Overcoming Depression and Finding Happiness II

If you don't know why you feel depressed, look for clues by comparing and contrasting your life now with a happier time in your life.  The best way to understand your depression is to study it carefully.  Use the scale of zero to 100 to rate your depression many times throughout the day, and observe and record all the thoughts, circumstances, and events associated with it.  Ideally, you should make your observations and rate your depression hourly.  If you think over your day and rate your depression at the end of it, you will tend to rate your moods more negatively because of your negative thought habits.  Even if you feel you know your stresses and problems, you can learn from studying your depression in these ways.  By frequently rating depression, people generally discover their moods are not always low.  Depressed people usually feel better when they keep busy (at work, cooking, visiting, etc.) and worse when idle (weekends, evenings, etc.).

The fastest way to change an emotion is often simply to act the way you want to feel.  Act happy, smile regularly, act friendly toward other people, and participate in plenty of interests and activities, including fun things such as dancing.  Don't wait to be in the mood to do these things-you may never feel like it.  Depressed people who keep practicing these behaviors find themselves feeling more cheerful.  With practice, these behaviors gradually become more comfortable and natural.  Other people generally respond in positive ways to these changes, so you receive more pleasure and satisfaction in your life from them.  Work on improving nonverbal behaviors that convey depression.  Don't use a slow, quiet, bored, monotonous tone of voice.  Show some pitch variation and enthusiasm in it.  Use erect posture rather than drooping posture with downcast head and eyes.  Use good rates of eye contact with other people and don't frown.

People need a healthy balance between pleasure and work.  A few depressed and overwhelmed people need to quit pushing themselves so hard, relax more, and eliminate some work activities, but most depressed people need more interests and activities.  Idle time often leads to negative thinking and depression.  Choose more interests and activities, including those you once enjoyed and could resume, and ask yourself which ones you might do if you didn't feel depressed.  As you develop interests, share them with other people.

Many doctors and psychologists recommend regular exercise for depression and note it improves the mood.  Exercise invigorates you, giving you more energy.  Deep relaxation also helps combat depression and especially helps anxious depressed people.  Relaxation helps people find peace within themselves.  Learn about different kinds of relaxation techniques and meditation and put them to use in your life.