Non-Drug Methods of Dealing With It.

Psychology Today - Tips for skipping the prozac.

This article I found interesting, because it mentioned a couple of things I hadn't seen before, one of which was advice to never skip a meal to keep your blood sugar stable and being authentic, plus ones we have heard before, like exercise, sunlight, natural supplements.  Combined, these things work.  Don't give up.  You can win this one.

Something I hadn't considered, anger.

This article on Psychology Today  has a some of the same things we've talked about on this blog to help with depression, including being active, reaching out to others, watching funny TV shows and laughing, but it also addresses something I had not heard of or thought about, repressed anger.  Now that I think about it though, I remember Dr. Sydney Freedman on M*A*S*H saying "Anger turned inward is depression; anger turned sideways is Hawkeye."  
This article encourages you to spend some time thinking about what you could be angry about and how you should acknowledge and try to accept your angry feelings.  I think, based on the research I have been doing for this blog, that the best ways to acknowledge and accept them, outside of your therapist's office (if you are like me and can't afford a therapist right now) is to write them down.  According to the article we read last week, it seems like it would  be a good exercise to write down everything you could be angry about as quickly as you can.  Get it out.  Then wad it up and throw it away.  I think you (and I) will feel better.

Let's give it a try.

14 Mood Lifting Tricks from Prevention.

Prevention magazine has an article on things that you can do right now to feel better and boost your mood.  Some of them, we have looked at before, such as writing things down and taking a walk, but they have expanded on these a little.  When talkign about writing, they say you should quickly make a list of good things about the person or the situation that is getting you down.  Here's a quote:

"Turn your thoughts into a race—it can lift the blues in minutes, says Princeton University psychologist Emily Pronin, PhD. For example, when your mother-in-law is driving you crazy, give yourself 30 seconds to make a list of all the ways she's been helpful to you in the past—you'll feel better fast. (If nothing nice comes to mind, quickly jot down other ways she bugs you; speed thinking negative thoughts can still improve your mood, Pronin found.) Researchers believe that rapid thinking may release feel-good brain chemicals—or it could just be a helpful distraction. "

And there are some things I've never heard of on this list. 


For example, they recommend looking at pictures as something that will give your mood an 11% mood boost.  I had not heard of that as a mood booster, thought it makes sense.  I might want to stay away from this one during periods of grieving but it might help you to look at happy pictures of times past.

Another one they mention that I had not heard before is chopping vegetables.  Interesting.  Presumably, not onions.  :-)  

Go read the article.  Prevention.  

My hope is that you and I will internalize these lessons and learn to use these coping skills so that our winter blues or all the time blues or clinical depression will be a thing of the past.  Hang in there.  

Coping Skills.

Art has been an invaluable tool for me. 

Where I work, we are always talking about coping skills.  Basically a coping skill is something you do to cope with your feelings or pain that are not hurtful to anyone.  Sometimes a distraction is the key.  Some coping stategies we just fall into, or we've used them since childhood and sometimes we need to try and think really hard to come up with something to do.
 When my dad passed away, I had overwhelming grief, and I wanted to sleep all the time, but I couldn't so I distracted myself in many ways.  I watched TV and played video games simultaneously.  I found that I couldn't read, couldn't cook, couldn't draw and so I needed to find something, anything, to help me get through the pain.  It was The Sims and NCIS for me.  It was months before I could cope with any down time.  Every time I was alone in the shower or car I would cry so showering became the only thing I really did alone, asking someone to ride with me everywhere I went, so that I wouldn't get to my destination with red eyes and a wet face.   When my son was terribly afraid of thunderstorms, the counselor taught him ways to distract himself and just get through it.

Here's a list of things to do when you are feeling bad.

Coping Skills.

Coloring.

The Guardian, adult colouring books anxiety-stress-mindfulness

Adult coloring books are all the rage now.  I know that when I started to get really depressed over my mom's situation (Alzheimer's disease) and all of the other things I was going through, I started doing a form of art journaling, which for me, basically involved writing bible verses and drawing flowers beside them.  As the last couple of years has unfolded, not in any way I'd want them to really, I've done a LOT of art.  It has saved my sanity.  Right now, I'm off of my antidepressant and in a pretty good place.



