Decline in morale: what to do when you are depressed?
Written by: Loris Vitry (holistic coach)
Validated by: Cathy Maillot (Osteopath)
Caution: If you have any medical questions or concerns, please speak to your doctor. Even if the articles on this site are based on scientific studies, they do not replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Throughout life, we experience different emotions: discouragement, joy, sadness, pain, despair, depression.
Depression, or being depressed, causes low morale, but it’s normal like all other emotions.
Thus, it is quite normal to experience from time to time periods of decreased motivation, moments of irritability, having dark thoughts, etc.
However, when these feelings persist, one can be concerned.
This article aims to explain how to get better when you are depressed.
Depression, what is it?
Depression is characterized by low morale, physical weakness and sadness accompanied by irritability, insomnia, anxiety.
It is a psychological state that lasts for a few days.
This is where depression is distinguished from depression, a real illness, which is characterized by symptoms such as: Intense sadness that lasts, lack of interest in activities that were once popular, intense fatigue.
Depression has biological causes: when it is due to a lack of balance in brain chemistry with the decline of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine.
It can be psychological: when it is linked to financial, economic, professional, emotional factors such as a breakup, a dismissal, a return from vacation, etc.
But it can also be social.
When you live in a dirty environment, when you have bad neighbors, when you are frustrated, during the transition to fall, due to the lack of light or because of alcohol.
It thus leads to a lack of self-confidence, causes isolation, a decrease in the quality of sleep, reverses appetite, causing a lack of concentration and great sadness.
If it persists for a long time, it can give rise to depression.
What then to do to regain your serenity?
Look for the causes of low morale and change your body attitude
In order to quickly regain a smile, it is important to determine the causes of the drop in morale.
Sometimes this cause does not appear at first glance; we will have to take a step back.
Several small things like a lack of sleep, a communication problem, a cumulative return from vacation can be the cause of low morale.
On the other hand, it will also be necessary to take a step back to find the cause, because the state of the moment does not help thinking, especially when the cause of the problem is complex.
Finding the cause is half the problem.
It will also require a change of mental attitude.
Indeed, the mental attitude acts on the physical attitude which then acts on the mood.
Despair influences mood, for example, and manifests itself in lowered shoulders, staring at the ground, slow, heavy and nonchalant walking.
In this case, it is advisable to adopt an upright posture, to avoid looking at the ground, to be dynamic, to smile a lot.
Indeed, the smile transforms our mental state and obliges our spirit to well-being.
Control your diet and get plenty of sleep
Eating like sleep affects mood.
A diet high in fat and saturated fat can increase your risk of depression.
We will therefore have to control our diet, indulge ourselves by offering ourselves the dishes we prefer and which comforts us without going overboard.
It will be necessary to favor foods rich in omega-3 such as rapeseed oil, flax seeds, cod liver oil, salmon, nuts, mackerel, eggs, salmon.
You will also need to consume a lot of fruits containing magnesium, selenium and vitamin B6 such as almonds, nuts, chocolate, etc.
Magnesium, Vitamin B6 help neutralize stress to reduce irritability, balance the nervous system, decrease irritability, get better sleep and get through the blues phase quickly.
In addition, alcoholic beverages should be avoided although the temptation is great at these times.
Consuming alcohol while you are depressed leads to a vicious cycle.
Indeed, drinking alcohol immediately gives you a feeling of relief, but this immediate effect is misleading because it can make your depression worse.
Alcohol has depressant effects due to its interference with certain neurotransmitters.
To realize this, you just have to realize that the first signs of depression are exactly the same as those of drinking alcohol.
It is important to get plenty of sleep when you are depressed.
Because, mood is linked to fatigue and the attitude of the body.
Fatigue, for example, plays an important role in spasmophilia problems.
Sleeping a lot therefore helps regenerate the mind and relieve fatigue.
At the same time, it is a good way to forget about a depressing day and to ensure better health.
Surround yourself with positive people and relive pleasant memories
One of the consequences of depression is withdrawal.
It is easier not to move, to remain cloistered at home, to spend your time moping.
Doing so is the easiest way not to get better.
You have to go out, take a walk or meet people, have discussions and express your feelings of the moment.
This will help restore morale, forget the difficulties of the moment and quickly digest the depression.
Because communication and the fact of feeling listened to, sharing laughter make it possible to know the causes of depression and to put things into perspective.
But if you resist going out, it is advisable to recall the happy memories to relive the feelings of well-being that accompanied this moment.
To do this, you will simply have to close your eyes, appeal to memory and the five senses to fully relive a moment in life when you were deeply happy, where you experienced deep joy, where you was completely blossomed.
Diving back into memories also requires visualizing the places, reviewing the sensations felt and hearing the sounds once again.
Using creativity and passions
To get better, it will be necessary to appeal to creativity and passions.
These little pleasures allow you to relax and slowly sweep away the feeling of unease.
According to individual tastes, one can thus resort to: cooking, music, drawing, sport, television series especially comedy, decoration, sewing, creation, writing.
All of these things suck focus and help to forget the previous state of unease.
They have many other advantages: they are relaxing, structure thought, strengthen concentration and self-esteem, develop creativity.
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