Coping With Depression
Depression can at times be a crippling thing, and I wanted to know what my fellow Steemians that suffer from it use to cope and share a few examples of mine and why they work for me. I had this idea after warming up to the idea of meditation lately that my girlfriend has been trying to present to me, that I've passed up time and time again in favor of things that I am more comfortable using, but might not have available at the times I need them.
Something that has historically helped me cope with depression, and still does to this day, are skateboarding videos. When I watch these and I see my teenage idols performing to the absolute best of their ability, pushing themselves harder and harder for new parts, mixed with the production value and cut-away clips of them having fun with the rest of their team, my heart calms down, I feel warm, and I start to smile. Skate videos absolutely put me in my happy place.
video credit to Almost Skateboarding
Video games. Not competitive, high intensity games, but more laid back and casual ones with beautiful storytelling and character development, usually a Role-Playing Game like Final Fantasy or Persona does me well on this front, taking the time to level up and curate my characters helps ease my mind and focus on tasks that are more repetitive than my day to day life, and let me zone out for a little bit until I'm ready to deal with whatever had caused my depression at the time in the first place. Cooperative games like Yoshi's Woolly World are also great for this if you and a partner or close friend can play nice.
photo credit to Nintendo
How do you cope with depression? I really want to know, as a psychology student I'm always trying to think of ways to ease the strain the mental health can take on us, and I want to know how you manage <3
Your local crypto slut - <3
When I am depressed I try to distract with videogames or looking for humor videos on Internet. If that it is not enough, I write down the thoughts that hurts me and read it again, sometimes I also send them to a confident friend.
I take a pill every day for my depression, but it doesn't stop the bouts of depression, it's usually limits how far down I'll get when I have a depression cycle. I usually have to distract myself with my hobbies to deal with it. I have a lot more depression in the winter than I do in the summer, sunshine and being outside make a big difference in how often I have a depression cycle.
Being outside helps me a lot too, I need to utilize that more this summer while I still can, I'm also a hobby person as you could tell from the post, I'm sorry yours is deep enough to need medication, but I feel for you and am always around to lend an ear <3
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
This is a great subject and all the replies are very useful, it's nice to see how others get thru. Personally I am one big ball of effervescent joy 99% of the time, much to the annoyance of those around me, I did however have a hard time with depression in the past. My way of coping is titanic amounts of movement, be it dance, or extended running sessions at the gym I pick up and move to get endorphins flowing and turn my mind off for a bit. This has always worked for me. :-)