Natural Treatments for Depression

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You can feel very helpless when you are depressed, although it is not true. With therapy and occasionally meditation, you can fight your depression by changing your lifestyle, behavior, physical activity and your way of thinking. These are all natural treatments for depression.

Tips to Make You Feel Better

Follow these tips to help you feel better:

1. Get a daily routine and stick to it. When you are depressed, a routine is necessary and helpful. Depression knocks out the structure in your life. Basically, one day blurs into the next. You can get yourself back on track if you set a daily schedule.

2. Set goals for yourself. You probably feel like you can’t succeed or accomplish anything when you are depressed, which makes you feel terrible about yourself. Set goals for yourself and make them small goals at first that you know you can accomplish, such as doing the dishes every day. You can add more daily goals as you start to feel a little better.

3. Exercise to boost endorphins. It is thought to have long term benefits for those with depression because regular exercise encourages the brain to positively rewire itself. Even walking just a few times a week can make a tremendous difference.

4. Eat healthy. Although depression can’t be fixed with a magic diet, it is good to watch what you are consuming because depressed people often overeat. Not definitive, but there is evidence to show that foods with folic acid and omega-3 fatty acids may help to eat depression.

5. Be sure to get enough sleep. Depression can make it very difficult to get enough sleep, which can actually make depression worse. Try to avoid naps and change your lifestyle so you can go to bed and get up each day at the same time. Do not watch TV or use your computer in your bedroom and you will see your sleep improving.

6. Give yourself responsibilities. When people are depressed, they tend to give up responsibilities at work and at home. In order to help you maintain your life and to counter depression, you should stay involved with daily responsibilities that will give you a nice sense of accomplishment. If you don’t want a full time job or school work, then think about part-time or volunteer work.

7. Challenge your negative thoughts. When you are fighting depression, it is easy to think the worst possible conclusions. You need to change the way you think. You may think nobody likes you, but where is the evidence for that thought? You may feel completely worthless, but is that likely? Eventually with practice you can get those negative thoughts under control.

8. Talk to your doctor about using supplements. There is evidence that some supplements, such as folic acid, fish oil and SAMe are beneficial for people with depression. Always ask your doctor before starting any supplements, especially if you are already on medications.

9. Do something different and new. You probably feel like you’re in a rut if you are suffering from depression. Push yourself to go to museums, read books at the park, or volunteer. When you challenge yourself to do different things, chemicals change in the brain. The chemical dopamine is associated with enjoyment, pleasure and learning.

10. Try having fun. When you are depressed, you usually feel like nothing is fun anymore. You need to push through this symptom and try anyway. Do things that you enjoy.

Don’t Engage in Self-Pity

It is never easy to when you are fighting depression. It is true that we have less reasons to be sad than happy, but self-pity tends to keep us trapped in misery and self-pity.

Here is a list of some other tips to fight depression:

Smile and realize you can’t smile and be depressed at the same time.
Tell yourself, “This is going to be an awesome day.”
Write a list of all the fun and crazy things you would like to do and do it!
Get yourself a pet and talk to it about all of your thoughts because they are great listeners!
Dancing is a great depression repellent.
Walking is always therapeutic to people with depression.
Volunteer for the underprivileged. It will make you feel better about yourself knowing that you aren’t the one receiving the treatment.
Practice meditation.
Find a hobby to help fight your depression.
Learn a new skill, perhaps a new language.

Depression doesn’t just disappear from your life. You need to recognize you are depressed and take steps to naturally heal. Nobody ever said fighting depression is easy, but you CAN get through it with dedication!