How to get rid of autumn depression: expert advice
To get rid of despondency and discouragement, you need to know what helps with depression, and be sure to take the advice of specialists to quickly get out of a depressive state, until the blues take their "roots" too deep.
What helps with depression: nutrition, sun, sports and aromatherapy
In late autumn and winter, the mood involuntarily decreases. Short days and long dark nights, lack of sunlight, heavy clothing, snow, ice and slush underfoot can break even the most inveterate optimist.
How to get rid of autumn depression if you feel constant fatigue, weakness, irritability, if you don't want to get out of bed in the morning and generally move, if it seems that your life is hopelessly boring, and you yourself are good for nothing and will never get out from the dark streak? It is urgent to declare war on the seasonal blues!
Let's start with the diet. Before you get rid of depression, remove salty and smoked foods, as well as foods containing preservatives and animal fats from your diet, all of which disrupt the metabolism in the brain and increase the symptoms of depression. Diet for depression advises to forget about hamburgers, french fries and sugary carbonated drinks like coca-cola and fanta.
Black tea, coffee and chocolate – recognized natural stimulants – are suitable only in case of force majeure: constant stimulation depletes the human body. So it is better to drink freshly squeezed juices, non-carbonated mineral water and green or herbal tea (lemongrass, chamomile, echinacea, ginseng, currant and strawberry leaves are good).
Diet for depression includes vegetables, fresh herbs, fruits, and yogurt. Cheese and bananas are a great healing dessert, they contain substances that our body converts into “hormones of happiness" – endorphins. Blueberries in all forms are also very useful.
Another enemy of depression is the sun. Another tip on how to get rid of depression is to go outdoors and bask in the sun whenever possible. The sun and depression are bitter enemies: the sun's rays can switch our brains from winter hibernation to summer activity.
Our third reliable assistant is sport. Sports also help with depression: buy a CD of 15-20 minute exercise programs led by a likeable trainer so that his (or her) energy will charge you with optimism.
Finally, don't forget about aromatherapy. The smells of lavender, valerian, rosemary, orange, grapefruit, tangerine, sandalwood remarkably disperse the blues. Aromatherapy for depression also involves the use of essential oils instead of perfumes. You can add them to the water while taking a bath, you can fumigate the room with an aroma lamp, which is sold in specialized stores. The right scent can create the right mood for the whole day.
Tea for depression:
Combine 40 g of St. John's wort, 20 g of lemon balm herb, 30 g of valerian herb, 10 g of rosemary herb, 20 g of hawthorn fruit. Grind thoroughly, mix. Brew 1 teaspoon of the mixture per cup. Drink 3 times a day.
Psychological help and creativity in depression
Very often, a bad mood has psychological roots. And understanding yourself is not at all as difficult as it seems: most likely, the cause of depression is that you cannot achieve the fulfillment of your desires and do not live the way you would like.
A simple psychological technique will help you understand yourself: write down your dreams and desires on a piece of paper. Imagine that you are making a list for a kind wizard, and write down whatever comes to mind. From this list, choose the five or six most important items. Then imagine that each of these desires is an independent person, and come up with a name and appearance for her. Now imagine how these characters are talking at a round table and together they are looking for a solution to your problems. Have each “personality” describe how they see you and what they think you need to do.
At first, such psychological help for depression may seem ridiculous, but in fact, this exercise has an extremely important goal: to awaken the voice of your own intuition, your own desires, and, ultimately, your own self. After all, very often we are unhappy because we unsuccessfully try to fulfill other people's requirements, justify other people's expectations, or solve other people's problems that are not directly related to us.
Try to find yourself in a pile of other people's opinions, hopes and claims. Determine what you need, not your parents, friends or neighbors.
Creativity will help get rid of depression. It's never too late to learn something new, like something you dreamed of doing as a child. Write down on a piece of paper the professions that attracted you as a child, and think about how you can play them. You probably won't be a Hollywood star anymore, but first try to become a star of an amateur theater studio – the process itself will give you great pleasure. You can learn to draw, dance, train a dog, make soap. The main thing in this case is not the result, but new sensations and impressions.
Some find it easier when they start something new in deep secrecy, guided by books and manuals, others find it easier to do it in a community of like-minded people. Just pay special attention to the fact that the company is friendly. The spirit of competition is not what you need right now.