5 Natural Remedies to Beat the Blues and Feel Better Fast
Depression can be an incredibly frustrating struggle for you to deal with, and it’s incredibly important to make sure that you are able to get the help that you need in order to deal with your problems.
While many people decide that they will need medication, others find the relief that they need by using natural remedies. In this article, we’re going to explore what depression is and help you determine what your best course of action may be when it comes to dealing with your symptoms.
What Is Depression?
Being depressed can make you feel like you’re helpless, but you don’t have to be helpless at all. You may have difficulty getting up in the morning or feel like you don’t have enough energy to get through your daily tasks.
You may have trouble sleeping, or you may end up fighting off anxiety and other mental health disorders as a result of your depression. You may feel hopeless, and, in the worst cases, you may end up fighting off suicidal thoughts and feelings.
There are a number of disorders that fall under the category of depression, including seasonal affective disorder, clinical depression, and major depressive disorder (MDD).
Your depression can come in a number of forms and can have a lot of symptoms associated with it, and honestly, it may be hard to determine whether or not your depression is a chronic problem.
Some days may feel better than others, and it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what is going on in your mind and body.
Self-diagnosis can only go so far, so you must seek a professional opinion before you start any treatment plan, including the ones we are outlining here. Always get diagnosed by a doctor to ensure that your symptoms match your diagnosis.
Why Go Natural?
Natural remedies are a major way to deal with your depression, and you want to look at them first because of how much better they are for your body and how few addictive qualities are related to natural remedies.
You can do a number of things, and in this article, we’ll give you some ideas that you can utilize to make it easier for you to function and work while you’re going through your daily life.
Therapy, medication, and various other treatments can greatly affect your overall health. So, let’s take a good look at everything that you can do naturally that will help alleviate the symptoms and problems that you may be dealing with as you’re dealing with your depression.
Natural Remedies to Try
Change Your Diet
Your diet has a huge impact on how you feel on a regular basis. If you are not eating a healthy, “happy” diet, you may start to notice that your depression symptoms are much worse than they were beforehand. There are many different things that you can add to your diet and a number of things that you can get rid of to make it much more balanced.
Try to eat foods that help your serotonin to get a bit of a burst. For example, you can eat foods that are full of these enhancers, including foods full of Omega-3s (fish, etc.) and good fats. You can also add flaxseed, eggs, and sour (not sweet) cherries to your diet. Those bursts can help keep you going and make you feel better.
The various B vitamins can play a significant role in how you are feeling. As you likely know, B vitamins help various parts of your body, but if the body isn’t getting the nutrients you need, your mind isn’t working as well as it can either.
Get more B vitamins in your diet (specifically vitamin B-12, which plays a huge role in making the chemicals that affect your mood). Foods like Swiss cheese, Fish, Shellfish, Bell peppers, turkey, and spinach can help to increase your vitamin B-12.
Processed foods make a noticeable difference when you’re trying to fend off mood problems. There are a lot of processed foods out there that people end up eating on a regular basis, which makes you feel like you are tired and sluggish. Those bad fats can hurt your mood and make you a lot more tired than you would have been otherwise.
Relax More
Relaxation techniques are an important part of dealing with depression. The reason that you feel exhausted on a regular basis is that you aren’t getting a good, restful sleep at night.
Sometimes, you add additional stress to your schedule and routine just by existing. And, as you likely know, anxiety usually goes hand in hand with certain depressive disorders, and so relaxing can help to reduce those symptoms as well. It can be hard, but you want to relax some more.
Meditation is a huge help for those who have depression because it allows you to clear your mind and feel better about going through your day. And as mentioned above, you will find that meditation helps with anxiety as well.
You have to figure out meditation for yourself and find what works. You may find that you can only sit there for a few minutes, but those few minutes can make a huge difference in your work and your life.
It helps you to refocus and get through your day a lot more effectively than you would have otherwise.
Going to bed on a regular schedule can also play a significant role when you’re trying to deal with your depression symptoms. You want to try your best to go to bed at the same time on a daily basis and wake up around the same time as well.
Have a bedtime routine that you get into as well – turn everything off well before you go to bed, and then relax for a half hour or so before you decide to go to sleep. Getting into a pattern may take some time, but it makes a huge difference in your energy throughout the day.
Get Exercising!
Exercise is an absolutely vital part of your mood. If you aren’t getting out there and getting what you need to thrive, then you won’t feel very good. There are a few reasons for this.
First, exercise helps to release endorphins in the brain. That means you are getting plenty of the hormones you need to keep your mood up and keep you going.
Those hormones play a huge difference in the amount of happiness that you feel on a regular basis, and if you’re getting more of them, then you’re going to have a lot more energy, and you can keep the depression at bay for a longer period of time.
In short, those endorphins play a huge role in how you feel, and you should be doing what you can in order to keep them pumping.
