Poke At Your Depression
What Does Depression Have to Do With Bread?
When you’re making bread the old-fashioned way, using yeast, kneading dough, then putting it in a bowl and letting it rise in a warm place… getting bigger is exactly what you want it to do. But if you’re dealing with Depression, the last thing you want to do is let it get bigger and bigger. You do NOT want to let it rise!
How Depression Rises
Laying in bed all day, watching TV, not answering the phone, not reaching out to talk to anyone, not getting out, not doing anything that makes you feel productive, not eating or drinking or thinking anything healthy…these are all ways Depression gets a chance to grow bigger and bigger and bigger. Moving from the bed to the couch counts as a move in the right direction. Eating an apple instead of a Pop-tart counts big time!
You Gotta Poke At It
If you want your Depression to stay somewhat manageable, you have to keep poking at it. Instead of letting it sit and get bigger, you have to do things that prevent it from rising. Now, if you are grieving a loss, you want to do the opposite (within reason)… I’ve written all about giving yourself the time and space to grieve in Stop Kicking the Turtle! Grief and Depression might look and feel the same, but they are entirely different things.
Keep Depression From Rising
Doing things you don’t feel like doing (because you are depressed) that stimulate your brain and body are ways to “poke at” your depression and keep it from rising. Things like going for a walk, making a healthy lunch or dinner, calling up a good friend, getting outside into nature, doing something nice for someone else… these are things you can do to poke, poke, poke at your Depression. Even little pokes count.
Your Depression Will Hate You
Constantly doing things to poke at your Depression is going to really make it mad. It might just get so frustrated with you that it picks up and leaves, just to show you it doesn’t need to keep taking your abuse. It’s going to get really sick and tired of being bugged all the time and never left in peace.
Feel free to tell it not to let the door hit it in the rear end on the way out.
Dr. Anita Sanz, PhD, Psychologist
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