Life definitely has four seasons. There are times that we are psychologically weak and life goes pretty depressive. It could be because of the occurrences that happened in our lives or because of some other factors. Or maybe we are burned out and cannot perform as before. Whatever the reason is, there can be days even months that we are mentally very weak and cannot perform. Maybe we do not want to get out of bed. However, life goes on and on, maybe for you, it is a disaster at the moment, but for other people, it is just normal. How can we maintain our daily lives when we do not have the ability to leave bed?
In the Barbie movie, there is a scene about depression Barbie. It describes a depressive phase clearly. âShe wears sweatpants all day, she spent seven hours on Instagram looking at her best friend’s engagement photos, while eating a family size bag of StarburstsâŚ. Anxiety, panic attacks and OCD sold separately.â Click to watch the depression barbie.
According to a dictionary definition of mental health, it affects our mental wellbeing and determines how we handle stress, relate to others and make healthy choices. Physical health problems also contribute to mental health. Peopleâs mental health problems could be impacted when there are too many extreme demands from the environment. In the US, 1 out of 5 people live with mental illness, and the rate of living with serious mental illness is 1 in 25.
According to the DSM-5, depression is a mood disorder. People who suffer from depression experience a great amount of sadness, hopelessness, and a loss of enjoyment in their activities. Common symptoms of depression are slowing down thoughts and physical movement, concentration issues, recurrent thoughts of death, feelings of worthlessness, and significant weight loss or gain. Furthermore, irritability, obsessive rumination, phobias, and excessive worry are also associated with depression. Click to learn more about depression.
According to the DSM-5, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is excessive worry that occurs for more than 6 months, including being easily fatigued, muscle tension, having a serious illness, difficulty concentrating on the mind, restlessness, and irritability. There are various types of anxiety disorders, such as general anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, and substance-medication-induced anxiety disorder.
According to World Health Organization, other common mental health disorders are schizophrenia, eating disorder, disruptive behavior, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Click to learn more about it. According to their report, the number of people living with anxiety increased 26% just in one year after Covid-19 pandemic. Mental health should not be a taboo because the more we try to suppress it, the more it comes to the surface and explodes in an inadequate way.
Eva’s Story
Eva grew up with a borderline mother. Her mother was very fragile and got angry very easily. She frequently used the words âYou are uselessâ and âEveryone can do it, but you cannot.â Eva had lots of issues with her self-confidence. When she grew up, she had problems speaking in public, and she was very scared of making a mistake. Every night when she went to bed, she was thinking how useless she was, and she was working so hard to catch up to other people. Her life changed when she had a major crisis one day and started therapy. She quickly realized that her motherâs reactions played a significant role in how she interpreted the world. However, she went through a grieving stage, and she realized how her distorted mindset messed up her life. This situation put her into depression. There was a period in her life that was too hard for her, days started to pass in depressive mode. However, she was determined to overcome this, and these are strategies that she came up with and applied to her life and got effective results.
- Acknowledge that this is a temporary period in life: Eva read lots of stories about breakdown on the internet. Many people, particularly famous people in the history, endured lots of adversities in lifetime and had a period in her life that was depressive. For instance, Henry Ford faced many business failures before revolutionized automotive industry until he came up with a breakthrough affordable and reliable car in 1908. Failures are stepping stones to success.
- Pay attention to small pleasures: The difficult period in life is challenging. Particularly when other people are enjoying themselves, you are having difficulty. For a while, you might forget about the feeling of enjoyment, but when it comes back, you will appreciate many things. Even drinking a coffee or reading books, you will enjoy from many small things. Here is an informative article about gratitude and meditation.
- Try to keep a daily routine: It might be hard to keep a daily routine when you are depressed. Try to have one. It does not have to be something demanding, but keep the wheel going. Do one thing at a time while staying away from demanding things. However, during the day, make sure that the day flows and there is progress throughout the time. That will help to pass the depressive phase with ease.
- Think about the happy future that you would establish from your learnings: You are equipped with a great survival pack. You have great empathy for other people. Furthermore, you already messed up, or someone messed up and understood every single phase of what is meant by messing up. You hit the bottom, the only way now is to get up. Enjoy the wisdom instead of regretting the loss. This depressive period would pass with ease.
- This is a period in your life when your resilience muscles develop. In the future, small things won’t bother you because you have dealt with the worst. You have already been through difficulties, and you acknowledged how to cope with them. You will fear less than before and will have the capability to be resilient through difficult times.
In Conclusion
Life has many faces, and there are times that we are psychologically weak. In those times, life has to go on. However, the pace might be different from that of a regular person. You learn to slow down. Acknowledge that you are not the only one who has experienced this, and you will find a solution to move on in life. Some strategies to endure this time are to keep a daily routine, acknowledge that this is a temporary period in life, be thankful for small things, know that a happy future is waiting for you, and develop your resilience muscle. Life has these depressive phases and they would end spring will come again to your mind.