I drew this this morning and wanted to share in case you want to color right now.  :-)  Just right click it with your mouse, save to your computer, then you can print it out and color it.  If the bible verse offends you, color the background black or cover it with a sticker.  No worries!

Art. I knew it.

Last year when things were pretty dismal in my life and I kept feeling like I was having the metaphorical rug pulled out from me about once a week, I just felt overwhelmed.  I felt hopeless.  I didn't feel that I had the mental capacity to read or crochet.  Taking a walk or going around people just seemed like more than I could handle.  That's when my art exploded.  I just wanted to draw all of the time.  I had begun doing artwork a year or so before and helped me cope with my Dad's passing and my Mom's Alzheimers, but when everything came raining down on me, I retreated into my art to recover.  It helped immensely.  I personally write bible verses on all of my art, so that got me reading and finding quotes about hope and that helped even more.  I feel like my art pulled me through the tough times.  I would say that most of it is not very good, but sometimes I get lucky and all of the elements on the page blend together and it's good and when I look at it, it makes me feel happy.  In searching the web, I have found that doing art has been proven to make people happier.  I knew it.






Here are a few facts about art and our mental health.

1.  Four out of the six happiest activities are arts related.

2.  It's kind of a chicken and the egg thing,   Creativity Breeds Happiness   "Richards, the researchers note, wrote that day-to-day creativity “is both a cause and consequence of positive development."

3 You don't have to be good at it to reap the benefits.

4.  Just looking at art makes us happier.    

Resources. 

Here are a bunch of art therapy prompts to get you started if you don't know what to do at first.  Expressive Art Inspirations

Coloring in coloring books and doing paint by numbers are also ideas.  I don't know if there have been scientific studies done about these, but they sure are popular right now.

Adults Are Coloring.

Coloring Books for Grownups are a Thing.

Here's one of my drawings without any color, for you to download and color if you'd like.  Right click with your mouse on the picture and you can either select save image or print right from there.

Plan a Vacation!

Even if you can't afford to take one right now, planning one is beneficial to your mental health.  Really.  The optimal thing would be to be able to plan and take several small vacations each year, but if you can't do that, start a little savings fund and do a little planning.  It takes your mind off your troubles.

How Vacations Affect Your Happiness

Do Vacations Make Us Happier?

For more good advice on how to plan a vacation click to read more.  

One thing that can affect your happiness on the trip is to have realistic expectations, a daily plan or itinerary (at least a loose one) to prevent the "what are we going to do"? arguments/discussions that can take up a whole day and to take something you look forward to doing to do during the down-times.  I know that when our family of 5 has to adapt to a hotel room with 1 bathroom, waiting for people to get through the bathroom time to finally get ready to go is something that gets on my nerves.  For us, since we don't have cable TV at home, we often entertain ourselves by watching shows we don't get to watch at home, but sometimes there's not anything we can agree on, so we play board games or walk around the hotel while waiting.  It helps us not to grouch at each other and ruin the mood of the trip.  Also, with kids especially, it's good to have a budget plan and stick to it so that they know not to beg for souvenirs.  You might want to give them some trip spending money.  If you do, don't be critical of their buying choices.  It's budgeted, pretend like it is already spent and don't take this time to lecture them on financial planning.  It's vacation.  Have fun!

Here's a link to some travel planning apps.  Optimize your next vacation.

Personally, I love going on HomeAway and imagining vacationing.  :-)

Here's a fun article about traveling for free!  Budget Travel.  You can house-sit, pet sit, work on an organic farm ... all for free lodging!

Remember, one of the happiest parts about vacation is the planning, when anything is possible, so have fun with it!

Talking to yourself.

WSJ

Inc

Annie Murphy Paul

Three articles but they basically are about the same thing, talking to oneself.  We all have self-talk, whether it's inside our heads or out loud or a combination of the two, but how you refer to yourself, it turns out, is important.

"The way you address yourself matters, too. Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in February found people who spoke to themselves as another person would—using their own name or the pronoun "you"—performed better under stress than people who used the word "I."

Referring to yourself in the as if you are a friend, using you or your name makes you feel less anxious and less stressed when performing a difficult task.  

I find it fascinating, what do you think?  

Coffee?!

Here's the article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.  Coffee to prevent depression?

