5 Lessons From Someone With Depression On How To Stop Being Depressed

Depression has been a pretty major aspect of my young adult life. If I am depressed, it sucks, and if I am not depressed I am anxious about becoming depressed again. Recently, as a ploy to trick my own brain and keep my depression in “remission,” I have taken to several rules to live by. Whether you have depression, or you have just been in a funk lately, check out the lessons I have learned on how to not be a miserable human being. Oh… and 50mg of Zoloft a day helps as well, personally.

1. Take pictures

Whether it is on your iPhone or a Hasselblad, take pictures as much a possible. Once you train yourself to be looking for beautiful things to photograph, you will start to notice the beauty around you more and more. The pictures don’t have to be good, but if they are, hey congrats! Just take pictures and recognize how much beauty the world has to offer you. When you start to see with an eye that is searching for beautiful things, life becomes a hell of a lot of a nicer place to be.

2. Work out

It doesn’t matter if you bike to work in the morning, train for a marathon, or walk your dog for an hour, just work out. Exercise is proven to help your brain function. Working out releases endorphins like eating chocolate or taking ecstasy, except working out is a lot better for you all around. Duh. Being active will also help boost your self-esteem and what not. So stop staring at the Internet for 10 hours a day and go climb a rock wall or something.

3. Touch another human

The human touch is known to have healing powers of sorts.

Feeling depressed? Hug someone.

Even just a hand on your back can make you feel infinitely better almost immediately. Find someone. Anyone. Okay not anyone… that could be super creepy. A friend, roommate, significant other, family member, etc.

4. Listen to happy music

Okay, turn off your Taking Back Sunday and put on something upbeat. Seriously, enough emo music. Delete your “sad” playlist (I know you have one). Whether it is Britney Spears or Hall & Oats, happy and upbeat music will raise your spirits. It is pretty easy to listen to sad music and feel sorry for yourself, but that will make you sadder, so that is a pretty stupid thing to do. It is hard to listen to happy music and not start to feel a little bit better at least.

5. Do Something Spontaneous

Spontaneity is an awesome way to take a break from the mundane daily routine that young people often find themselves stuck in. For example, I love routines and schedules and organization, but if I never break out of the mold that I have created for myself, my brain starts to function on autopilot, which is a rather depressing way to live. Every once and a while I try and do something totally different. It could be surprising someone or it could be going on a random adventure. Either way, it is important to do every once in a while, to show yourself you still know how to have fun.