This blog post does not serve as medical advice. If you are experiencing any thoughts of harming yourself or others, call 9-1-1 or the suicide hotline at 800-273-8255.

Remedies for depression are in high demand – you are not alone in your quest. Our state of mental health as individuals and a community has stolen the spotlight, especially since the pandemic. People are experiencing more depression, anxiety and fear – all of which are highly “contagious” because we tend to absorb what’s prominent in our environment. 

Is this you? Or maybe you are struggling to bounce back emotionally from personal trauma. Even if you know you have plenty of reasons to not feel depressed, anxious or fearful, your circumstances can make it difficult to battle depression and other mental health issues.

Defining Depression, Mental Health and Intellectual Health

Depression

According to mayoclinic.com, depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems.

It can involve varying degrees of sadness, despair, and loneliness and is typically accompanied by inactivity, guilt, loss of concentration, social withdrawal, sleep disturbances and sometimes suicidal tendencies (merriam-webster.com).

But we also use the term “depressed” to describe when we feel sad or melancholy. More cases of depression have been linked to long C-vid and are taking a toll on our health. 

If any of these describe how you’ve been feeling consistently for more than 2 weeks, it’s important to seek professional help and the right remedies for depression. Your repeating thoughts form pathways – healthy or not – in your brain, which is why limbic system retraining (neuroplasticity) works. But this is also why the longer your depression goes unaddressed, the more difficult it can be to break the cycle.

Mental Health

Mental health is the condition of being sound mentally and emotionally – without mental illness. It also involves having the ability to adjust and meet the demands of your daily life, feeling comfortable about yourself and feeling positive about others, according to Merriam-Webster.

Intellectual Health

For Emergent Lives, mental health is one piece of your Intellectual Health pillar, or “circle”. But your total intellectual health also encompasses your mindset and learning. Your intellectual health includes finding ways to be creative, being open to new ideas and engaging in mentally stimulating activities for the sake of personal growth and balance. 

Understanding the Impact of Depression

Whether clinically diagnosed or having prolonged feelings of sadness, depression hinders your mental health.

Your mental health impacts your intellectual health which impacts all your other pillars of wellbeing. These pillars as we at Emergent Lives identify them, include your physical, emotional, social, spiritual, financial and professional health as well as your happiness. It goes both ways though and these pillars of wellbeing impact your mental health in return. You cannot separate them and they feed off of one another. 

You’ve probably noticed. If you aren’t being active regularly, you might begin to feel down. When you feel “down” enough, you aren’t motivated to move. If you aren’t maintaining a regular spiritual practice, you can begin to feel down or unlike yourself. If you are under financial stress, you may question your professional status. So goes the interactivity in all of your circles of wellbeing. 

Unfortunately what happens too often is that you get stressed out trying to do all the right things. Then you get stuck doing nothing consistently – or feeling consistently like you’re not doing enough. 

How do you stop this unproductive cycle that feeds depression and poor mental and overall health?

More Reliable Remedies for Depression

You can find all kinds of remedies for depression:

• Pharmaceutical
• Herbal
• Homeopathic
• Supplemental

One or more of these might be helpful for you – especially if you have a clinical condition. But we encourage you to also consider these other more permanent steps or “remedies” for depression that will more directly help improve your other circles of wellbeing.

1 Give your mental health as much importance as your physical health. Just because mental health progress is not always as visible as physical progress, it needs the same or more attention.

2 When you feel like your mental health is suffering, or if your loved ones express concern for you, contact a wellness provider, therapist, life coach or health coach you trust. He or she can help you decide the next best steps. (Reminder, if you are having harmful or suicidal thoughts, call 800-273-8255 or 9-1-1 right now – do not delay.)

3 Choose 1 new habit to care for your mental health and make that a non-negotiable for the next month. Choose something simple enough that you can do it easily but challenging enough that you will notice a difference. For example:

• Write 3 things you’re grateful for and list the items you worked on or finished today each night before going to bed.
• Take a 30-minute walk each morning regardless of the weather.
• If waking up at 5am, go to bed by 10pm each night to get 7 hours of sleep (at minimum).
• Change 1 phrase or word to remove negativity or stress
  • “can’t yet” vs “can’t”
  • eliminate “but”
  • eliminate “I don’t know”
  • “I want to spend my time on other things” vs “I don’t have time”)

If forming and keeping new habits is difficult for you, consider reading or listening to James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. It will help you understand the psychology of habits, what your blocks are and how to make them easier to obtain “1% at a time”.

Your best, most lasting remedies for depression involve addressing your root system of beliefs and thoughts. You can begin by making 1 simple change for now, adding another later and so on. Or you can click here to meet with an Emergent Wellness Steward who will help you choose the best wellness provider or coach for your specific needs.

Your mental and intellectual health are critical to your whole being. Don’t let depression take hold – take action today.