Here's a quote:  "Conclusions In this large longitudinal study, we found that depression risk decreases with increasing caffeinated coffee consumption. "   

I don't know about you, but I love coffee and increasing my coffee consumption a little bit might not be a bad thing.  :-)  I think it's going to be one of the things that I routinely do, along with getting more sun and eating more yogurt.  

Mindfulness.

I have to be honest here, I don't really know what mindfulness is.  I've heard of it.  This article says that mindfulness is as effective as antidepressants for preventing a relapse of depression.  I want to go off of my antidepressant and this may be just what I need.

Here's a little explanation from the article on Forbes.

"Here’s a little about MBCT: the practice marries mindfulness meditation (or mindfulness training) and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), which are quite related to begin with. With mindfulness, an individual learns to observe his or her own thoughts with curiosity and without judgment, acknowledge them, and then let them go"  

I looked around a little online and found this free mindfulness class.   I don't know if I will try it.  I may also go to a counselor that provides this training as I have good health insurance.  On Psychology Today, they have a Find a Therapist service and you can indicate that you want them to be trained in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.

Wow, I really think I need this.

  

Art as therapy.

I have made it through a lot of things in the past couple of years, my mom's Alzheimer's disease has been the number one stressor, but you can add to that working, raising teenagers, health problems, having to sell the house I grew up in (not to mention cleaning it out!) losing my job, having surgery ... it goes on and on.  I can't focus on it.  I just can't.  I try to do one thing at a time throughout the day until dinnertime and after dinner I try and recharge myself.  One of the ways I am able to cope is because I have started art journaling.  I draw flowers and trees and I don't actually draw all that well, but it helps me, it refuels me for the next day of coping with one thing after the other.  Art has been proven to help with stress, anxiety and mental health.

Doodling Your Way to a More Mindful Life


Happiest Activities are Art Related.


Doodle

Art Therapy

The Power of Pottery


Art As Therapy

You can do art therapy with a therapist, or just do it at home.  It might not be as helpful, but it can't hurt and it might help.  Give it a try.  It has saved my life.

Art Therapy Prompts.

Expressive Art Workshop

Art Therapy Exercises to Try at Home.

10 Easy Art Therapy Exercises to Help You Destress.

Read!

Reading is good for you in so many ways, getting lost in a story is a wonderful thing.  If you are depressed, though, you may find that it is beyond you at the current time.  When I have been grieving in the past I have not been able to concentrate on reading enough to follow the story.  However, if I set myself up with an audio book and my needlework or art journaling, I can escape into the story.

Reading improves cognitive function.

21 Reasons Reading Will Make You Happier

Read Something for Fun.

Take a break, sit down and read something that will make you feel better.  I recommend, Harry Potter, The Ranger's Apprentice or something else for the child in you.

Happiness day.

It's world happiness day today.  I'll have to admit, I have not spent the day in complete and utter happiness.  My mom had to go to the ER today and my brother took her because he was the first one called.  I was taking my son to an activity when it all went down.  Normally, I cope pretty well with this kind of thing, but right now I am coping with a lot of stuff.  I took a stress test the other day for stressful events and I scored 335.  The test said if you score over 300 you should probably talk to someone and find ways to manage the stress.  Today, my management of the stress included throwing up and going to bed for part of the day, while waiting to hear any news.  In my defense, (because I always feel I have to defend my reasons for taking a nap for some reason!) I felt that I might need to spend the night at the hospital, if she had to stay.  Fortunately, she did not have to stay and I am back up again, blogging, crocheting, watching TV and playing words with friends, some of the multitasking that I do when I am stressed.  Sometimes one activity is not enough to take my mind off things.  I'm not proud of it, but there it is.

Apartment Therapy has an excellent article today that is called Ten Simple Things to Make You Happier at Home.  It touches on some of the things that we have already talked about on this blog, like making your bed, but the most fun part to me is something they call "If you can't get out of it, get into it".  It's really good.  You should go read it.

Now I am going to share a link to just about the best ever in the world blog post about feeling happier, how to look at your home with "fresh perspectacles".  It is absolutely awesome and you should absolutely go read it, even if you never listen to anything else I say.  Type.  Whatever.

Momastery

While you are over there, you might want to read her whole blog.  Lot of wisdom there.

Take care of yourself today.

Needlework!

