Go Natural

If you’re looking for an all natural road toward healing your depression and want to sway away from prescription medications; an option is to try an herbal supplement such as St. John’s Wort. (*I’m not promoting this avenue of healing; I’m providing you with options in order for you to explore what the best path is for you.) Read more about the potential benefits and drawbacks to this natural remedy HERE.

Connect

In the throws of depression, a general knee jerk reaction is to want to isolate and shut yourself off from people and doing much of anything. This usually is the way we can further lose ourselves and fall deeper into our negative thoughts & feelings. Trying your best to find routine, connect with people whom are healthy & good influences is an important part of getting your mental health back on a healthy track.

Find Peace & Calm

I’m sure you’ve heard this one before: meditate. With all the invasive negative thought loops and bad feelings that depression brings meditation offers you the space to learn to quiet by allowing everything to be seen, to come to the surface, to be experienced, to be felt and ultimately be released. A consistent meditation practice can help you learn how to bring peace and calm into your life. Find options for different meditation apps HERE.

CBT: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Therapy could provide you the tools to counter negative and distorted thinking patterns. A skilled therapist could help you to see your way out of the grim stories and outlook that keep your depressed state alive. Find more information about the kind of therapeutic approach that is often used to treat clients with depressive symptoms HERE.

Feel Your Feelings

If your feelings continue to be unseen and unheard, depression has a clear gateway to slip in and overtake.

As your feelings are seen and heard they will quiet by being acknowledged. A habit of thoroughly coping with your feelings in a healthy way can greatly reduce your risk of depression entering into your world.

If you would like more direction on how to feel your feelings find an article HERE.

Submerge in Nature

Nature is healing. Intentionally putting yourself around the smells, tones and rawness of natural settings has the tendency to reset the mind/body/soul. Even little touches like adding green house plants into your indoor space can be helpful in uplifting your mood. Find more information about how nature naturally acts as a healing remedy HERE.

Depression test : Are you depressed?

Be mindful to take any online test that’s not being administered directly by any licensed professional as a gage. It’s always important to get a thorough diagnosis from a licensed professional when dealing with serious mental health conditions. With that said, if you want to gage where you are in terms of your symptoms of depression, you can find a quick test HERE.

Additional Resources:

*If you feel like your depression is severe and you need to work with a licensed professional; find tips on how to find “the right” mental health professional for you HERE.

Good luck on your healing journey. Feel free to contact me for any further tips or resources to assist you further.

*Above image by photographer Amy Lynn Bjornson.