How To Break Out Of Depressive Thought Cycles
Depression can be a mild or debilitating condition, and many people go through it. As people experience depression differently, some may go through it more than once. Recognizing depression symptoms becomes more critical if you go through a depression cycle. Some signs of depression include:
- Withdrawing yourself from social circles or family and friends
- Feeling that nothing matters
- Thinking about death a lot
- Having low energy to get through the day
- Not enjoying the things you used to
- Extreme eating habits like overeating or not eating enough.
- Increased anxiety and irritability
A depression cycle is the recurrence of symptoms that further put you in a bad mental space. One of the effects of depression is that you defer decisions, neglect responsibilities, or engage with people around you. Steering away from your daily routines and behavior can make it more challenging to recover from depression and worsen your mental condition. If you don’t take the actions that can improve your mood, you will start to spiral and deteriorate. Fortunately, there are several ways that you can break the cycle of depression.
Get Good Sleep
Sleep is an essential activity. Inadequate sleep can compound your depression as you are more likely to have sad thoughts. Getting adequate, quality sleep would be best, or your physical and mental state may break down.
If you are having trouble sleeping, you should start a night routine. Your routine should begin with a consistent time and consist of short tasks. For example, at 9 p.m., you will take a quick bath, brush your teeth, and get into bed. Once your body adapts to the practice, it will start to shut down at the specified time automatically and as you go through the tasks.
It would help if you also prepared your sleep area to make it more conducive for sleep. Start by making the room dim or dark by using dark tones and closing curtains; light can trigger your brain to assume it’s daytime and stay awake. Remove electronics from your bedroom, like the TV, laptop, and tablet. Don’t get on your phone while in bed. Electronics emit a light that triggers your brain to stay awake.
A healthy lifestyle improves your sleeping habits. Exercise and a healthy diet will also make sleeping easier. Avoid caffeine hours before you sleep. You can find caffeine in several food items like coffee, soda, medicine, and chocolate.
Reduce Stress
Stress can be a trigger for depression. Find stress relief techniques that will work for you; find a way to relax before, during, and after the period. You can use techniques like meditating, reading, or breathing exercises. Identify potentially stressful situations, like family gatherings or looming deadlines, and prepare for them.
Healthy Lifestyle
A lifestyle change can improve your mood. Start by reducing the junk food you eat, such as food high in saturated fats and refined sugar. Choose to eat food that has high omega 3 and omega 6 ( like olive oil, avocado, and fish), protein foods with healthy branched-chain amino acids, and micronutrients (like magnesium, folic acid, B6, and B12).
Exercise can improve your mood, reduce stress, give you restful sleep, and boost your self-esteem. Exercise has many benefits that include producing natural antidepressants. Ideally, you should exercise for at least 30 minutes per day, three to five times a week.
Social Support
Depression can make you feel alone in the world and that nobody cares for you. If you isolate yourself, you will feed those feelings (even though it’s not true), making your situation worse. That’s the reason you need to surround yourself with people.
Having people around you will help ease the feeling of loneliness, and you will give people the chance to help you through a difficult time. Sometimes this feeling can lead to problems with alcohol or drug abuse. The people around you can be your support system and may even spot problems before you do. They not only offer you a listening post, but they can assist you in finding professional help like an inpatient and outpatient drug rehab center in Brooklyn, New York.
You can create a community around you by using family, friends, neighbors, and professionals. You can also find a community by joining classes, trying to reach out to people you haven’t talked to in a while, doing charity work, or adopting a pet.
One Step at a Time, One Day at a Time
.When you are in the midst of depression, it is hard to see your way out. Sometimes you may feel like doing nothing at all. But if you take charge of your life, you can work your way through it.