Try These Tips to Cope with Clinical Depression Symptoms
Dealing with depression can feel lonely and difficult for millions of people who suffer. Clinical depression can often take a person out of life and down the rabbit hole of painful experiences, including substance abuse, which alters their lives until they find healing. Learning how to cope with symptoms will be the best way to deal with clinical depression and how it makes a person feel.
Acceptance
One of the hardest things to do is to accept the current reality. It is not fun to look at life and say this is just how it is.’ Acceptance goes deeper than that by learning to embrace depressive symptoms in order to figure out what led to it in the first place. On some level, the person just understands that they have this condition, they need management, and they seek sustainable ways to heal from the challenges of addiction and mental health issues that plague their lives.
Understand the Brain
The brain is a tricky place because it holds so many of the cards for people with addiction and depression. Oftentimes people numb out with substances who have depressive symptoms to help cope, which compounds the problem. When a person puts negative self beliefs on top of that, it piles up and starts to feel unsustainable. To challenge negative personal beliefs, it takes questioning everything and asking questions about what is going on and how it would feel to navigate the changes in a healing way.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
One of the best ways to fight back against clinical depressive symptoms is to find therapists who work with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). this helps engage the brain in a healthy way and provide a sense of accomplishment. It helps to acknowledge completion of activities, getting more aligned with personal goals and values, and letting go of the paralysis that may keep a person stuck. Rather than putting things off, it helps to get things done and feel accomplished in hitting goals in recovery from mental health issues.
Get Engaged
One of the challenging aspects of depression is a person feels isolated. To combat this, it is important to get out of the house and do things with other people socially, as it feels comfortable. This might include:
- Exercise
- Fun hobbies
- Joining social groups
- Staying connected to recovery resources
- Eating healthy foods
- Staying on medication (and monitoring existing meds)
- Staying mindful and focused on meditation
- Acknowledge small aspects of life and mental health issues
- Practice gratitude
The small things often build to bigger things. Start small when you don’t know where to begin. It will start to fall into place and you will feel like you are finally achieving what you need to heal on the journey.
Treatment for depression and addiction is a complex thing. Palmetto comes alongside you with trained specialists and therapists who can help you navigate the challenges of dual diagnosis and come back stronger in recovery. Our program provides special focus for professionals including chiropractors, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and more who need help with addiction recovery. Call us to find out more: 866-848-3001.