12 Ways to Overcome Depression Without Medication
So, there is two main point to cure your depression. first one is psychological and the second one is physiological.
Psychological-
1. Goals: Find workable goals that give you a sense of accomplishment.
Most people feel guilty when talking about goals because they set unreasonable or unworkable goals. A goal is workable if it’s:
Manageable, Realistic for you (not for someone else), Measurable (i.e., you know whether or not it is done or getting done).
Setting small goals can help you to reduce your depression.
2. Engagement: Stay in the present.
3. Reconnect with your friends-
As you start socializing yourself, and work in a group or actively participating in social event, you will be cure from depression slowly. Because face to face interaction with people cause release oxytocin. Remember O.T is the short form of oxytocin.
Clinical reports suggest Ot
(OT) to be a promising drug for psychiatric diseases such as depression,
anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and autism. It
is also associated with empathy, trust, sexual activity, and
relationship-building. It it sometimes referred to as the “love hormone”.
And love has a greater power to cure depression.
4. Humor- Laughter can help lessen your depression and anxiety and may make you feel happier. Laughter release endorphins and decrease stress hormones among many other benefits.
5. Find your purpose of your life and follow it.
6. Meditation-
Meditation is most beneficial psychological way to fight against depression. "Meditation trains the brain to achieve sustained focus, and to return to that focus when negative thinking, emotions, and physical sensations intrude — which happens a lot when you feel stressed and anxious," says Dr. John W. Denninger.
7. And moreover, stop listening sad songs when you are depressed.
Meditation has been found to change certain brain regions that are specifically linked with depression. For instance, scientists have shown that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) becomes hyperactive in depressed people. The mPFC is often called the "me center" because this is where you process information about yourself, such as worrying about the future and ruminating about the past. When people get stressed about life, the mPFC goes into overdrive.
Another brain region associated with depression is the amygdala, or "fear center." This is the part of the brain responsible for the fight-or-flight response, which triggers the adrenal glands to release the stress hormone cortisol in response to fear and perceived danger.
These two brain regions work off each other to cause depression. The, me center gets worked up reacting to stress and anxiety, and the fear center response leads to a spike in cortisol levels to fight a danger that's only in your mind. Research has found that meditation helps break the connection between these two brain regions.
Now let’s talk on physiological ways-
Physiological ways-
1. Exercise – when we exercise important neurotransmitters, called dopamine, serotonin release. This cause depression when they are at low levels. And these are the same neurotransmitters all those anti-depressants out there are targeting. So, it is better to exercise rather than taking those anti-depressant drugs, moreover those drugs have a lots of side effects.
2. Food –
Recent studies show that foods with the highest antidepressant benefits include oysters and mussels, other seafood, lean organ meats, leafy greens, lettuce, peppers, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower.
Now on the other side, omega-3-fatty acid and omega-6-fatty acids have a great impact as an anti- depressant. These 2 are essential fatty acid, we cannot produce these 2 in our body so, we take it from foods. The ideal ratio of omega-6 and omega-3 in body is 3:1 or close to that.
Omega-6 is a pro-inflammatory, omega-3 is anti-inflammatory, any change in ratio causes inflammation. Inflammation increase heart disease, cancer, allergic reaction. Researcher says that those who are depressed should maintain this ratio, and research result is positive that those who take enough omega-3 fatty acid, they are less depressed and not only that, they have less disease like these ones we just mentioned.
Fish oil is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, which play an important role in brain function. People with depression may have low blood levels of brain chemicals called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). EPA and DHA can be found in fish oil.
3. Sunlight - Numerous studies have found lower levels of vitamin D in people who have depression—and that vitamin D supplementation, either via sunlight or through food or supplements, can reduce rates of depression and improve symptoms.
Research points to vitamin D's role in the regulation of serotonin and calcium for its possible therapeutic impact on depression when vitamin D levels are increased.
It's important to note that the benefit of vitamin D to prevent and treat depression is likely only effective in a person who is deficient in the vitamin to begin with.
A 2020 review found that individuals with the lowest levels of vitamin D were at the greatest risk of depression compared with controls.
Sunlight also help to maintain our normal biological clock. Sunlight is 5 to 10 times brighter than our indoor light and it turns out that our body need sunlight in order to set our circadian rhythms right.
And biological clock helps you to maintain hormone regulation, time for sleep, time to feel energetic, any change in normal biological clock leads us to depression. Imagine if you feel tired all of the day and when night comes you cannot sleep well. These are the common problems that most people with depression have. So, this clock needs to be adjusted.
Researcher suggest that walking in bright sunlight for 10 minutes is enough to be okay.
4. Sleep- Sleep is as important to our health as eating, drinking and breathing. It allows our bodies to repair themselves and our brains to consolidate our memories and process information. Poor sleep is linked to physical problems such as a weakened immune system and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
Fill your day with activities so that you feel tired enough to fall asleep instantly. A teenager should sleep at least 7-8 hours.
5. Anti-Ruminative activity-
Instead of overcoming depression, ruminative thinking leads people to: Feel even more sad, anxious, angry, and depressed. They started think more negatively.
Once you get stuck in a ruminating thought cycle, it can be hard to get out of it. If you do enter a cycle of such thoughts, it’s important to stop them as quickly as possible to prevent them from becoming more intense.
As when a ball is rolling downhill, it’s easier to stop the ruminating thoughts when they first start rolling and have less speed than when they’ve gathered speed over time.
So you can engage yourself into creative things, reading books for distract yourself from anti-ruminating activity.
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