This is something I have just recently started doing.  My mom always crocheted and knitted a little and tried to teach me when I was younger, but I was too stubborn to try when she tried to teach me.  Then, my daughter learned to knit and crochet in 4H classes and then wanted me to learn as well.  (Her Dad already knows how.  My husband actually knitted me a scarf when we were dating.)  Anyway, I resisted for quite some time and when I did try crocheting, I found it stressful at first.  My daughter, wise person that she is, told me to give it a few weeks and then it would switch and become relaxing.  I trusted her and she was right.  Since beginning to crochet and only learning one stitch, the single crochet stitch, I have made 2 complete afghans and am about halfway through another one and yes, I do find it relaxing at this point.  Will I ever learn to double or treble crochet?  Who knows.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I'm not going to stress about it.  :-)

This is an afghan my daughter did a few weeks ago.  

It turns out my daughter was right and there is research to back her up.  Knitting and crocheting and other kinds of crafting are good for your brain and good for your happiness and now, thanks to the internet, it's easy to learn a craft.

Happiness is a Needle and Thread Away.  "Textile handcraft making was associated with the greatest mood repair, increases in positive, decreases in negative mood"  

Crochet Benefits  "But crochet has been proven to reduce anxiety of all kinds, including panic attacks, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety, making it an especially effective tool to reach for ... "


This is Your Brain on Crafts "There's survey evidence to support crafting's dopamine effect. In one study of more than 3,500 knitters, published in The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 81% of respondents with depression reported feeling happy after knitting. More than half reported feeling "very happy.""

The Truth About Knitting

Health Benefits  

How to Knit - A video tutorial.

How to Crochet - A video tutorial.

If needle work is not your thing and never will be, do some of the other crafts mentioned in some of the articles, painting, model cars, drawing, paint by numbers.  Find something that gets you in the flow state of mind and relaxes you and then make time to do it!  

Make your bed!

There is plenty of evidence that making your bed every morning makes you feel happier.  It seems kind of silly and yet, sometimes the simplest things can have an impact on your well-being.  I personally started making my bed as my February resolution.  I decided this year to make a series of small resolutions and do one each month, adding it to the existing one.  January was prayer and bible reading and February was making my bed.  I've stuck with them both though mid March and I have to say, it makes a difference.  My March task was this blog and I started it and I plan to continue it, just as I have the other 2.  I think that doing one small thing each month and making them cumulative has been a good thing.

I work at home, in the bedroom, right next to the bed so it has an impact, visually, on me, all during my work day.  I make it up and I through the most colorful afghan in the world on it and then as I walk by it every few minutes, it makes me smile.  Also, the kids in my house come and lie down on the bed and talk to me while I am working and that makes me happy as well.

Here's articles on the benefits of making your bed.

Psychology Today  People who make their beds report themselves as happier.

Life Hack  It gives you a sense of accomplishment.

Apartment Therapy  Making your bed is a keystone habit, which means it is a catalyst for other good habits.

I told you this afghan was colorful!  It's also fuzzy and warm.

Who knew?

Get up and do it right this minute.

(Unless someone is in your bed sleeping!)

Simply smile, even if you don't want to.

Yesterday, Huffington Post, published a simple guide to joy that is very basic, but very good.  It starts with taking a deep breath and continues through several steps until you are visualizing something you have to look forward to.  If you are feeling depressed and anxious, this is a good place to start.  Simple Guide To Joy

Scientific American - Smile!

What can you do to feel happier right now?  Smile at your computer screen, right now, while you are reading this, because smiling makes you happier.  It's true!

Smiling, the evidence that it works, video.

For today's smile, watch this video of Maru the cat!  

MARU

Something else to make you smile right now:

Amazing Facts to Make You Smile

Come on, give it all you've got!

It works!

First Things First

If you are feeling down, see a doctor.  If medicine is not working, check out this excellent article  about things to consider when your depression is not getting better, despite treatment and this article about things this writer does every day to fight her own depression, including prayer, meditation, laughing and practicing gratitude.  She's got more but I won't spoil it .... go read it!  I personally use laughter, art journaling, bible study and prayer, and want to, over the course of the next year, add in exercise and make some changes in my home that will help keep me on a more even keel like getting rid of clutter.  As we go on this blog, we will discuss all of these methods and use everything we can find to focus on the good.

Starting the journey ...