Depression and Anxiety: 6 Ways To Help Yourself An interesting article was published today in Psychology Today, called Epiphany. It is a Medical Doctor’s story of his explanation to an elderly patient about her prescriptions for pysch medications. In a nutshell, he tells his patient that the medications suppress consciousness of the underlying issues, so that they do not get resolved naturally over time. In addition, they have long lists of unpleasant side effects (his patient had lost her ability to balance, and was experiencing behavioral issues). The patient did not immediately respond to the idea, but after being in the hospital for sometime, and seeing the medications on her release paperwork, she told the doctor that if she didn’t need them, she didn’t want them, and “Why didn’t anyone ever tell me there was another way?” I’m here today to give you some tips to help you manage depression and anxiety, and begin to turn them around from the inside, by taking a little more conscious control over your thought process, in a way that will reprogram your neurons with practice to think in a more balanced manner. First, let’s talk about the argument against drugs. These medications are “sold” to Doctors by pharmaceutical representatives, professional sales people that visit medical professionals and encourage them to prescribe their products in various ways. Many of the most popularly prescribed medications, such as SSRIs, which are used to treat depression and anxiety, operate on theoretical principles which are not well understood. The name “Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor” is misleading, describing a process by which they BELIEVE, but cannot prove, the drug works. In other words, they don’t even REALLY know what it does. Many of the names of common psych drugs that you might recognize come from this list: Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Celexa, just to name a few. If you’ve ever been prescribed one of these drugs, or are close to someone who has, then you may be familiar with the process. If you’re not, let me explain. They start you on a low dose of one of these different drugs. You take it for a couple weeks, and they check you out. Sexual dysfunction? Loss of equilibrium? Strange ticks? Suicidal thoughts? Then they decide to keep it the same, give you more, or try a different one. It’s a medical roulette wheel, and you’re spinning for your life, your mind, and your future. It’s not JUST SSRIs that can be misleading and dangerous. Even the new and improved MAOI’s, which are reversible and selectable, can cause serious or fatal interactions with other drugs or certain foods. Tricyclic antidepressants can cause cognitive dysfunction, impaired memory, and many of the same side effects as SSRIs. Nearly all cause severe withdrawal. Anxiolytics carry with them their own side effects and risk of dependency. So how do you deal with depression and anxiety in a quick-fix society? The brain is an extremely complex organ, and much of its function is still shrouded in
mystery. I am not a medical doctor, I am a hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner, as well as a student of the mind and body. My training is in the understanding of the mind and behavior as a function of the general structure of the brain, with an emphasis on using thought and communication to resolve problems. A medical doctor is trained in understanding the brain as a mechanical organ of the body, with an emphasis on using drugs and surgery to solve problems. You should always consult a medical professional in the event of a health crisis. I urge you to do so as an informed patient, armed with knowledge about the drugs in question, and about your possible alternatives. So, before you jump on the psychiatric medication merry-go-round, or even after, let me offer you some tips to re-train and heal your mind, using its own properties, and your own thoughts. These tips come from an understanding of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and you can use them as a form of self-guided therapy alongside any other treatment, or as a stand-alone process. These tips are designed to help you cope with, lessen, and eventually eliminate depression and anxiety through mental practice. 1. Practice STOPPING Depressive or Anxious trains of thought. Depression and anxiety come from specific thought-habits. A depressed person spends a great deal amount of time thinking about why they are depressed, or what depresses them. You might think things like “I’m no good,” “Things will never get better,” and similarly self-defeating things. Anxiety is similar, except you are typically imagining worstcase scenarios about the future or current situation. Learn to recognize these patterns of thought, and when you are having them, tell yourself “Just STOP.” Interrupting these destructive chains of thoughts is the first step to overcoming the damage they can do to your state of mind. 2. But I can’t just NOT think! Dismissing your thoughts entirely doesn’t come easily, and what is likely to happen when you first begin practicing stopping those thoughts, is that they will try to come right back again. The way you prevent this is by giving yourself something else to think about. This, too, takes a little practice. When your mind is in a certain state, it becomes easier to think and remember along lines that match the state, and harder to do so in ways that oppose it. However, with practice this will become easier. Look for counter-examples. Spend some time thinking about your SUCCESSES, and about the BEST things that might happen. Both Depression and Anxiety are caused by a distortion in your perception: You actively look for scenarios which support the depression or anxiety, and then tend to forget about all the counterexamples. Life is a rich and varied experience, even though it sometimes doesn’t seem that way. Reminding yourself of what you’ve forgotten is a habit that will help you to rebalance. 