Depression
The gloomy epidemic
Life is pain
"All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces," are lyrics from a famous song written by Gary Jules. Sadly, for a huge ammount of people this is an every day reality. The degree of depresion may vary from mild sadness or lethargy all the way up to a debilitating, life consuming ailment. People suffering from severe depression may have trouble getting out of bed, eating, taking care of basic hygiene and other tasks, which to some may seem "basic".
Causes
Depression in its core is an emotion, an energetic state of your brain (a combination of activity and lack thereof in certain areas in the brain). The actual causes may vary. There are people with larger predispositions to depression, but overall noone is completly safe from this curse. It may be triggered by negative emotional stimuli, such as death in the family, break-up, loss of employment, lack of affection from other people and many other external factors. Sometimes though, even people with seemingly "normal" or even successful lives are affected just as badly as anyone else.
Preparation for war
So how do we combat this terrible "demon"? Well, we have to begin somwhere. It is helpful to lay out a plan, you can call it mental preparation, if you will. Firstly, we should get into an environment, where we can calmly think and introspectively analyse. That can be in our home, or somwhere in nature with no people around, for example. Once this is achieved, we should calm down as much as it is possible for us in the given moment and focus our attention on the inside of our brain. Once you are in this state of introspection, calmly analyze yourself by asking questions about the negative state of mind you find yourself in. For example: "Why do I feel the way I do right now?", "Is there any particular thing I feel depressed about?", "What is it, that I don't like about myself or my life, that would fuel such emotions?" You may feel dismissive about this part, but the truth is, even if it seems like there is no reason for our deression whatsoever, oftentimes it's just because we overlook the factors contributing to it, or they are present for so long we become numb to this negative stimuli, but are unable to feel good, as this variable is still present and pulls our mental state downwards.
Creating the plan
Once you've analysed the reasons you feel negative about yourself or the world, it is important to think about possible ways towards bettering this situation. The most important thing to realise is, that it won't simply happen overnight or with little effort, you shouldn't feel discouraged if the end goal seems unobtainable or very distant for now. The universe is based on relativistic principles, you'd be surprised how much better it can make you feel to even make a small step towards the right direction. Of course the actual process depends on your individual position, which you've analysed in the first step. Everyone will have a different path towards betterment.
Just do it
This phrase has become a cliché over the time, but it does make sense if you put substance behind it. When we feel down or depressed, we tend to become inactive and lethargic, as doing anything takes a lot of energy, which we're trying to conserve. The problem is, though, that any object not in motion tends to stay still and every object in motion tends to stay in motion (first Newton's law). What does that have to do with psychology? The less active you are, the more difficult it becomes and the more energy it takes to change this state. It's so much easier and more pleasurable to just not do anything, or simply browse the web, watch TV or view Youtube videos. The problem is, that it only sends you further down this vicious cycle. When you don't do anything, it makes you more depressed about not doing anything, which makes it more likely for you to try to compensate for the lack of happiness by doing immediately pleasurable, but counterproductive activities, such as those mentioned above.
So what now?
So, let's say you decided you want to do something about your mental state. Why not, after all, as noone likes to feel depressed. BUT, what to do? Where to start? We recommend pushing yourself into doing not-so-pleasurable, but productive activities. A good starter training is cleaning your room. Sure, it's very easy to procrastinate, as cleaning can be boring and exhausting, but it is a smaller version of what we're trying to achieve on a bigger scale. How? It's simple. Cleaning may not be pleasurable by itself, but if you push yourself through and make some progress, you're going to look back on your room and think to yourself it looks pretty good. Also you will feel a sense of accomplishment, as you managed to pull yourself out of your lethargic state, even if it's just for a few minutes of cleaning (it would surprise you how seemingly much you can change the look of your room for the better in only a few minutes of work). And this is conceptually what you want to train yourself to do in life in general. The achievements, which make you feel the best in the long term, come with a lengthy time of unpleasurable effort before it. Of course doing so once and then slipping back into your old ways can happen very easily, that's why you should push yourself a little further every day or every "training session". Step by step, small progress over a short period time adds up to bigger progress over a long period of time. Nobody expects you to suddenly perform miracles, it's all about getting better over time.
Cultivate your talents
When we feel depressed, it is easy for us to slip into a state of self pity and loathing. We may feel as if we're good for nothing, have no talents, noone will ever like us or appreciate us, we aren't good enough. This is why it is crucial in this coping process, to make yourself feel a little better about yourself. Although you may think you have no talents or interests, there definitely are things you can do better than you can do other things. It is easy to get discouraged after you see the best in this field of interest, but again, the point isn't to be the best in the world, the point is to be a little bit better than your past self, which will in turn make you FEEL a little bit better than your past self. Perhaps you like to draw, but feel like you can't. Well we can guarantee you 100%, that if you just pick up a piece of paper right now, a pencil and an eraser, start drawing, and when you make a mistake, try to remember what you did wrong and fix it, you WILL get better over time. Our brains are adaptive and meant to learn, so you shouldn't let the most complex part of your body stagnate, just because you feel discouraged. Same goes for any other activity you may be interested in. Just because we see a difficulty, doesn't mean we should give up before even trying. We should rather try to find ways to make little steps towards your goal. Every journey begins with a single step. And this is step one.
Other people
Although some of us don't want to admit this, deep down we are tribal animals. When we lack human contact, we feel empty and without purpose. Of course we aren't suggesting to just turn yourself into a social butterfly overnight if you already aren't one, but, yet again, take it one step at a time. Even sharing your story on a support forum, chatting with someone like-minded online, or taking a walk and smiling at people, who seem to be receptive, if they only smile back, it can brighten your day. If you feel up to it, you can even try to have small talk with someone, who looks friendly enough. Happiness truly is in the little things. Don't underestimate reaching out to people with similar problems to yours, even in misery, it can make you feel surprisingly better when you feel understood. Be nice, talk to people the way you'd want to be talked to and eventually someone will resonate with you. Perhaps you'll even find out they face some similar problems. Of course other people's lack of receptivness can make you feel hurt or distressed, but even in cases like these, you should take it as a learning experience. You found out they aren't someone you'd want to spend time with and with every rejection it gets a little less painful. Don't underestimate time's ability to heal wounds, the stress you feel won't be there forever. Rest up by being alone for a time and try again. Every step is a step forward. Socializing and saying the "right things" are a skill just like any other and can be improved over time by practice.
Maintaining a healthy body
As we've mentioned several times before, depression leads to bad habits, which oftentimes includes eating too much food (especially junk food), or eating too little in general. Our mental and physical health are therefore very closely tied, so altering one may lead to alterations in the other. That's why it is very helpful to improve your physical condition, as it will make you feel more accomplished, healthier and better in general. Also, alongside many other advantiges, exercise makes your body release hormones into your organism and neurotransmitters in your brain (such as GABA, Dopamine and Noradrenaline). For starters, even a nice, relaxing walk in nature can make a huge difference, alleviate a lot of negative emotions and make your blood flow a little bit more. No downside, quite literally a "walk in the park". See more in Healthy body.
Conclusion
Overall, the point of this article is to remind people, that the best method to combat depresion is by slow, incremental increase in activity towards productive goals, which make you feel accomplished and further motivate you to take up the path towards other succeses.