How to Cope with Depression

Posted under General Health by Don

To get the better of fears, stop running and turn to face them. If you panic, here is emergency treatment

(1) Identify your fear by name.

(2) Take several deep breaths.

(3) Talk to yourself frankly about the, fear and how you are dealing with it.

(4) Do something physical — take a fast walk, scrub a floor. Loneliness is a terrible problem in the United States. Perhaps one person out of 10 hasn’t a single friend. And women are the lonelier sex: there are about 14 million unattached women, twice the number of single men over 30. You don’t have to be lonely — and you won’t be if you stop thinking of yourself. Reach out, take the initiative (learning to do this is a part of growing up that many people miss). As Emerson said, “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Find something to talk about besides yourself. Be generous. Treat people as if they were already your friends. And seek out compatible people.

We all get depressed at times, but chronic and prolonged depression can be serious. Drinking is not the answer —it gives you a temporary lift and then a worse depression. Heavy drinking is, in fact, a kind of psychic suicide resorted to by people who have not developed the infinitesimal fortitude to endure life’s adversities. There are far better whys to deal with oppression. Get rid of self-preoccupation. Put the past behind you. Don’t blame yourself for yesterday’s mistakes. Develop a new interest. And try a little humor — it is an excellent medicine.
Almost everyone has given a passing thought to suicide at one time or another, so you needn’t be alarmed if you have too. But if the thought persists, seek help. It is usually a temporary crisis, and the most important thing is to find a person you can talk to freely. If you do not have one close at hand, there are a number of other people or organizations you can call or go to: a suicide prevention center, the telephone operator, the police, a church, the fire department, a hospital — or, of course, a doctor. Suicide claims the lives of 22,000 men and women a year in America and ranks tenth as a cause of death. More women than men threaten to kill themselves but over three times more men than women go through with the act. The great majority of persons bent on suicide do give warning. So if anybody you know talks of ending it all, always assume that he or she means it, and go to their rescue—or make sure that someone else does.