Beating Depression with the Three “A”s

While your GP should be your first port of call if you are suffering from depression, there are also steps you can take to change your way of thinking which may help in lifting your depression. These can be grouped under three A's as follows:-

Be Aware of your symptoms.

a Pay attention to your mood changes and note what is going on around you which leads to these changes. Understand why mood changes happen.
a Own your feelings, do not be afraid to admit how you are honestly feeling.
a Be aware of the symptoms of depression - loss of confidence and motivation, problems concentrating and making decisions. When you experience these, it is due to your illness.
a Automatic negative thoughts are common in depression - "I answered that one question badly so I blew the interview," "Everyone thinks I'm fat and ugly," "I always fail at everything I do." Recognise when you have these thoughts.

Answer negative thoughts

a Answer negative thoughts. Ask whether they'd stand up in a court of law. "I'm no good at anything." Look at the evidence and give yourself a fair trial before you convict yourself.
a Ask yourself whether you're thinking in "all-or-none" terms - thinking this way can make everything seem bad if it's not perfect! Almost everything in life is in degrees or on a continuum. That presentation may not have been brilliant, but it wasn't terrible either.
a Ask yourself how you might consider something if you weren't suffering from depression. Would you really think a cold sore was the end of the world?
a Look for the distortions in your thinking. How do you know what everyone else is thinking about you?
a Are you confusing a low probability with a high probability? "They’ll fire me for missing three days at work" could become "When was the last time they fired anyone at this firm?"
a Are you focusing on irrelevant factors? Yes, third world famine and wars are tragic but, after you've done what you can to help, being depressed about it serves no purpose.

Act differently

a Focus on your strengths. Think carefully about what you are good at (ask a loved one if you need to), and concentrate on building that up. Take pleasure in your own ability.
a Think about your goals in life and work towards them. If you want to be happy and get the most out of your life, then negative thinking is not helping you to achieve that.
a Increase your involvement in positive activities which you enjoy - spending time with friends - and decrease your involvement in negative ones - resign from that dull committee!
a Take exercise. Find a sport which you enjoy and make time for it. Physical activity improves mood and counters the fatigue common in depression.
a Address problems. No one has a life free of difficulties, but try not to let them make you depressed. Identify the problem, consider various approaches, select the most promising approach and carry through. Apart from time set aside to specifically deal with the problem, don't let yourself dwell on it or feel overwhelmed and helpless. If you need outside help - from a debt counsellor, for example - then seek it without delay.