Climbing out of that emotional hole. Initial thoughts on depression.

At some point, we can all get depressed and anxious. Many of us have experienced that emotional hole which can be so hard to pull yourself out from. Yet, if you don't find your way out, it can lead to chronic depression and anxiety which can leave you feeling crippled and once at this point it's hard to see any way out.

It's okay to get emotional. We all have times when we need to withdraw and open ourselves to our emotions. Feel them, acknowledge them and acknowledge what has triggered them, if you can. When we can find the cause of the sadness, we can more easily find a way to work through it, so knowing the cause is helpful. Sometimes we don't know why were feeling low and that's okay, but it makes it harder to get ourselves back on an upward path.

While it's good to allow ourselves to express our emotions, there's a point when we need to bring ourselves back or risk those emotions to swallow us whole. The long we allow our sadness to keep a hold on us, the harder it is to get ourselves on an even keel again.

Our mind can be a traitor to us. When depression hits, it tells us to isolate ourselves, shut ourselves in our room and curl into a ball, yet while that alone time can be good initially for a short period, it won’t do us any good in the long run. One of the first things I do, when I know I'm falling into that emotional hole is to get outside and do something active. I realise that a lot of people with depression will immediately say, “It doesn't work! Will everyone stop telling me to get outside and get active!”

I know, I've been there, but that's what your traitorous mind is telling you and if you have chronic depression, it's not going to suddenly fix things. That takes time. Think of this, though; when you're in your home, in your room, with little ventilation, the CO2 levels are much higher than outside. At around 1000ppm (parts per million), it has been found to affect your cognitive abilities, your thought processes. 1000ppm is not uncommon in buildings which are designed to keep the extremes of the climate outside. So even if you can’t face the outside just yet, try cracking a window open. Another wonderful thing about getting outside is that sunlight helps the production of vitamins and the hormones which give us happier feelings and being active helps activate those hormones too.

When my daughters were young and my eldest in primary school, walking them to school each day, whatever the weather, kept me sane, even though it was only a short walk. When the school holidays came and the weather wasn't appealing to be out in, it only took three days of being cooped up in the house for depression to creep up on me. Once I realised what was happening, I'd bundle us up, get the rain cover on the pushchair and walk into town with my girls.

It helped me to understand that emotions are caused by hormones and hormone changes. This is because it gave me a reason for my tension and depression when there seemed to be no reason. Also, hormones can be affected by your diet and environment, so it gives me something positive that I feel I can do about it.

Other things that help me, if I'm stressing about something that is out of my control, is to ask myself if there is something I can do about it. If the answer is no, then I have to acknowledge that and let it go.

Everybody is different and may need to find different ways to pull themselves out of that emotional hole, but the earlier you realise that's where you're heading, the easier it will be too halt the downward spiral. You know yourself best and are the best person to develop those methods that will best serve you in these times.

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I have been wanting to start a series of articles on coping with depression and helping others through it. This week's @ecotrain Question of the Week asks about getting out of an emotional hole, so it seemed a good place to start on it as my response to this question.

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