The biggest obstacle to overcoming depression

One of the biggest obstacles to overcoming depression is that when you're depressed you lose the ability to cope, and without the ability to cope it's almost impossible for you to take charge of your treatment and recovery. Just like how depression often leads to difficulty with day-to-day chores such as paying bills, doing housework or cooking, it equally impairs our ability to take control of our health. It's difficult to get the energy, motivation and desire to go to the doctors office, to read books and articles (or blogs!) and to do things that will help such as exercise or eating healthy. Having an advocate such as a friend or family member to help you is certainly the best way to help with this obstacle. Often times though they don't know what to do. If they can help you by taking the time to read on depression, and to help you take the steps that are recommended, this can be a huge help in breaking the depression cycle. Depression isn't that hard to overcome because we don't know how, but because depressed people don't have the ability to take the necessary steps. If you don't feel like you have anyone that can help you with your treatment, than it's good to remind yourself that you must consciously make an effort to take steps towards helping your depression even when you don't want to. When I first started doing positive affirmations and exercising, I hated it. However, I allowed myself to hate it and started off slowly (maybe 5 minutes a day) just doing it anyways. Taking babysteps and allowing yourself to acknowledge your discomfort may make it more palatable.

I'm currently working on a book that is a guide to depression with more simple and succint writing, shorter chapters and less clinical explanations. However, in the meantime I hope that my blog as well as those of many other brave people who are online sharing their experiences can bring comfort and companionship to all of those experiencing depression such as I have.