Find exercises that are continuous and rhythmic. The most benefits for depression come from rhythmic exercise —such as walking, weight training, swimming, martial arts, or dancing—where you move both your arms and legs.
Add a mindfulness element, especially if your depression is rooted in unresolved trauma or fed by obsessive, negative thoughts. Focus on how your body feels as you move—such as the sensation of your feet hitting the ground, or the feeling of the wind on your skin, or the rhythm of your breathing. Pair up with an exercise partner. Not only does working out with others enable you to spend time socializing, it can also help to keep you motivated.
Try joining a running club, taking a water aerobics or dance class, seeking out tennis partners, or enrolling in a soccer or volleyball league. Take a dog for a walk. What you eat has a direct impact on the way you feel. Reduce your intake of foods that can adversely affect your brain and mood, such as caffeine, alcohol , trans fats, and foods with high levels of chemical preservatives or hormones such as certain meats.
Going too long between meals can make you feel irritable and tired, so aim to eat something at least every three to four hours. Minimize sugar and refined carbs. Aim to cut out as much of these foods as possible. Boost your B vitamins. Deficiencies in B vitamins such as folic acid and B can trigger depression. To get more, take a B-complex vitamin supplement or eat more citrus fruit, leafy greens, beans, chicken, and eggs.
Boost your mood with foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids play an essential role in stabilizing mood. The best sources are fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, tuna, and some cold-water fish oil supplements. Sunlight can help boost serotonin levels and improve your mood. Whenever possible, get outside during daylight hours and expose yourself to the sun for at least 15 minutes a day.
Remove sunglasses but never stare directly at the sun and use sunscreen as needed. For some people, the reduced daylight hours of winter lead to a form of depression known as seasonal affective disorder SAD.
SAD can make you feel like a completely different person to who you are in the summer: hopeless, sad, tense, or stressed, with no interest in friends or activities you normally love. No matter how hopeless you feel, though, there are plenty of things you can do to keep your mood stable throughout the year. That your situation is hopeless? Depression puts a negative spin on everything, including the way you see yourself and your expectations for the future.
But even so, they can be tough to give up. Rather, the trick is to identify the type of negative thoughts that are fueling your depression, and replace them with a more balanced way of thinking. All-or-nothing thinking. The mental filter — Ignoring positive events and focusing on the negative.
Noticing the one thing that went wrong, rather than all the things that went right. I always keep the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number programmed into my cellphone, so that I have someone to call at any minute of the day or night. I am not my diagnosis or my mental illness. I am not depression, I just have depression. When I am feeling especially blue, this is something I say to myself every day.
Depression impacts our thinking and makes it difficult to appreciate the whole picture of who we are. Remembering that I am not depression puts some of the power back into my hands.
I am reminded that I have so much strength, ability, and compassion to use in support of myself when depression strikes.
I have become an expert in my own experience. Developing awareness, acceptance, self-care, and support have shifted the way that I cope with depression. Amy Marlow lives with major depression and generalized anxiety disorder.
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Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Mental Health. Share on Pinterest. This could be your primary doctor or a health provider who specializes in diagnosing and treating mental health conditions for example, a psychologist or psychiatrist. Certain medications, and some medical conditions, such as viruses or a thyroid disorder, can cause the same symptoms as depression.
A health care provider can rule out these possibilities by doing a physical exam, interview, and lab tests. Your health care provider will examine you and talk to you about treatment options and next steps. Communicating well with your health care provider can improve your care and help you both make good choices about your health.
Read about tips to help prepare and get the most out of your visit. For additional resources, including questions to ask your health care provider, visit the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Sadness is only a small part of depression. Some people with depression do not feel sadness at all. A person with depression also may experience many physical symptoms, such as aches or pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems.
Someone with depression also may have trouble with sleeping, waking up in the morning, and feeling tired. If you have been experiencing any of the following signs and symptoms for at least two weeks, you may be suffering from depression:. Talk to your health care provider about these symptoms. Be honest, clear, and concise—your provider needs to know how you feel. Your health care provider may ask when your symptoms started, what time of day they happen, how long they last, how often they occur, if they seem to be getting worse or better, and if they keep you from going out or doing your usual activities.
It may help to take the time to make some notes about your symptoms before you visit your provider. Pregnancy, the postpartum period, perimenopause, and the menstrual cycle are all associated with dramatic physical and hormonal changes.
Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, refers to moodiness and irritability in the weeks before menstruation. It is quite common, and the symptoms are usually mild. PMDD is a serious condition with disabling symptoms such as irritability, anger, depressed mood, sadness, suicidal thoughts, appetite changes, bloating, breast tenderness, and joint or muscle pain. Pregnant women commonly deal with morning sickness, weight gain, and mood swings.
Caring for a newborn is challenging, too. These feelings usually last a week or two and then go away as a new mom adjusts to having a newborn. Perinatal depression includes depression that begins during pregnancy called prenatal depression and depression that begins after the baby is born called postpartum depression. Mothers with perinatal depression experience feelings of extreme sadness, anxiety, and fatigue that may make it difficult for them to carry out daily tasks, including caring for themselves, their new child, or others.
If you think you have perinatal depression, you should talk to your health care provider or trained mental health care professional. If you see any signs of depression in a loved one during her pregnancy or after the child is born, encourage her to see a health care provider or visit a clinic. If you are going through perimenopause, you might be experiencing abnormal periods, problems sleeping, mood swings, and hot flashes. Although these symptoms are common, feeling depressed is not.
These include headaches, back pain, muscle aches, and joint pain, chest pain and digestive problems. People may experience extreme fatigue, sleep problems, change in appetite or weight, and dizziness or lightheadedness.
Surely not every person will exhibit every symptom, but it is crucial that they are identified if and when they do appear. In reality, what they are experiencing is an expected response to a mental health disorder.
It is important that we normalize this condition while providing those who are struggling with tools to better manage their mood. While depression cannot be cured, it can be effectively treated. Because people often feel they should be able to pull themselves out of their depression, many people resist taking medication. They really believe that they can modify their thinking and behaviors in order to manage their depression. For some, traditional "talk therapy" works, but for many it isn't enough to make a significant change in their mood.
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