Three positive ways to deal with mild depression?

Answer 1

* Talk to people about it. Be open about what is wrong and find solutions. * Get a good hobby; join a sports team, an acting group, the Chess club; whatever keeps you interested. * If needed, get a doctor's prescription for antidepressants. They take some time to have any noticeable effect but they do help.

Answer 2

Even mild depression is a potentially dangerous illness, so a person should never try to get through it on their own. Mild depressions can become major ones very quickly. One of the symptoms of depression is isolation. The sufferer can't "connect" meaningfully with other people, at the very time he needs them most.

So, the first thing, while the depression is still mild, is to confide in a trustworthy person who has the sufferers permission to check up on them, see how they are, to ask them questions about their feelings and to offer support. If the depression deepens, the ill person will not be able to communicate well, so trying to start a trusting relationship at that point is very difficult. The connection to caring people is vital during the illness and during recovery.

Second, there is the normal advice for any ill person, and that is to eat as well as possible. Fresh fruit and veg, a balanced diet that the person can afford and will not take too much trouble to prepare. Depressed people commonly eat lots of junk food for comfort sake or else they stop eating. It will take self discipline for the ill person to eat properly, but they should be encouraged to do so because it is a "treatment" that helps a lot. If depression is severe, the ill person will not be able to do this, so it should be advised early on, with the reasons explained clearly.

They need fresh air and they need sunlight and exercise. Exercise raises the natural levels of endorphins in the body and they are nature's own feelgood factors. Sunlight has antidepressant properties. An ill person should try to have at least 20 minutes of being in sunlight without sunglasses on every day.

In my opinion, the best exercise for a mildly depressed person is laughter. Laughter really does raise the spirits as well as providing a good workout. Even if the laughter is fake and forced, it still has the same good effects in releasing feelgood factors as if it were genuine laughter. Search the internet for Laughter Therapy. Some of the sites are whacky, so use your discretion. Just because some sites are whacky doesn't mean that the basic concept is not true.

They need to practice good sleep hygiene, as all too often, the person is up most of the night and wakes up exhausted. The bedroom should be a good place to associate with sleep, so remove televisions, computers and phones and any other distraction from the room. After 6pm, have no coffee or alcohol or other stimulating drink. Turn off the TV as it only has bad news and will hype the thoughts up when they need to be quieted to enable sleep. Have a warm bath with some pure essential oil of Lavender in it - two drops is enough. Have a warm milky drink, put on some soothing sounds such as the sound of the ocean or whale music or somesuch, and let it relax you. As you relax, think of three things to be thankful for - old fashioned Count Your Blessings. It will remind the ill person that life is not all bad; there are still good and beautiful things in it even if the ill person feels awful. It may be hard to do, but even something like "at least I wasn't in an earthquake today" is progress. Go to bed at a set time, and get up at the same time every day whether you feel like it or not, as it helps preserve our natural sleep rhythms.

Depression is a serious illness that needs to be dealt with in lots of ways at once. The ill person must be monitored by a caring trusted person, and the ill person should be taken to a doctor if the trusted person starts worrying. It is as well to let the doctor what is going on know in any case.

Answer 3

There are many ways someone could fight depression with or without the use of prescription drugs. Some of these methods are exercising, setting goals and eating healthier.