How to Avoid Depression

Our daily life takes place in a continuous interaction with the environment that surrounds us, and as a result of this interaction, events occur that, sometimes, give rise to situations that negatively affect us. If a harmful situation (threatening, dangerous or harmful) persists, or is constantly relived through spontaneous thoughts about it, it can easily destabilize the emotional system and cause our mood to decline.

If this depressed mood lasts over time, its influence on the normal development of our lives will increase and it is very likely that it will end in a major depressive disorder, so it is advisable to take preventive measures. Therefore, in this PsychologyFor article, we emphasize the prevention of depression by explaining how to avoid depression.

Causes of depression

What causes depression? The causes of depression in women and men are the interactions between different factors. One of the risk factors for depression to take into account is the environmental factor, that is, the events that happen to us. Most common causes of depression are situations of loss. Environmental factors can also be

It has been proven that at the root of depressive situations we observe the loss of something important that we had until that moment, or that it has been lost hope of getting something that we do not have and ardently desire and, in extreme cases, the situation leads to one losing oneself, not finding one’s place and function in this world and, finally, not finding meaning in life. This loss or lack of the desired good is the main source from which decay, discouragement and hopelessness feed.

Beck’s well-known cognitive triad, by psychologist Aaron Beck, which relates depression to a negative view of oneself, the world and one’s future, points out the key elements involved in a depressive process: the psychological characteristics of the person and the circumstances that define the relationships with their environmentTherefore, strategies to avoid depression should be built taking both elements as their objectives and aim at eliminating the negative factors that cause the decline in mood.

ymptoms of depression

Depression presents physical and psychological symptoms common to different types of depression. The red alarm light should turn on when we notice some of these symptoms that appear gradually and weakly and that gradually increase in intensity:

• Feelings of sadness, desire to cry, emptiness or hopelessness.
• Outbursts of anger, irritability, or frustration, even over minor matters.
• Loss of interest or pleasure in most or all usual activities, such as sex, hobbies, or sports.
• Insomnia or sleeping too much.
• Tiredness and lack of energy, so even small tasks require greater effort.
• Changes in appetite: lack of appetite and weight loss, or more food cravings and weight gain
• Anxiety, agitation or restlessness.
• Slowness when reasoning, speaking and making body movements.
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixation on previous failures or feeling guilty about situations for which you are not responsible.
• Difficulty thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things.

It is also worth mentioning one of the symptoms of serious depression: suicidal ideation.

Do you have any of the depressive symptoms?

The appearance of any of these symptoms announces that we are in a state pre-depressivea limit state that is characterized by the fact that, despite the distressing feeling that overwhelms us, we still have control of the situation and our thoughts, that we are able to reflect and make decisions freely, since a classic effect of depression is the loss of control of our psychological Self, hence the importance of act in this initial phase to avoid falling into a psychocentrism in which the disturbing event becomes a recurring and obsessive thought that invades our mind and makes us unable to direct our thoughts and actions (as a Chinese proverb points out: “You can’t stop the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can stop them from nesting in it.“).

To find out if you have symptoms of depression, it is advisable to go to a professional and take a reliable depression test. One of the most used depression tests is the Beck depression test.

How to avoid depression

How to prevent depression? How to prevent the first symptoms of depression from increasing? How to combat incipient depression? Once we are aware that we are in a pre-depressive state, we must know the nature of the psychological disturbance that causes it, since by virtue of it the strategy to follow is determined. It is evident that if we do not really know what is happening to us, we will not be able to establish appropriate strategies.

