“If depression is like hanging off a cliff about to fall, “just getting by” is like teetering on the edge. You’ve made it off that cliff face, but you could lose your footing with the softest gust of wind. Do you recognize a time in your life like this? Perhaps you’re there now. So we’re not going to accept “just getting by”. It’s time to find footing on solid ground”.
A practical guide to get out of depression
The process I’ve designed can be used by anyone. No matter whether you’re dealing with severe symptoms or if you just get those “black dog” days as Winston Churchill described them. You will get results with these steps and a firm commitment to take good care of your health. Let’s get started.
In my experience, happiness is not the opposite of depression.
That may not sound right, but I can explain. During my long battle with depression I tried a lot of techniques to escape my circumstances with varying results. At several points things were getting better but I found myself in a place that was neither depression nor happiness; I was just getting by. It felt much better than the deep darkness I’d been stuck in for so long, but life was just happening around me. There wasn’t any forward momentum in my life.
I believe that’s common. It also seems common for some to settle for this life devoid of forward progression. They adjust expectations of their future to fit that paradigm. If depression is like hanging off a cliff about to fall, “just getting by” is like teetering on the edge. You’ve made it off that cliff face, but you could lose your footing with the softest gust of wind. Do you recognize a time in your life like this? Perhaps you’re there now. So we’re not going to accept “just getting by”. It’s time to find footing on solid ground. We’re aiming for happiness and forward progression in this process instead. In order to increase your happiness and set the ground work for moving forward, you’ll need to do some deep digging into your habits, thoughts, exercise routine, nutrition, and relationships. And you’ll need to follow the steps I will lay out in the plan to modify your behavior.
I recognize there is no one size fits all solution. But I also recognize that we humans are much more alike than we are different. We experience life in similar ways and our instinctual reactions to stresses can be very similar regardless of our station in life. We’re all equally capable of happiness.
So if you could get life back on track and feel like an active participant again, how committed to that goal would you be?
Would you change your behaviors? What I’m asking is; are you ready to do this? If you’re like me, you probably have a vision in mind of how you’d like to live your life. I’ll call this the “if I won the lottery” vision or the “under ideal conditions” vision. Both are poor analogies but you get the point. If you win the lottery would you live your life the way you are now? Not in the sense of possessions or wealth, but instead do you picture yourself happy with your friends, or happily spending time with your family? Free from the debilitating effects of depression? Most people can envision in their minds a place of happiness, but they don’t know how to get there. I have found t takes a plan and a process to reach this goal.
The plan can be started at any step, but you’ll find the most benefit by working the whole plan from the beginning. It won’t take a lot of time or effort to work it that way with the aid the handy cheat sheet you’ll find on the resources page of the website. It will keep you on point so look at it often. Keep it on your phone like I do. That ways it’s always with you. Let’s get started.