How To Fight Depression Effectively

Use the guidelines given in this article to help you deal with and respond appropriately to depression.

Note : The term “responding appropriately” means to find a way to satisfy your unfulfilled needs which initially lead up to your depression, rather than trying to avoid or distract yourself from those feelings.

1 – Identify Depression

When you feel depressed you feel like giving in because nothing you do seems to work.

Note : Depression should not be confused with sadness, which is a primary feeling that comes from loosing something or someone important to you.

Depression is a tertiary feeling, which means it always comes after your primary and secondary feelings (e.g. sadness, frustration, depression).

2 – Remember The Meaning Of Depression

The message depression tells you is to stop what you are doing and give yourself time to relax, before your body can no longer cope with the frustration and stress.

3 – Identify Why You Are Feeling Depressed

Remember that depression comes as a result of experiencing more stress and frustration than the body can handle.

Therefore to determine the cause of your depression, identify the cause of your frustration.

Ask yourself, what have you been trying to achieve, but have so far failed to do? What need were you trying to fulfil? What primary feeling lead to your frustration, and eventually depression?

Depression is often, although not always, preceded by repeated bouts of failure.

4 – Respond Appropriately To your Depression

The first step to overcoming your depression is to acknowledge what you are feeling, and then give yourself time to rest. You must recognise that you are in depression, and need some time to work things out.

You will know when you have received sufficient rest because your levels of frustration and stress will fall to a manageable level, where you no longer feel overpowered by them.

Ready To Try Again

After your period of rest, and when you are feeling ready, remind yourself of step three by identifying what initially caused your frustration and the unfulfilled need which lead to it.

In order to respond appropriately to your depression, you must now think of new ways to satisfy that need.

Whatever ideas you come up with, it is important you approach things from a new angle. Otherwise if you keep doing the same things as before, you will get the same results and so will fall back into depression again.

Now, you may be expecting me to give you a bit more advice than this, but the truth is I can’t. The reason for this is because your depression is a result of your own unique circumstances, which means only you can successfully overcome it.

I can give you a general guideline, but ultimately it is you who must take personal responsibility for your situation.

If you expect or rely on someone or something else to “solve” your depression for you, then you may never overcome your depression because it is an internal battle that only you can fight.

This does not mean you should never seek help or assistance from others, but rather that you should recognise the change you experience in your life always comes from you, not from something or something else.

The Risk Of Frustration

Once you have had time to rest, and then reflected upon the cause of your frustration and depression, it is time to start taking action on your unfulfilled need.

During this period it is important to remember that any action you take may risk causing you frustration, and so you should be aware of this and not put off by it.

 
This frustration is there to tell you that what you are currently doing is not working, and so you should try another approach.

Do not make the mistake of ignoring this frustration, otherwise you will fall back into depression again.

To read more about the importance and meaning of frustration, see the following article:

“The Meaning Of Frustration”

Summary Of How To Fight Depression

We all have certain needs in life, and when those needs go unfulfilled our body tries to motivate us into taking action so we can fulfil those needs. This motivational energy is generated by the primary feeling associated with that need.

However should the actions we take be ineffective in satisfying our need, we then experience frustration and stress.

The body can only tolerate a certain amount of stress, and this level will be different for everyone.

Once you reach a point where your stress has become so great the body can no longer cope, you will have a mental breakdown that could be so severe it leads to suicide.

To prevent this from happening, depression kicks in by making you feel hopeless and like you want to give in.

This can be beneficial because when you give up on trying to fulfil your needs, you eliminate the ineffective actions that initially caused your frustration and stress.

This period of rest allows your body and mind to recover, so that you can reevaluate your situation and find a new way to satisfy your unfulfilled need.

Ultimately depression is overcome by finding a satisfying response to the unfulfilled need which caused you to feel depressed. As long as this need remains unfulfilled, you will always be at risk of falling back into depression.

Special Note For Dealing With Severe Depression

The process I have described in this article is very effective at not only preventing depression, but also overcoming it.

However, for severe depression where a person is on the verge of a mental breakdown, it is advisable to seek professional help and medication.

The reason for this recommendation is because during severe depression, there is a very serious risk of that person harming themselves or someone around them.

So in cases like this, it is best to go to a trained professional who can give you the proper level of assistance you need.

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