Sharing – What can you do when you’re flattened by depression? Plan for it

I find this perspective to be intriguing. It sounds a little like some of the things I stumbled into when dealing with depression that worked for me, but I wonder if anyone else has as well?

““Depression takes practice,” says Chicago-based health activist and writer Jessica Gimeno in a TEDxPilsenWomen talk. Wait — that sounds unrealistic and unwise. Depression just happens to a person, and if you’ve ever been seriously depressed, it’s something that you sincerely hope will never happen again, right?

“What I’m saying is that living well with depression takes practice,” clarifies Gimeno. “Being productive every day despite depression takes practice. Being a student or an employee with depression takes practice.””

She advocates for identifying the signs of oncoming depression for you, and making a plan for continuing your life when you see them, things like knocking off a few small tasks to build confidence before trying anything more difficult, immediately doing the things that help you when you’re depressed, (i.e. time with friends, nature, etc.).

Like I said, I don’t know that I ever put together a “plan”, but I did learn how to identify my early warning signs, and what to do when I saw them. That helped tremendously, because it became second nature to start into my own coping and self-care activities.

It is almost like seeing the signs of depression and knowing that it’ll be OK, because we’ve planned for this. There may be something that just that, frankly.

What do you think? What are your plans?

https://ideas.ted.com/what-can-you-do-when-youre-flattened-by-depression-plan-for-it/