Fighting depression

[Bubulous]

I have learned what keeps the depression away.
Before I went to Iraq I had a lot going on.  I was teaching martial arts 4 times a week and hanging out with my main instructor in the evenings after class.  I worked with kids in the junior guard program.  It was a program putin place by the National Guard to help troubled young kids.  We dressed them in military uniforms and taught them basic training things.  I also tutored them at school.  The point is I had a lot of friends and a lot of people who loved me.  I am going to work on that again.

The three aspects that you have to work on are the mind, body, and spirit.

I will start with the mind because that is going to be the foundation for the rest of the recovery.  I realized something yesterday.  I woke up depressed and was overwhelmed with it.  I lay down for 2-3 hours but couldn't sleep.  I got up and came in here to work on the computer but I still didn't want to do anything.  I then got a text message from an old friend that I cared for a lot.  I noticed that immediately my mood improved.  That planted a seed that I would end up watering all day with different things I observed.  I did something impulsive that wasn't like me and it made me feel alive again.  I have learned how to fight depression.


I met a therapist once who was diagnosed with clinical depression.  He was an engineer at the time.  One day he realized he was unhappy with his job.  It was a risky decision but he felt immediate relief.  He went back to school and studied to be a social worker.  When I met him he had been a social worker for years and he loves telling the story of how he came out of clinical depression by taking a risk.  Would that be considered an impulsive behavior, yes of course.  Do you think he regrets it, not even a little bit.
I recommend that you do something impulsive.  Not life changing but impulsive.  It will make you feel alive.  It can be something as simple as making faces in the mirror.  You could walk outside and stare at a tree and imaging how many rings it has.  The point is you have to break out of the routine of seeing this world as a crippling nightmare and start thinking like a kid.  I promise this will work, you just have to be willing to trust a stranger and take control over the thing that used to become natural. Trust me I had one of the worst childhoods a person can have but I had a lot off fun when I was younger.  You think because you are older, grey headed, and beat down that you can't act like a kid.  That is the furthest thing from the truth than anything I have ever heard.

Once you have started coming out of the depression, you have to work on your body.  Do as much or as little as you can physically.  Go for a walk, start out with a 3 minute work out and pulled on that.  Then you can start working on your diet.  Start eating all three meals a day and progress to where you are eating healthier.  I cannot express how important this is.

The spirit will be automatically be restored from working on the other aspects.  It is an everyday challenge.  It is a process and it takes work, but hey if you are suicidal or you are ready to give up, why not try something different.

Anyway, you get the idea.  It starts today and it carries on for the rest of your life.  you can never learn everything there is to know but you can learn everything you need to know:

[Bubulous]

CBT would be beneficial for even those you are not struggling with depression or other disorders.  That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.  I woul challenge any dr or therapist that says that.  Learning about your thoughts and how they are directly related to your feelings and and emotions.  Anyway I a not going to harp on that.  If they are not using CBT as past of their treatment plan then they are being lazy and don't want to learn about it.  Telling you that CBT wouldn't work for you as saying physical therapy would not help someone who was in an auto accident and had to learn to walk again.  That disturbs me.  Practicing CBT is directly related to working on codependency behaviors.
Anyway, it is unfortunate that they do not use this as a part of your treatment plan.  If I ever run into a dr or therapist that tells me that they don't believe CBTis worth working on, I will get up and walk out of the room.  Your dr and therapist have likely gotten use to the way they treat people and I can only assume that they are wore out and do not want to learn about CBT. Teaching CBT is impossible if you have never learned about it or had to use it.  I am not a dr or therapist but I know what worked for me and anything that I have ever learned I can teach.  From recovery techniques to martial arts.  I have done the work that they are too lazy to do.  It took me over 160 days and 17 journals to learn what I have.
I posted the third part of fighting depression on the forum but is is not the last.  In a few days or a week I will post another one on fighting fear, learning patience, and fighting fear as these things relate to me and my recovery.

[Crystal413]

I'm glad your going to write about codependency and CBT. I have read a number of codependency books. They certainly help you to become aware of your behavior towards others and how you react. It is a challenging thing to master and a work in progress.

As for CBT. I am very curious about this. Many Therapist that I have come across say they do CBT only to find out just do a very little. Honestly in my case the sessions were all the same so I would have know way of knowing if they were using it or not ( with all the Therapist I have had). I did here CBT involved homework and writing but I wouldn't know this since that has not been my experience. Both my pdoc and current Therapist said that a CBT Therapist would not work for me because it works inside what's in your head and not what's inside your heart and feelings/emotions. I don't know if this is the case or not. I look forward to reading what your view is on these topics.

[Bubulous]

Thank you so much.  I have only been writing for about 5 months.  I am starting to feel more confident but some days I still have insecurities.  I am writing a lot of stories about my theories and my life.  I feel like I am getting better and although I am just getting started, the future is wide open.  Thanks again,

@Crystal413:

Thank you so much.  I am very modest and selfless but I love when some of the crazy stuff I write has an impact on somebody.  I am working on a third one right now and it is going to cover more CBT practices and codependency behaviors as well as patience building.

Thanks,

Larry

[adel_ezz]

Hi
you know you have a unique style I think you should write memoirs and the like. you are a poet too. the difference between a good writer and a fair one is not in the information he provides but in the way he writes. I remember a French female writer Francoise Sagan in the late sixties who wrote a series of books/novels small ones (like aimez vous Bram), in my view trivial matters but as soon as i start reading her i continue reading until i finish the book. Other writers you read a couple of pages and you are fed up. So your style encourages one to reading it till the end.

[Crystal413]

I really like what you wrote. Mind, Body and Spirt are key. It's just a hard place to get to for me. But it will happen one day.  As soon as I read "came out of depression by taking a risk" I grabbed for the pen and paper and wrote that down. That was a powerful statement for me. Thanks for all your great input on this site. Crystal413