The Top Five Things To Do If You Are Depressed-Part 1

[Music] hello my name is Douglas block I'm an author and depression survivor welcome to your depression recovery channel where each week we talk about practical tools and coping strategies for healing from depression anxiety the topic of today's video is the top 5 things to do when you are depressed now a while ago I made a video called 5 things not to do when you're depressed and evidently it was pretty popular because I have over 9,000 views so at the end of that video I said I'm going to follow this video up with one called top 5 things to do not to do but to do when you're depressed unfortunately three weeks later I entered the psychiatric hospital to get ECT so I was absolutely in no state to do a video however I did get well in a year later I'm here to fulfill my promise so what are the top five things to do when you're depressed well number one is setting the intention to heal this means committing to your wellness and making a decision that you want to heal even if you don't know how you don't have to know how it's going to happen or when it's going to happen you just have to know you want it now setting the intention to heal those two things first it stimulates something called the body's innate healing system if you cut your finger and his weight the blood will clot and the finger will heal well we also have a psychological healing system or a psychological immune system the brain and nervous system also heal on their own if we just can give them the right support the second thing that's setting the intention to heal does is it activates what I call a benevolent part of the universe that will act to draw to yourself the people the treatments and the support that you need to fulfill your desire to get well now to take full advantage of the healing power of intention what I suggest to my clients is that they write something called a vision statement of wellness now what this vision statement does it answers the question what would my life look and feel like if I were free from the symptom of anxiety and depression as you do this and focus on your vision statement of wellness it starts to happen now recently I found validation of this in a book called the placebo effect by Joe Dispenza I wanted to read one sentence of what he said that really really impressed me he says as you focus on the mental and emotional state you wish to achieve the brain will change and will lay down new circuitry and produce the changes in mind and body that reflect the desired outcome so you actually can affect your brain and nervous system by making a vision statement and reading it on a daily basis now the second important thing you need to do when you're depressed is to reach out for support why is this important well first when you state your vision statement of wellness in the presence of another person or group of people it is magnified exponentially magnified and is more likely to occur secondly as human beings we are social animals we are hardwired for connection so therefore as dean ornish says in his book love and survival anything that promotes a sense of love and intimacy connection and community is healing now unfortunately as we all know when people become depressed they often withdraw and do the exact opposite this is where we need to do what DBT dialectical behavioral therapy calls opposite action if you feel like with the drawing you need to kind of push yourself as best you can and do the opposite which is connecting with people I know this is difficult to do but if you have the support of other people and reaching out you're more likely to do it my third recommendation if you are suffering from depression is to take care of your physical body as best you can now this is important because in some ways physical health lays the foundation for mental health this means making sure you're getting enough sleep eating properly and getting sufficient exercise now once again when a person becomes depressed these are difficult to do as sleep disruptions are quite common however I've found through trial and error that there are a number of medications specifically trazadone Ron and amitriptyline that can really help a person get to sleep a seroquel is another one fortunately these are net benzodiazepines and so they're not addictive and you don't become dependent on them now in terms of food again people often lose interest in eating I know this is tough to make yourself eat but try to find something you like even if it's as sweet and as far as exercise yeah that motivation also goes but I found if you can meet somebody at the gym or have someone go to the gym with you you're much more likely to do it I've made a couple of videos on sleep and exercise which you can find on this channel and I'm in the process of making a video on the relationship between your diet and your mood the fourth important thing to do when you're suffering from depression is to make sure you create adequate structure and routine that will help you to engage with the world now as we know sitting at home alone in bed is not helpful it's counterproductive but if you want to get out of bed and engage it's really helpful to have someplace to go and something to do now a very helpful structure in Portland Oregon that really does this is called the Providence intensive outpatient program or IOP this program consists of group therapy six days a week Monday through Saturday from 9:30 to 3:30 you don't have to go to all the groups but as many as you want plus you get a free therapist and a psychiatrist a lot of people in my group including myself have really benefited from this program so check in your area to see if a hospital has a similar program if not you can look up the chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Nami will leave a link for you in the comments section and see what kind of support groups they have now the other thing you can do is you can create your own structure I'm going to list right now a couple of things that you can do that will help you to create your own structure and get you out of the house and engage with the world taking a walk with a friend going to a movie doing some kind of volunteer work taking a class and a subject that interests you attending a book club going to the gym going out to eat with a friend going to the library and I'm sure there are others you can come up so by doing these things you will be engaging in the world and not staying at home remedy something that a lot of people with depression do and again it's kind of productive the last and probably most important thing you can do if you're suffering for depression especially if you're in a really long depressive episode is to tell yourself this too shall pass this too shall pass this is so important because your dysregulated brain tricks you and lies to you saying this will last forever you're never going to get over it you're in an eternal hell so some of the things you can do to respond to that is to say this too shall pass nothing lasts forever I can make it through this the only constant in the universe is change and if you're having a hard time believing these things yourself have other people say them with you so they can hold a field for your healing this is exactly what occurred with me and I'm really bad depressive episode many years ago which I talked about in my video healing from depression naturally what happened is a group of people met with me on a regular basis held that field of healing told me I was going to get well and eventually it happened in summary the top 5 things to do when you're depressed is to one set the intention to heal to reach out for support 3 take care of your physical body the best you can for try to create structure and routine into your life and 5 tell yourself this too shall pass now in addition to these top 5 coping strategies there are a host of others that you can use which I write about in my book healing from depression if you'd like a diagram listing these strategies you can email me douglas blockage gmail.com and i'll send you a picture a color picture of them this has been douglas block i hope you enjoyed this video and gain something from it if you want to learn more about my work you can go to my website healing from depression calm if you want to leave some comments for me to leave them in the comments section again you can email me douglas plug at gmail.com and during the closing credits you'll see some images on the screen the top left-hand part of the screen you'll see a photo of me click on that you'll be taken to my channel bottom left-hand part of the screen you'll see a book healing depression click on that you'll be taken to my website and the videos at the right if you click on them you'll see the videos and until we meet again I wish you the best you know health recovery thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Douglas Bloch

Views: 96,266

Rating: 4.9413266 out of 5

Keywords: Healing from Depression, Cognitive Therapy, Depressive Episode, Depression Test, Prozac Alternatives, Major Depression, Clinical depression, depressive disorder, depression cure, depression healing, treating depression, depression treatments, mental health recovery, healing depression, suicide prevention, preventing suicide, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, healing depression naturally, overcoming depression, suicide hotline

Id: oSu6CD1Hbn4

Length: 9min 24sec (564 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 20 2017