Managing Depression without Medication: A How-To
One of the most common questions I hear as a therapist is “Will I have to take medication forever?” While there’s no way of predicting the future or knowing exactly what factors may be contributing to each person’s depressive symptoms, it is possible for some people to effectively manage their symptoms of depression without taking medications.
Before changing or altering any methods you’re currently using to treat your symptoms of depression, talk to your primary care physician or therapist, if you’re currently seeing one. Below are some strategies that may be helpful to alleviate symptoms of depression.
1.) Get enough sleep. The amount of sleep that each person “needs” varies, but generally, we recommend no less than 5 hours of sleep within a 24-hr time period. This should also be one solid, consolidated chunk of sleep…no napping throughout the day to make up for the sleep you didn’t get the night before! Lack of adequate sleep has been shown time and time again in the research to affect general mood and exacerbate existing depressive symptoms (O’Leary, Bylsma, & Rottenberg, 2016), so make sure you’re logging those zzz’s every night.
2.) Take a walk. Research shows that exercise releases the “feel good” chemicals in your brain (i.e., different neurotransmitters and endorphins) that can help you combat feelings of sadness and worthlessness that may sometimes accompany depression. Additionally, exercise in general can help you gain confidence and increase your self-esteem as you reach many of your goals. As an added bonus, exercise can help your quality of sleep, which (see #1) has its own role in managing depression.
3.) Do one thing you used to do that you enjoy that you don’t do anymore. During the spiral of depression, many people stop engaging in activities they used to enjoy doing. However, those activities most likely contributed to positive mood, a sense of worth, etc. In short, people remove themselves from all the positive reinforcement in their environment, which only adds to the negative feelings of depression. Start slow: make a list of everything you’ve stopped doing that you used to love to do, and then pick one activity from the list and find the time to incorporate that back into your daily routine. Don’t be surprised if you don’t enjoy that activity again right away; sometimes, it takes a little while to get the same enjoyment you used to. But changing your behaviors is a good first step to changing your overall mood.
4.) Examine your thoughts carefully. Downward spirals are often provoked by jumping to the worst-case conclusion or other unhelpful/unrealistic thoughts. You take a friend’s laugh to mean that she’s laughing at you, or an erratic driver to mean that they’re personally targeting you. Often times, these thoughts are so automatic that we don’t even realize we’re having them. Start taking note of the things you’re telling yourself on a daily basis. A good start is noticing when you have a strong emotion, then backtrack 5 seconds and ask yourself “What did I just tell myself about this situation?”
5.) Engage your social support system. The same thing that happens to our daily activities when we get depressed can happen to our friend group. We start feeling bad, we don’t feel like going out, socializing, talking, etc. We start to isolate, we tell friends we don’t feel like talking. We feel bad, because we’re not spending time with important people in our lives; eventually, friends stop calling or asking to spend time together, which can lead to thoughts of “See! They really don’t like me!” (See #4). Reach out to someone and make a small social engagement. Invite a friend you haven’t talked to in a while to talk on the phone. Give others a chance to help improve your mood.
6.) Talk to a therapist. Talk therapy is one of the most effective ways to treat symptoms of mild/moderate depression. Therapy can help provide you with a safe, protected space to share your feelings and thoughts, as well as provide you with tools to help you challenge some of your beliefs and behaviors that are contributing to your depression.
Disclaimer: This blog does not provide or replace psychological treatment or evaluation. Contact a psychologist in your community if you are in need of individualized services.
~Written by Ashley Waters, PhD