Depression and anxiety

[Phil D. Rolls]

Been thinking about the way depression can take over your life, and send you into a vicious spiral. You often end up with so many problems, caused by and exacerbating the problem that you find it hard to put them right.

For example: your house is a mess, and you are embarrassed to see people; your finances are in a mess; you have neglected your appearance, your clothes might be dirty and worn out; you drink too much, and when you wake up you feel worse, and even less prepared to tackle your problems; you are unhappy in relationships and treat people the wrong way.

All of these things impact on each other, and the weight of them ways you down more and more. One of the best things you can do is take just one problem, and break it down into components. Then set yourself a goal to fix just one of those small parts.

An example might be, your whole house is filthy and untidy. You know you don't want it to be like that, but you just cannot get started on the job. Why not concentrate on your bedroom? You might not feel up to doing the whole job - so start off by changing your bed and give yourself a lot of praise for completing that one task.

Keep going in small steps, and do it at a pace you can cope with (it might take you a week or more) . Recognise that you are taking control of the illness, and praise yourself everytime you achieve something.

Your whole way of thinking has been that you are worthless, but I bet you haven't always felt like that. I also bet you are saying "yeah big deal I made the bed". You learned to worry, it happened in small steps without you knowing it. You can teach yourself to like yourself again in the same manner.

It's not easy, you have to tell yourself you are doing well, when you don't believe it yourself. Ever taught someone to drive, or play guitar, or to plaster a wall. I bet there were times you praised that person, even though you knew they could improve.

Treat yourself in the same way. If you work at it, and keep repeating it, your brain will learn to be confident.