Overcoming Depression and Anxiety

DepressionLiving with Depression

How to Overcome Depression: 5 Things You Can Do NOW to Make a Meaningful Impact

Therapist-approved techniques to help you lift the paralysis of depression and stop the ruminating that may be getting in your way and preventing you from feeling better.

Mar 8, 2022

Sherry Amatenstein, LCSW

(Image: iStock)

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Take A Different View

Visualize A Happy Memory

Tell Me Something Good

Make Plans

Find Something to Look Forward To

FAQs

In my 17 years as a practicing mental health clinician, hundreds of patients have walked through my door suffering from depression.

This is not surprising given that the National Network of Depression Centers has found that one in five Americans will be impacted by mental illness during their lifetimes. Indeed, depression is the leading cause of disability among those between ages 15-44 according to the Center for Disease Control.

While Major Depression Disorder (MDD)often biochemically based and with genetic rootscan be extremely difficult to navigate and often requires psych meds, here is an encouraging statistic: studies show that within four to six weeks of starting treatment more than half of depression sufferers show improvement.

QUIZ

Do you feel depressed?

This depression quiz is based on the Depression Screening Test developed by Ivan K. Goldberg, MD, the founder of Psycom who was also a renowned psychiatrist.

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STATISTICS

Try These Five Tips For Decreasing Depression

There isn't a quick fix as in "Boom, you're cured and will never again be beset by the blues." But, there are techniques that can help lift the emotional paralysis and ruminating that often accompany depression.

Both of which make it much more difficult to focus on the behavioral changes that are necessary to prevent a relapse. Luckily, there are ways to punch holes in the curtain of unrelenting darkness.

Take A Different View

With depression often comes a psychological myopia: the sufferer robotically repeats to him or herself soul-sucking negative thoughts: "Nothing I try ever works out" "How could I have been so stupid?" "I am not worthy of being loved". A patient deep in the throes of that kind of thinking can, if unchecked, spend an entire session staring at one spotoften the floor.

At those moments I prod, "You are so stuck on only seeing things one way that you miss any other possible view. Literally. If you force yourself to look up, there are a variety of objects in the room to observe and pondera bookcase; lamps: paintings; a window with sunlight streaming in... It's not that my office is so fascinating, but there is so much you miss when you refuse to look." The patient then sheepishly lifts his or her eyes to take in the entirety of the room ("Oh, I never noticed that funny placard!") as I hammer home the point: "There are a plethora of ways to view anything. Instead of continually convincing yourself everything is hopeless consider all the other options. There is always a Plan B."

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