Dealing With Depression (And Others Attitudes Towards It)

If you’re depressed, or you suspect you may be, knowing the next steps to take is key to recovery. Not only do you need to know how to take care of yourself during this difficult time; you need to know how to deal with others attitudes towards it. Unfortunately, the stigma behind mental health is only just unravelling, and many people still don’t understand mental health or what it means to be depressed. There are people that may tell you to ‘man up’ or ‘snap out of it’ and this is very unhelpful and sometimes even triggering. Let’s take a look at what you can do when you’re dealing with this: 

1, Go And Get A Diagnosis

First of all, you’ll want to get a diagnosis before diagnosing yourself. There could be different things at play here, so having tests done and explaining your symptoms is key to finding out what’s really going on. 

2. Get Professional Help 

When you know for sure that you have depression, a chemical imbalance in the brain, professional help is the next step. Your doctor may prescribe you tablets, but it’s also a good idea to find some kind of therapy that you feel may help you. While medication can address the imbalance, talking about how you feel can help you to feel better without medication. 

3. Understand The Cause 

There isn’t always a cause for depression and mental health issues. It may just have happened, so don’t beat yourself up if this is the case. However, if there is a cause, figuring out where it started could help you to go back and work through difficult feelings that you may not have addressed before. For example, maybe somebody close to you died and you realised you felt this way when looking for memorials. Maybe you went through a tough break up, or something else happened to you. Figuring out the cause can be easier when you’re working with a pro, so bear that in mind. 

4. Explain It To The People Closest To You

Not everybody understands mental health and depression, so explain it to the people closest to you. Focus on the people that matter. You may need to spend a little extra time explaining it to the older members of your family, as they are usually from the era where nobody talked about mental health and they were simply expected to get on with it. Explaining that this is actually a chemical imbalance and not just feeling sad may help. 

5. Call People Out 

If somebody doesn’t understand your condition and says something out of line, it may help you to feel better to put them straight. That being said, you may prefer to let them get on with their small worldview if they don’t really matter to you. Don’t keep your mouth shut and then wish you had said something later on. You can call people out while remaining respectful. 

6. Set Healthy Boundaries

If something is no good for you, say no. Now is the time to focus on yourself. Take it day by day and care for yourself as best you can.