Do things

I apologize for not having posted for quite some time now. Ironically enough, I went through a period of more intense depression for a good chunk of October, and even once it was past, I couldn't get back into this. It took the hounding of a very dear friend to get me back at the keyboard. Anyway, we're back in business, so here goes:

I've found that a lot of dealing with depression has to happen when I'm not actually feeling depressed. 

For example, in the last post, I mentioned activities that you can do to try to drag yourself out of a depression. For me, a couple of examples are playing my guitar, reading a good book, going for a walk. I need to engage my mind in something besides self-recrimination and doubt, and to get my body moving. Other people I know find that video games, sports (watching or playing), creating something (art, music, whatever) or being around friends and family can help. 

The problem is that it took me a long time to realize what the things were that could help me back toward "normalcy." Because when I'm in the midst of an episode of more severe depression, none of those things sound good to me. I don't want to do them. When depressed, I have an amazing to capacity to do absolutely nothing but sit/lay around my room and think. So it took realizing that these were things that give me joy when I'm feeling OK, and that if I force myself to do them when I feel terrible, it might just help.

Now, it doesn't always, and sometimes I can't convince myself to do any of them, and that's where friends and family come in, which I'll talk about next time. 

But the times when I can force myself to read a good book, go for a walk or pick up my guitar, it's been really helpful in my process of getting out of the profundity of depression I face off and on. I would encourage you to take note of a few things that make you happy and bring you joy now, so the next time you find yourself in a bad place, you'll at least have some tools at your disposal that might just help you out of that place.