Preface:
Depression isn't fun. It's horrible. It's dragging you down endlessly. Growing stronger every time you listen to your thoughts in silence. I should know this well, as I've been depressed most of my adult life, and boy it's been a ride sometimes. I really didn't realize I was depressed until I went to college and felt my body growing weaker and my dark thoughts stronger. I thought everyone was like this. But I was wrong. So I got help. I stood on antidepressants for some time, and they helped. They really did, but it made me very numb. So I quit them. Now I'm in therapy, and it's helping. But most of the battle has to come from yourself, and it's tough at times. I've used these methods in this article for as long as I've known. Hopefully they'll help someone else that goes through this battle against their own mind. Bear in mind that these methods can also be used by someone who isn't depressed.

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What are the signs of an depression/incoming depression?
First of all I would like to say this: depression is a medical illness. Just like cancer, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, it's a disease. Many people might feel a shame over that they're depressed, and people might tell them to "snap out of it" or "be happy!"

It doesn't work that way

According to the American Psychiatric Association, if these conditions last for more than two weeks, one is to be clinically diagnosed with depression (1):

• Feeling sad/low mood; lack of energy
• Overthinking on pessimistic thoughts
• Loss of interest/pleasure in activities that one enjoyed before
• Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
• Feeling worthless or guilty
• Thoughts of death and suicide

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Treatment for depression
There are several ways of treating depressions, including medicine, self-help and therapy. As we are all individuals with our own brains, I can't be able to tell you what will work best. In this article I will be focusing primarily on self-help, but I will be writing future articles on medicine as well.

1. Talking about it

"With who?" you might say. I knew my hardest battle was answering this question. Because I was so depressed, my thoughts were lying to me. They were telling me that you should keep silent about this, as no one cares. But depression lies, badly. When I first began talking with a therapist, she asked me why I was afraid of telling people that I was depressed. Especially to people who were always by my side and who I knew from deep inside me that they were there for me. So I began talking about it with close friends, and wow.. The support was truly amazing. According to a RCT done by Beth Israel Brief Psychotherapy Program which compared two different patient groups doing therapy, both patients groups showed greater self-esteem, better energy and overall improvement in mood after therapy and the 6-month follow up (2). It feels good getting things off your chest. People often don't want solutions, they just wan't someone to listen to them.

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2. Physical activity

Jogging, yoga, baseball, lifting weights, swimming, taking a walk, skiing. It doesn't matter what you do when it comes to physical activity, as long as you feel better from it. Several studies show that physical activity can help regrow brain neurons in brain areas that are associated with depression by reducing stress and anxiety. Working out 30 minutes a day, can help boost your brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which in turn will help regrow neurotransmitter mediation that gets lost during mental disorders (3). Achieving short-term goals when it comes to fitness can also be of great help when it comes to self-esteem.

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3. Taking care of your diet

When it comes to being depressed and feeling low, eating nutritious proper meals gets neglected. It's way easier to skip meals or eat low energy food filled with processed sugars and fats. But did you know that your brain is an organ that needs good nutrition for growth and repair? Omega-3 fatty acids are being extensively studied, and for good reasons. Your brain is made up fatty acids, and omega-3 is one of them. Sadly, your body doesn't make it, so you're dependent on your diet to get them. A review of three studies concluded that an intake of 1.5-2 grams of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) showed significant improvement with patients showing mental disorders, including depression and bipolar (4). That being said, one should also vary their diets. Don't bore yourself by restricting processed foods, but they shouldn't be your only source of nutritions. Get your proteins as well.

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4. Fixing your sleeping patterns and getting enough sleep

Sleep is often that's hard to get when you're depressed or anxious. For some reason, your brain won't shut down at nights. You know you have to sleep, but it just doesn't work. Unfortunately, both your body and brain are highly dependent on getting enough rest to meet the next day. People with depression report more sleep than people without depression, but more sleep doesn't necessarily mean better sleep. In fact, it might just make things worse. Both oversleeping and undersleeping can affect your overall energy, by ruining your circadian rhythm. By fixing your sleeping patterns and getting quality sleep, you can boost your brains repair mechanisms. A study concluded that people who sleep less than 8 hours a night suffer from more "negative thinking" (5). Bear in mind that 8 hours might be too little or too much for you. A way to fix your circadian rhythm is to sleep and wake up at the same times both day and night. The trick is to find something that works for you!

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5. Beating your negative thought loops/patterns

Overthinking and being anxious are core symptoms of depressions. I myself am a huge victim of overthinking trivial stuff, for no reason. Therapy showed me a great trick of beating this; the next time you're overthinking something, try to ease your focus on something that you see in front you. It might be a car, a mug, a guitar. Whatever. Now try to describe the object. Don't spare the details. What colour is it? Size? Shape? This is a huge step in CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), which aims to beat negative thought loops and patterns, and is the number-1 treatment for patients with depression and anxiety, showing great results (6). By not sowing the depressive thoughts, you won't harvest them later on. Remember that if you can't change your situation, try to change your attitude. It really does help sometimes.

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6. Meditation, meditation, meditation

Known from ancient times, meditation is the art of silencing your brain. Systematic reviews and meta-analysises have shown several times that mediation, while not mainstream, might by able to ease your anxiety which in turn will boost your neurons in your brain (7). There are a handful of methods of meditating, but most of them focus on the way you breathe. Have you ever noticed how when you're anxious your breath becomes more shallow and faster? Well, in meditation you're focusing on doing just the opposite; deep breaths and slower breaths. My favorite method is sitting down on the floor with my feet crossed, closing my eyes in silence, and breathing in through my nose and out my mouth, each stroke lasting 3-4 seconds. It's very hard at first, but it really helps calming down your thoughts.

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That concludes my favorite methods of coping with my depressive thoughts. I hope this might help someone. I'll be sure to write other articles on mental disorders and treatments. Thank you!

References

1.American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), Fifth edition. 2013.

2.Hellerstein, D. J., Rosenthal, R. N., Pinsker, H., Samstag, L. W., Muran, J. C., & Winston, A. (1998). A Randomized Prospective Study Comparing Supportive and Dynamic Therapies: Outcome and Alliance. The Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research, 7(4), 261–271.

3.Zschucke, E., Gaudlitz, K., & Ströhle, A. (2013). Exercise and Physical Activity in Mental Disorders: Clinical and Experimental Evidence. Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, 46(Suppl 1), S12–S21. http://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.2013.46.S.S12

4.Osher, Y., & Belmaker, R. (2009). Omega-3 fatty acids in depression: A review of three studies. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics., 15(2), 128-133

5.Jacob A. Nota, Meredith E. Coles. Shorter sleep duration and longer sleep onset latency are related to difficulty disengaging attention from negative emotional images in individuals with elevated transdiagnostic repetitive negative thinking. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2018; 58: 114 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2017.10.003

6.Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J. J., Sawyer, A. T., & Fang, A. (2012). The Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review of Meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 36(5), 427–440. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-012-9476-1

7.Goyal M, Singh S, Sibinga EMS, Gould NF, Rowland-Seymour A, Sharma R, Berger Z, Sleicher D, Maron DD, Shihab HM, Ranasinghe PD, Linn S, Saha S, Bass EB, Haythornthwaite JA. Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-beingA Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. 2014;174(3):357–368. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018