The steps and exercises to avoid depression are the following:

1. Know the cause of depression

What is the origin of the disturbance? The person is intimately linked to his environment through complex relationships (the environment is made up of the people and the physical settings with which we interact, and it delimits who I am, what function I have and what my place is in it), therefore that both form a single reality that we perceive as a harmonious unit, so that the alteration of one necessarily affects the other, this makes it difficult, when faced with a disturbing situation, to determine its origin with certainty: it may be the person, the environment or both together; However, it is important to determine in order to choose the appropriate strategy If it is the environment or am I the cause of it?. In general terms it can occur:

A. A disturbing situation generated by the environment

It occurs in cases in which the family, work or social environment presents some aspect that we consider hostile (in the sense of being contrary to our desires, hopes, expectations, intentions) and/or stressful (conflictive personal relationships, lack of opportunities, etc.). This negative situation can be maintained over time and suffer itlive“, or no longer exist and yet experience the experience of it in our mind through recurring obsessive thoughts (“on a delayed basis“), but in both cases the disturbing experience is the same.

B. An internal perception

It occurs when we perceive discomfort and a feeling of dissatisfaction with ourselves that we cannot attribute to any specific event in the environment. It normally arises when there is a discrepancy between what we perceive of the reality in which our life takes place and what we would like it to be, our expectations, our ideals, our illusions. Two frequent situations are:

• Dissatisfaction with some aspect of myself (physical appearance, character, personality, way of thinking and acting) that results in emotional states of frustration, distrust, insecurity, guilt, shame, loss of self-esteem, perception of incompetence or negative self-esteem.
• Dissatisfaction in my relationships with the environment. It is difficult for me to integrate into it, since it is not consistent with my beliefs, values ​​and model of society; or it lacks exciting and stimulating expectations for me, which makes it difficult or prevents me self realisation. The idea that I am consuming my life without having found a use and meaning in life causes me a deep and intense bitterness.

2. Try to be objective

The second step or exercise to avoid depression is to know the true reality of the situation.find out if the negative reality we perceive of our Self and/or the environment matches the true reality and whether the negative consequences we attribute to it are justified.

It is possible that the negative reality that I perceive as the cause of my depressed mood, whether from myself or my environment, is not authentic and is distorted in some aspect, or that the “toxicity” of the situation is not true. as big as it seems. It is shown that We do not see things as they are, but we see things as we are. Reality is constructed by our mind and the problem is that when we create it we do so according to the information we have, so the more extensive and truthful the information on the matter is, the closer we will get to authentic reality. We must keep in mind that thoughts and feelings help determine the way we experience the world (under the influence of love, hate or anger things are seen differently than they really are).

Therefore, the strategy to find out what the true reality of our situation is will be gather maximum information about what afflicts us, its causes, consequences, attributions, responsibilities, etc. and analyze it objectively, without personal connotations (without cognitive and emotional biases). For this mission, you can use the help of your partner, family, friends, co-workers, professional counselors, who can provide another point of view. It is evident that errors in information processing cause psychological disturbances by altering the reality we perceive and activating our emotional system unduly.

If through ourselves or from this external source we discover that what disturbs us is really an erroneous perception of ours (that what it appeared to be is not; that the consequences we attributed cannot occur; that there was no reason to feel guilty ; that the belief of having made a wrong decision is unfounded; that we have not lost the love of our loved one) the low mood will disappear Automatically, the unpleasant bodily symptoms of depression will cease and we will return to normality and psychological balance.

3. Face reality

If on the contrary, our perception is correct and we are living the authentic reality of the situation, the question to be resolved is whether it admits a change or whether it is impossible. In the first case it would be about trying to change it, in the second it would be about accepting it. One of the inspiring and motivating phrases to face reality is the well-known Serenity Prayer attributed to the theologian and philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr and whose best-known version goes like this:

”Lord, grant me serenity to accept everything that I cannot change,

strength to change what I am capable of changing

and wisdom to understand the difference.”

Change the situation

If the disturbing situation in which we live can be changed, either to revert to the initial state prior to its disturbance or to be partially modified in some aspect, the strategy will be aimed at finding out what aspects of the environment or myself must and can be changed to achieve this reversal.

An action on the environment would be changing residence, house, job, friends, partner, hobbies, etc. However, we must be aware that this is sometimes very difficult or impossible to achieve, since our influence on the environment is limited since there are aspects that are beyond our control, they do not depend exclusively on us, they depend on other factors (such as economic capacity), or on other people (such as having the ideal partner, children, social prestige, the desired job). , etc.).