3. Mind Your Body. One great way to combat the one-track-mind effect that comes with depression and anxiety is to change your posture. Try this experiment. Slump down, lower your head, frown, just make your body and face look as sad as you can, and try to think of happy thoughts. Notice how weakly the happiness comes through. Now, straighten up, pull your shoulders back, put your chin up, and smile like you own the world. Make your body and face look as happy as you can. Now think of happy thoughts and happy memories and happy times. It’s a lot stronger now, isn’t it? When your body is in a happy or confident posture, some of the happy
and confident parts of your brain activate automatically in response. This helps you to shake loose the negative thought patterns and begin to create better ones. 4. Go to the Root. Anxiety and depression can be learned behaviors. Sometimes, they are learned from parents or authority figures who are anxious or depressed. They instill these patterns in children. Sometimes, they are learned from trauma. Trauma occurs, and these thought patterns develop as a method of protecting you from that kind of trauma in the future. It’s a great concept, that your mind can find ways to protect itself, unfortunately, this quick-fix solution of worrying yourself paralyzed to avoid potential bad outcomes, or of choosing failure without trying in order to avoid accidental failure, well, it causes problems with the rest of your life. Do you know where your depression or anxiety came from? If your parents taught you to think this way, they weren’t trying to damage you. They were trying to help you avoid the same things that they fear for themselves, in the only way they knew how. If you started as a response to some traumatic event or series of them, then you need to train yourself in a better way to avoid those traumas. In either case, going back to the root of the problem in your mind gives you an angle to resolve the issues, and open the door for a better protective mechanism. How have you been protecting yourself so far? What would be a BETTER way to avoid those situations than depression or anxiety? What if you could go back, knowing what you know now about how these habits impact your life, and speak to the younger you who developed them? 5. Do what You fear. Practicing these steps should help you shake loose the unwanted patterns of depression and anxiety. Once you’ve got it loosened up, do what they were stopping you from doing. Depression stops you from being active and doing things you enjoy. Loosen it up a bit, then take a walk, play a game, chat with a friend, or anything you wouldn’t normally want to do while depressed. Even if the depression isn’t GONE when you start, just loosening it up and ACTING like it’s gone will help take it away. For anxiety, do whatever you’re afraid of doing. Once you see how ridiculously overblown your imagination was with the consequences, you can start stripping away the anxiety response. 6. Promote Reminders. Another great article I read recently advocated “Mindful Photography” as a tool to reinforce positive thinking, and I think it belongs in this list. The idea is to take 5 pictures every day of things you appreciate. Things that make you smile, things you accomplished, people you appreciate, things that make your life better, times you succeeded, etc. Whatever you’ve been forgetting. Keep these pictures in a special place, and break them out to remind yourself of what you’ve been forgetting. It doesn’t have to be pictures. If you find a beautiful stone on the path, pick it up. The idea is to collect things EVERY day that remind you of the good things in life. Each of these pictures or objects becomes an easy memory, when your brain isn’t in the best place to give you the ones you need, and poring over them will help put you in a much better state. NOW, I’ve given you some NLP tips that will help you begin to rewire your thoughts away from depression and anxiety, and towards a more balanced and functional perspective. These techniques can go a long way towards helping you correct your thought problems, even though they are very generalized to help for everyone.Odds are, you will also want to do some work that is specific to your case and situation. One great way to do that is to learn NLP. With the understandings of NLP, you will be equipped like never before to understand and manage your mind, as well as to understand and communicate effectively with the minds of others. As far as therapy goes, NLP is one
of the fastest and most effective methods available, because unlike traditional talk therapy, it is based on sound neurological techniques and processes to accomplish specific cognitive goals. You can learn NLP fast, from the comfort of your own home, with Learn Neuro Linguistic Programming. As a valued guest of Rapid NLP, we’re offering the Learn NLP at Home Course at a special discount, to make it accessible for everyone who can benefit from it. Visit NLP Training Online Course to learn more, or if you haven’t done it yet, sign up for the mailing list, to receive a free book with some NLP techniques you can try today and see for yourself how much of a difference it can make in your life.