Tag Archive for: Depression

8 Ways To Break The Cycle Of Depression

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Every person has low moments. However, these moments typically pass quickly. If you struggle with depression, these low moments can last for days, weeks, or months. Although depression can leave you feeling hopeless and isolated, there are things you can do to break the cycle of depression. 

Serotonin’s Role In The Cycle Of Addiction

Serotonin is a chemical in the brain that helps regulate your mood. When your serotonin levels are high, you feel more positive and calm. When your serotonin levels are low, you often feel sad and can feel the cycle of depression beginning. 

Your serotonin levels change with every thought and emotion you experience. If you focus on the sad or negative thoughts and emotions it is difficult to pull yourself out of the depression cycle. Instead, focusing on happy memories and the positives in life can raise serotonin levels and pull you out of depression.

While there are many ways to improve your mood, keep reading for 8 simple ways to help break the cycle of depression.

1. Exercise

Exercise is a great way to get the blood flowing, boost serotonin, and break the cycle of depression. Exercise doesn’t mean going to the gym for a hard workout. While some people beat the depression cycle at the gym, a walk around the block and even cleaning your house can be enough to make you feel better. 

2. Get Outside

Although you feel like staying in bed, get up, walk outside, and feel the sun hit your skin. Every chance you get, go outside. Getting at least 15 minutes a day in the sun can help stop the cycle of depression. So put on that sunscreen, find a grassy spot at the park, and let the sunshine on your face. 

3. Spend Time with Friends and Family

When you feel like the cycle of depression is beginning, call your friends and family. Make plans to go to dinner, hang out, or play board games. The very nature of depression is isolation. So, whether you sit on the porch with a neighbor and talk about nothing or play a softball game with the family, not being alone will help break the depression cycle.

4. Learn A Hobby

Do you have a hobby you love, but depression stops you from doing it? Maybe you always wanted to pick up a hobby. Did you love to paint as a child? Or perhaps you like building and flying model airplanes. Hobbies are fun and relaxing and a great way to break the cycle of depression. 

5. Watch A Comedy

Laughter is powerful. It lifts your spirits. Your lungs work harder. And, even your abs get a workout. So watch a funny movie or see a comedian when you feel the depression cycle beginning. 

Smiling is also great for your mood. The muscles you use when you smile calm the nervous system. So smile at people when you walk by and make a habit of recalling happy moments in your life. 

6. Listen to Upbeat Music

The effects of music are vast and powerful. It affects our mood, thoughts, and feelings. We all have that song we go to when we are sad. There is also a song when we want to pump ourselves up. When you feel the cycle of depression taking over, put on some upbeat music, dance around, and sing like you are putting on a concert. 

7. Take A Day Trip

When you are trying to break the cycle of depression, changing your environment can help. Planning a day trip doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money. Packing the car going to the beach or driving across the state with the music up and the windows down can break the depression cycle. 

8. Start A Gratitude Journal

Feeling gratitude is vital in combating the cycle of depression, so is keeping a gratitude journal. A gratitude journal is simply a record of things you are grateful for. It can be something small such as a hot shower or the bird outside your window. 

You can also write down the big things like a loved one recovering after surgery or a special relationship. Keeping a gratitude journal allows you to remind yourself of all the positives in your life when you feel a depression cycle coming. 

What Signs Of Depression Mean You Should Seek Help?

It is normal in life to feel lonely or sad sometimes. When these feelings persist and interfere with your daily life it is time to seek professional help.

While your regular doctor can evaluate you and prescribe medicine for depression, it is often better to seek a mental health professional. Of course, medications can help increase serotonin levels. However, talking through your feelings and healing underlying traumas can end the cycle of depression for good.

Recognizing the signs and symptoms of depression is crucial since undiagnosed depression may lead to suicide. They often include:

  • Fatigue
  • Feeling guilty or worthless
  • Feeling empty
  • Trouble concentrating and making decisions
  • Pessimism
  • Sleep issues
  • Loss of interest in things you once enjoyed
  • Change in eating habits
  • Aches and pains
  • Suicidal thoughts or attempts

People struggling with depression often feel like they are alone. However, over 17 million Americans are trying to break the cycle of depression. You do not need to struggle alone. 

Lido Wellness Center Helps Break The Cycle Of Depression

Are you or someone you love struggling to break the depression cycle? We offer a variety of outpatient treatments to meet your needs and help you live a happy and healthy life. Contact us today to find out more.  

References:

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/coping-with-depression.htm

 

Somatic Experiencing: How It Came To Be In My Life

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Somatic Experiencing: How it came to be in my life
by Lesley Tate-Gould, PsyD, SEP
Executive Director of Lido Wellness Center

Back in 2014 I was working at a residential treatment center and my CEO approached me about my interest in pursuing an advanced certification in treating trauma. He informed me that I could go the direction of EMDR or Somatic Experiencing. I had had some exposure to EMDR, mostly through consultation with colleagues and making referrals for my clients in my treatment center so I knew from first-glance I did not have the stamina required to deep dive into the details of trauma and memories.

I had no prior awareness of Somatic Experiencing, so in the interest of getting a fresh perspective I signed up for Beginner I. I arrived at the training a few weeks later in San Diego, CA ready to embrace some new techniques and methods and enthusiastically get back to the center to implement them with my clients. Then came the bad (or what I initially prior to investigation assumed bad) news… The training was three years in length, with sessions meeting every 3-6 months to allow adequate time for the material to stabilize. Uh-oh… My immediate thought was, “Thank you so much for your time but I’ve got to run.” At that time in my career, committing to three years of anything felt insurmountable.

I had a busy practice, had recently married my husband and had my sights set on growing as a psychologist and building my family. That is, until I completed the weekend and found myself intrigued by this completely different approach. I engaged self-consciously and awkwardly in the triad practice sessions; picture graduate school role-plays at the tune of several hours for several days in a row. I assumed that my “weakest” channel of understanding the world and my place in it was my awareness of my physical sensations. Patting myself on the good therapist back, I felt assured that my strongest channels of understanding myself and others were through thoughts and feelings. However, upon deeper examination, I learned that my sensation channel was my strongest, most attuned channel. I discovered that I have an innate ability to perceive both my subjective sensations and to take notice and honor the sensations of others.

Somatic Experiencing offered me the permission to trust myself, to trust my nervous system and to seek out supportive and nourishing individuals in my personal and professional life. I completed my certification for Somatic Experiencing in 2016, having the privilege of participating in training sessions during and after the birth of our first son, Corbin. I could not have imagined heading into that first weekend that an approach would have such a profoundly connected impact to my greater awareness of who I am as a psychologist, but more importantly who I am as a woman, mother, wife, friend, sister and daughter. Somatic Experiencing, while utilized in all aspects of my practice, is the orientation back to where we have all originated. We are human beings, naturally oriented toward our own inner wisdom, beauty and instincts.

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