Steps to Beating the Depressive

Hey everyone!

It's the early hours of Saturday morning & I am feeling absolutely freakin' fantastic!

Why? Simple.

Having been reading Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer this week, I have started to realise that a lot of my problems with depression have indeed been coming down to wrong thought patterns.

Naturally, once they turn up you are left with a choice and in this post I'm going to let you know what that choice is...

The Only Defence

Once those thought patterns turn up, if you're not doing enough to shut them down, they will shut you down!

Why & how do I know this?

From experience, bro's!

I've already mentioned before that I've had an on off battle with depression for the last eight years and it is only through the grace of God that I am still here today.

Depression doesn't just go away, despite what those people would say who tell you to "cheer up" when you're depressed.

That's not helpful.

It's counter-intuitive because you're trying to snap yourself out of your funk but sometimes it is like the darkness is that thick & vapid, it sucks you in more and more the more you try to fight it.

I've got some tips for what you can do today if you're struggling with depressive thoughts & feelings: -

1. Get out of your head - this one might sound simple and prove harder to put into action than it first seems but you need to find something to do that will take up all of your concentration because if you cannot think, you cannot sink;
2. Find somebody else to help - this one's easy to enact because all you have to do is look around you, find a family friend, a neighbour, or just someone who needs your help in this moment because the more you can focus on them & their needs the less you will be able to be dragged down by your illness; and
3. Get a new hobby - Seriously. Find a hobby that you can start learning that will convince you that you are not too depressed to learn a new trick because whilst your heart beats, you can always find new things to do that maybe you never thought of before.

I was learning one or two songs some time ago, before I decided that talking was my best chance of therapy so opened up to a friend about my struggle and that has in turned meant opening up to some more people. You see, we are all in this thing called life together so the sooner you can open up to one of your closest friends the quicker you can be on the road to recovery.

You are not alone!

I've been there, and until recently, I never realised just how vital it was to have a healthy thought life all the way through the battle. You see, the more you let your thoughts dictate to you your condition, the more you will be convinced that there is no way through the dark tunnel with your dark passenger in tow.

Think negative, get negative. Get negative, live negative.

So you need to find yourself an inspirational quote that reminds you that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train, despite how the joke goes. Repeat it. Over & over.

One of mine goes like this: -

I believe in the L.A.W. of God; that I am Loved, I am Accepted and I am Wanted by Him!

That's just one of my resting thought patterns that I've recently adopted and I'll let you in on a little secret; my mind is now like a prison.

All the inmates are the negative thoughts and just recently I've issued an Executive Order that says that if the guards, the positive thoughts, catch any of the negative thoughts escaping and trying to make their way to my mouth to be spoken as negative words, they are to be shot with ruthless prejudice! :-o

It's as simple as keeping a close watch on what we are letting into our lives because if what goes in is negative then what comes out will be negative.

Final Thought

There's a chance I'll return to this because people don't deserve to be left alone in their depression. I left myself alone in my struggle for large parts of this but the truth of the matter is that I need community.

So do you.

You need family & friends around you to tell you that you will make it through this and you need me to tell you that you will get through this.

You WILL get through this!!!

Don't give up!

You finding this post today and reading it until the very end is proof that you want to be free of the evil, oppressive spirit known as depression.

Peace!