/karen/

Mental Illness and Depression (vii)

Tuesday, 28 November, 2006

Part III: How to help

Okay, let's think practical now.

You

What do you do if you have depression? How do you deal with it? There are a number of things that can help:

• See a professional and get diagnosed: Find out whether you do have depression and what sort of depression you might have. Once you work out if it's something physical or situational, or a little of both, you can work out how to treat it. You may require medication or counselling or both. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) may also be helpful. CBT aims to try and change unhelpful and destructive ways of thinking.
  Don't be afraid to try counsellors, doctors or psychologists because sometimes the first counsellor you see may not be the best person for you. Work through any issues you might have and don't bottle them up.
• Monitor your moods: Keep a mood journal (In your outline there's a link to one produced by the Black Dog Institute that's free). Maybe keep a journal—writing is a good way to process the stuff that's in your head. Enlist other people to feedback to you about your moods.
• Avoid destructive behaviours: Don't become reliant on drugs and alcohol. Don't become emotionally dependent on others. Don't try to forget about your problems by partying hard or being sexually promiscuous like Meredith in Grey's Anatomy.
• Practise good self-care: Exercise, get regular sleep, eat well, look after yourself. Avoid stressful situations if that will help. For example, I find rush hour traffic really stressful so I go to work early and leave early to avoid it. Monitor what you're doing so that you don't get overloaded. Do something nice for yourself sometimes.
  
  Remember that exercise we did at the beginning of the evening? Here's some things from my R&R list:
  
  
  • Sleeping in;
  • Going out for breakfast;
  • Eating popcorn;
  • Knitting—it's good therapy because it's so relaxing!;
  • Reading a good book—I have a list of books that I call “comfort” reads: they're lovely stories that I like returning to time and time again;
  • Watching movies—I also have a list of “comfort” movies that I like to watch when I'm feeling down;
  • Watching television;
  • Walking to interesting places/walking around the city—recently I found all these historical walking tours that you can do around Sydney;
  • Lying on the grass in the sun;
  • Visiting art galleries;
  • Book shopping;
  • Visiting markets—like in Glebe and Paddington;
  • Listening to live music;
  • Dressing up—wearing my favourite hat [put on hat]—it makes me feel happy.
  
  I got you to do the R&R exercise because sometimes, when you're really down, it's hard to think of things that you used to enjoy or that you used to find relaxing.
  
  Keep that list in a safe place. Add to it as time goes on. Try to include a variety of activities—active and passive, ones that cost money and ones that don't. When life gets hard, get the list out again and plan to do some of those things.
  
  Rest and relaxation is one of the ways that we can combat stress. It's not a complete cure; it's a coping mechanism. Don't think that this is total self-indulgence; it's all part of good self-care. (If you want to read a bit more about the subject of self-care, particularly in ministry, I recommend Peter Brain's Going the Distance. [show book])
• Ask for help: Enlist your Christian brothers and sisters to pray for you, read the Bible with you (if you're up for it), encourage you and help you out in practical ways. Ask a handful of people you trust and who know you well to check up on you and look out for you. Be specific about how others can help you—if possible (it might not be possible). For example, if you have little motivation to see your counselor (even though you know it's good for you), ask someone to come with you—drive you there, wait for you and take you home again.
• Turn to God: It's hard to engage in Christian activities when you've got depression. Hopefully your brothers and sisters in Christ will be encouraging you to do so, even when you don't feel like it. Sometimes it's good to force yourself; sometimes it's better to leave it alone. Just continue to have the attitude of utter dependence on God. Rely on him to help you get up in the morning, rely on him to help you survive when you feel really down. I have a list of Bible passages that I like to read when I'm sad—they're in the back of your outline.
  
  On a related note, it's important to get your theology right now. This is one of the reasons why I've spent so long looking at what the Bible says on illness this evening. When you're depressed, it's easy to think things like, “God doesn't love me,” or “I'm not good enough to be saved”. Those things aren't true. But when you're down, it's easy to believe that they are. So while things are going, soak up all the Bible teaching you can get.
  
  Some people think that doctrine is really boring but I think it's the most wonderful and comforting stuff in the world. I remember last year when I was at Bible college, I was feeling really down one day. I went into a Doctrine 1 lecture and heard John Woodhouse preach on the transcendence and immanence of God. It made me happy knowing that the God who is in control of the whole universe—who sets the stars into motion and causes the seas to rise and fall—isn't distant: he's so intimately involved in my life, he knows when a single hair drops from my head. How cool is that!

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