Depression

Hi Froebellian, thanks for replying to me. I am glad you got out of your toxic situation, I hope you are feeling ok these days.

I'm very good at switching off to get through the day but I think that's becoming part of the problem. I don't want to do that anymore. But you're right knowing the issue is the first step and then addressing it which I am willing to do.

[HalfGirl]

Hey B Tarot, I have been following this thread for the last couple of days and just wanted to check in how you are doing today. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other advice than what the others have said already. Counseling sounds like a good thing to me. I agree with Froebellian to think of a job as money to pay the bills for the moment. Not being able to pay the bills adds to the problems. So once you have more or less secured the financial thing, you can work on other things and find out what you want. Little baby steps one at the time is the way to go towards healing.

Hi halfgirl, thanks v much for writing and wanting to check on me, I appreciate it. Baby Steps, i must remember that, thats a good way to approach every day. I've just got back from the Doctor, it was as helpful as i expected it to be, so I'll keep looking for work and try a couple of herbal remedies, and try to be thankful at the end of every day for getting through it.

[Louisa]

This is just something small I do that helps me- I move my eyes around whenever I am undergoing something stressful or saddening. It is something I began to do intuitively after reading about EMDR (eye movement desensitizationa and reprocessing) which uses guided eye movements in conjunction with therapy to treat trauma, depression and other things). Here's an article about EMDR on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_mov...d_reprocessing

I just intuitively feel compelled to move my eyes in certain directions. I'm not sure if it's a subconscious knowledge. I know that moving the eyes to the right or left, up or down is supposed to activate different types of thoughts and emotions, different brain hemispheres. All I know is that I really believe that it helps my moods and it's something I can do anywhere in any situation. It's a subtle effect, but I feel that I notice a difference.

Another thing is I use NLP triggers to send myself messages about what I'm trying to do or feel or a change in perception that I'm trying to have.

Also, I try to vary things up, just all kinds of little things in my behavior and my atmosphere. Something as small as what I'm wearing, some little detail in my work space, or whatever, so it's just a little reminder of something symbolic for me or even just something different without any symbolic meaning. It sometimes seems to shake me out of old patterns and help me think and feel in new ways.

Humor too - if I spend some time really laughing it seems to brighten my outlook a little bit for the whole day.

All these things help me a bit, and it all adds up, but of course they are not a cure for serious depression, but they can avert a downward spiral sometimes, for me.