More often today, it’s not uncommon that the majority of people you know are suffering from one form of mental illness. Depression and anxiety happen to be the most common disorders worldwide. According to The Anxiety and Depression Association of America,
Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Almost 75% of people with mental disorders remain untreated in developing countries with almost 1 million people taking their lives each year.
Therefore, people are frequently looking for ways to cope and cure with their disorders. While some try therapy and medication, others try natural and holistic ways to cope. What helps one person may not help you, but, maybe it can. That’s why speaking to those who go through similar struggles can be extremely helpful. People on Reddit are sharing the things that actually helped them overcome their depression and anxiety and it will be incredibly eye-opening for you, if you need that helping hand.
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Mindfulness meditation/Cognitive behavioral therapy. Realizing that you are still in control of what you consciously attend to, the thoughts and feelings that run through your mind do not have to consume your identity. Observe them without judgement, let them pass without indulging in them and they will fade away.
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Medication. People shit on it, but when it works it really works.
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Coming to understand why I had become the way I had become, felt the way I felt.
My condition caused me to increasingly lock away my emotions over a decade. Made me robotic and excessively logical. Manifested what would eventually be diagnosed as chronic depression.
When, through the help of therapy and a particular theory of emotional development, I had come to understand what had lead me to become this way, my emotions came flooding out. Never did I cry so much before, and never was I so happy to do so.
It’s been a little 4 years since that fateful weekend, and I have much greater access to my emotions. There’s still a risk that I’ll slip back towards more robotic behavior, and “periods when I feel low and unmotivated” characteristic of chronic depression still occur, but they occur with much lesser intensity and frequency over time.
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For me getting a new kitten tugged me out of depression. I’m a huge cat person and this kitten just chose me like we got home and she came out of the cage straight to my lap to nap. Two years later her just being here loving me has made me a totally different person.
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Besides meditation for me a HUGE thing was cutting out caffeine. I used to drink one to two cups a day in the morning and then take preworkout in the evening When I stopped I noticed almost an immediate enhancement to my quality of life. I know it doesn’t change everyone’s life but it definitely made a huge difference in mine.
Besides that, a daily routine. Writing out your goals every week and holding yourself accountable for accomplishing those goals. If I don’t actively have something to learn or move towards then I instantly get the sads. Go to the gym, go be outside. And as crippling as depression and anxiety can be, force yourself to be in social situations. Because no matter how hard it is to be in public, it will only get harder the longer you abandon society.
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I just don’t like it when things try to force me to do something, and when I realized that my depression was just neurochemicals in my brain making me feel completely disengaged from everything and everyone I used to love and making me just want to sleep 24/7, I just told myself no more. Otherwise the chemicals win, and fuck that. More than I hated my life at that point, I hate it when I’m forced to be a certain way. Don’t tell me what to do.
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Working out and eating healthy. Friends dragged me into it. Changed my life.
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Getting a job..
Hanging out with people who cared about me. I was very lonely as I just moved to a new city and had no friends at all. The source of my depression was essentially that I truly felt no one cared about me at all. Or even liked my prescence. Some friends came into the city for the weekend and I realized again that there are people out there who like me.
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A nice release of oxytocin works wonders, especially when it comes in the form of a hug or kiss.
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Staying off social media seems to be overlooked but it helps me a lot. It’s not the total cure but a piece to the puzzle. You’re subconsciously comparing your life to a bunch of fake portrayals of other people’s happy lives which can make you feel down.