Another important part of exercise is that it can be very social. If you go to the gym, or even if you’re just walking your dog, you’re getting out and around people. That can be hard if you feel depressed, so it can act like an incredibly natural way for you to deal with your depressing feelings.
Push yourself out the door and get some exercise. You can even find time to walk with friends or family members—that can make the social end of everything go even better.
Lastly, exercise helps your body to stay fit and healthy. If you are overweight or you are struggling with your weight, then you’re going to be a lot more likely to feel depressed. Why?
Because your self-esteem will take a major hit, that will make it difficult for you to try and do anything. So, in short, it is all part of a large cycle – if you don’t take care of your body, your mind isn’t going to feel that great for the majority of the time, either.
That will add to your stress and make it harder for you to fight off those feelings that come when you’re having a depressive episode. Exercise alone definitely isn’t going to fix it, but it will at least help you to get your groove back and help you stay fit as well.
So, if you aren’t getting enough exercise now, think about adding a little more. The best way to do it is to just walk for 15 minutes or so a day—that will help you feel great and get those endorphins ready to roll.
Get More Light
Did you know that light can play a significant role in your mood? Many people suffer from something that is known as seasonal affective disorder, which is a form of depression that comes along when the amount of light that we get during the day changes.
In short, it’s those “winter blues” that many of us end up hearing about so often. So, because the light isn’t as present, we aren’t feeling so great – and that can be incredibly frustrating, and it can make it difficult for us to do our activities of daily living.
Where does light come into all of this? Well, light has many things that can help us out. The sun gives us Vitamin D, which is important for many bodily and emotional reasons. It can also help with energy and other important things that we need to get through our day.
If we aren’t getting enough vitamin D, we can feel sluggish, making it difficult for us to do what we need to do to thrive.
Another reason light is vital is that it helps regulate our sleep cycles. Sleep is incredibly important for mental health, and if we aren’t getting enough (or we’re getting too much), we’re likely to have problems with our mood. So, instead, it’s better that we get more light so that our sleep cycle goes back into the order that it should be.
There are many different types of light therapy that we can utilize. Sometimes, especially during the summer months, we have the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the sun’s rays directly.
That being said, we don’t have those same opportunities during the winter months. So, light boxes have been developed for use by those suffering from a lack of sunlight.
These boxes can be placed on a desk, and they focus a special type of light right into the eyes of the person who is using them. This helps to encourage the same things that the sun encourages, thus helping to lift the mood.
You can talk to your doctor about light therapy to see what course of action they recommend and whether you should try something to deal with the issue at hand.
Try to Continue Moving Forward With Life
One of the biggest issues that a lot of people deal with when they fight off depression is that they don’t have the energy to get through their day. But, one of the best things you can do is make sure that you are moving forward with what you want to do daily.
Here are a few suggestions that you can try to keep your energy up and keep your life moving forward.
Make goals for each day or goals that you want to hit in the future. Sometimes, depression can make you feel hopeless, and you may feel like you can’t accomplish much of anything that you want to do. That being said, be reasonable with the goals that you’re putting together.
Don’t set huge goals that you may not be able to reach—that will just make things worse. Setting small, easier-to-achieve goals will help reduce stress.
Take walks and get outside on a regular basis. As we mentioned above, exercise is a huge part of feeling better when you’re dealing with depression, and the fresh air can help to clear your mind and make you feel better when you’re out and about.
You will get some energy even if it’s just a 5- or 10-minute walk around the block. As we discussed above, exercise has many benefits that can help with your symptoms as well.
Do one major thing on a daily basis. A “major thing” can be anything from what we mentioned above to doing the dishes or anything else that takes a lot of energy. You define what your “major thing” is, and you set those goals. As we said above, goals need to be reasonable so that you don’t stress yourself out.
You may not always be able to do these things, which is okay. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t. It can be hard to push yourself to do certain things, but it’s worth the time and energy you may put into it. If you have to rest for a day or two, it’s alright, but try to do something each and every day.
Conclusion
Depression can be an incredibly difficult disorder to deal with, and because of that, it’s important to learn how to deal with your symptoms appropriately.
The more time you spend listening to your body and effectively fending off symptoms, the better off you will be.
It’s always better to seek out natural treatment first—even though some people still need some sort of medication supplement as part of their treatment plan, that doesn’t mean that everyone does, so it’s at least worth a try to figure the whole thing out.
So, as you can see, there are a lot of different things that you can do in order to make sure that your depression is doing better. Before you make any changes in your diet, medication, or treatment, make sure that you talk to a doctor and let them know about what your intentions are.
They are there to help you manage your treatment plan, keep track of everything that is going on, and give you other recommendations that you can use.
References:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/expert-answers/natural-remedies-for-depression/faq-20058026
http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/natural-treatments
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/owning-pink/201103/11-natural-treatments-depression-md-s-tips-skipping-the-prozac