In some cases, the strategy would be to find a new valid option that replaces the lost good that excites and satisfies us. For example, if one is depressed because he is unemployed, what he wants is to have a job, and when he gets it he very soon recovers his psychological stability and his emotional state.

If the change focuses on us, the mission would be change the way we see ourselves and to our relationships with the environment, in how we think about them and in how we act by virtue of these thoughts. It implies a change in our vital references: in patterns of interpretation and behavior, in the hierarchy of values, purposes, intentions, attitudes, etc.

In any case, as long as the disturbing situation persists, it would be necessary to:

• Avoid environmental factors that influence in it (avoiding “toxic” people or environments), since they act as triggering elements of our emotional affliction.
• Eliminate recurring thoughts that make us relive the disturbing situation in our minds using specific tactics for this (for example, replacing them with neutral or positive ones). In this aspect, it has been proven that through the mind you can act on the body and reduce physiological discomfort (an example is meditation). Likewise, thoughts can be acted upon (through metacognition) to challenge them and remove them from our conscious attention.

Accept reality

If we cannot change the disturbing situation, the strategy will lead us to have to accept the things that we cannot change. How to accept reality? Accepting reality does not mean resigning yourself to it, but give it a new interpretation or a new function to the elements that make up our daily reality (the SETH model of psychological well-being can serve as a guide for this). The acceptance strategy must therefore be accompanied by the creation of an internal reality “overlapping” and compatible with the current reality in which we live, which is stimulating, rewarding and gives meaning to our lives. Since, as noted above, we are the ones who create our reality, it will be our job to design it in those aspects and factors that interest us, using the elements that are at our disposal.

4. Establish tactics to avoid depression

Once the strategy has been chosen, the appropriate tactics must be established to carry it out, which must be subject to our personal characteristics and the circumstances of the environment in which our life takes place (“I am myself and my circumstances”said Ortega y Gasset). We must keep in mind that each one must act in coherence with oneself with their beliefs, circumstances and expectations.

To carry out any tactic it is advisable to create a action protocol with the appropriate instructions that serve as a guide and make us get out of the immobility that depression entails and encourage appropriate behaviors. It is built through the combination of the three factors that direct human behavior:

• Cognitive factor: a reasoning to propose actions to be carried out, evaluate their advantages and disadvantages and choose the most appropriate one.
• Emotional factor: seek well-being.
• Motivational factor: encourage a proactive attitude.

1. Realistic goals

An essential condition for the success of the action protocol is to propose actions whose objectives are possible and be in our hands carry them out, because impossible or unlikely goals lead to nothing, and continuing to pursue an unattainable goal can cause helplessness, despair, anger or fear and open the door to depression if in the end it is not achieved. However, a well-designed and prudent protocol increases the chances of success and anticipates the gratification that awaits us if the objective is achieved, which avoids the inaction and hopelessness typical of depression.

2. Positive attitude

On the other hand, to obtain the expected result, a positive attitude is required, a great effort in self-discipline, tenacity and perseverance since it involves a change in the way we see things and behave that can last a long period of time until we see the expected results (Richard Davidson, doctor in neuropsychology and researcher in affective neuroscience, has shown that mental well-being is nothing more than a set of skills that can be learned and cultivated ). Furthermore, the new guidelines in the way of thinking, valuing and acting that we are trying to establish or strengthen compete directly with the previous ones that we want to modify. It is also very important that the attitude is accompanied by the enthusiasm to achieve the goal proposed, if you don’t do it it will be very difficult to overcome the depression, since the lack of motivation is one of the aspects that characterize the emotional decline.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to How to avoid depression we recommend that you enter our Clinical Psychology category.

Bibliography

• Beck, Aaron (1983). Cognitive therapy for depression. Desclée de Brouwer Publishing House.
• Davidson, Richard (2012). The emotional profile of your brain. Destino Editorial.