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Use limited data to select content. List of Partners vendors. Living With. Depression Guide Depression Guide. Types Symptoms Causes Diagnosis Treatment Living With In Children ADA. By Nancy Schimelpfening, MS is the administrator for the non-profit depression support group Depression Sanctuary.

Learn about our editorial process. Learn more. Medical Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research.

Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates. Medically reviewed by Steven Gans, MD. Learn about our Medical Review Board. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Build a Support Network.

Reduce Your Stress. Improve Your Sleep Hygiene. Improve Your Eating Habits. Learn How to Stop Negative Thoughts. Beat Procrastination. Get a Handle on Your Household Chores. Create a Wellness Toolbox. Next in Depression Guide. Trending Videos. How to Help Someone Who Is Depressed.

Good sleep hygiene could be key to improving the quality and quantity of your sleep. How to Sleep Better. These Foods Can Help Boost Your Mood. Putting things off fuels depression. It can lead to increased guilt, worry, and stress.

What to Add to Your Wellness Toolbox Think of things you like to do when you're happy. Here are some things you might include in your wellness toolbox: Cuddle your pet Listen to your favorite music Take a warm bath Read a book Go for a walk Call a loved one Take yourself out on a date Watch a movie or tv series Grab one of your favorite cozy blankets and relax Write your thoughts down in a journal Try a light therapy lamp.

The Best Depression Resources and Organizations for Support and Treatment. Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

S Soehner AM, Kaplan KA, Harvey AG. Bouwmans ME, Beltz AM, Bos EH, Oldehinkel AJ, Jonge PD, Molenaar PC. The person-specific interplay of melatonin, affect, and fatigue in the context of sleep and depression. Personality and Individual Differences.

This way, you have a list of tangible achievements and not an untouched to-do list. All goals are worthy of recognition, and all successes are worthy of celebration.

When you achieve a goal, do your best to recognize it. The memory of a job well done may be especially powerful against unhelpful self-talk and overgeneralization. If depressive symptoms disrupt your daily routine, a gentle schedule may help you feel in control.

Depression can push you to give in to your fatigue. It may feel more powerful than preferred emotions. It could be playing an instrument, painting, hiking, or biking. Engaging in meaningful activities lifts your mood or energy, which can further motivate you to continue to engage in activities that help with navigating symptoms.

Research shows music can improve your mood and symptoms of depression. It may also strengthen your reception of positive emotions. Music can be especially beneficial when performed in group settings, such as a musical ensemble or band.

Research suggests that walks in nature may improve depressive symptoms in people with clinical depression. Time in natural spaces may improve mood and cognition and lower the risk of mental health disorders. Consider taking a walk at lunch among the trees or spending time in your local park.

Or plan a weekend hike. These activities can help you reconnect with nature and soak in some rays at the same time.

Depression can tempt you to isolate yourself and withdraw from people you love and trust, but face-to-face time can help wash away those tendencies. Try to remind yourself these people care about you. You need the interaction — and they likely do too.

Then, when the feelings lift, write about that too. Research suggests that keeping a journal can be a beneficial add-on method for managing mental health conditions. It can also help you keep track of your symptoms daily and identify their causes. You can make a goal to write for a few minutes each day or week.

Most importantly, what you want to write about is completely up to you. Doing new things can feel rewarding and may improve your overall well-being and strengthen your social relationships.

You can knock out a few birds with one stone — spending time with other people and doing something new — by volunteering and giving your time to someone or something else. You may be used to receiving help from friends, but reaching out and providing help may actually improve your mental health more.

Bonus: People who volunteer experience physical benefits too. This includes a lowered risk of hypertension and improved sleep. When you do something you love, or even when you find a new activity you enjoy, you may be able to benefit your mental health more by taking time to be thankful for it.

Practicing gratitude can have lasting positive effects on your overall mental health. Stress and anxiety can prolong your depression symptoms. Finding relaxation techniques can help you lower stress and invite more joy and balance into your day. These activities can include:.

But what you put into your body can have a real and significant effect on the way you feel. Some people also feel better and have more energy when they avoid sugar, preservatives, and processed foods. Eating a diet rich in lean meats, vegetables, and grains may be a great place to start.

Try to limit stimulants such as caffeine , coffee, and soda and depressants such as alcohol. Substances such as drugs or alcohol can contribute to perpetuating feelings of sadness.

On the other hand, people who live with addiction may experience symptoms of depression. You may want to consider limiting or avoiding the use of alcohol and other substances to help your depressive symptoms.

Sleep disturbances are common with depression. You may not sleep well, or you may sleep too much. Both can make depression symptoms worse. Aim for 8 hours of sleep per night.

Try to get into a healthy sleeping routine. Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day can help you with your daily schedule. Getting the proper amount of sleep may also help you feel more balanced and energized throughout your day.

Suppressing and compartmentalizing your feelings may seem like a strategic way to cope with the difficult symptoms of depression. But this technique is ultimately unhealthy and ineffective.

Notice and name your emotions and try to bring your attention to engaging in activities that are helpful instead of focusing on the emotions. Things can feel overwhelming when your mood is low, and it can be difficult to know how to cope. We have some strategies here to help build better coping skills.

Set yourself small goals and take things one step at a time. See our goal-setting factsheet for more tips. Developing new skills and achieving things can lift your mood. Write a list of things you would like to try and pick one to start with. For example, you could sign up to an online course and learn to speak a language or how to code, or you could go on YouTube and learn how to garden, to play an instrument or how to bake.

For many people, being creative is a way to think through hard feelings and experiences, and many people find this helpful on the path to recovery. For example, you could write stories or music, draw or paint, or play an instrument.

Sleep has a huge effect on our physical and emotional health. Get some tips to help you get into a sleeping routine. When it comes to self-help, strategies for feeling better are very individual — different things work for different people. Remember: it takes time to get better. Doing something for five minutes every day might feel useless at the time, but you could find that a few weeks later, your mood has improved a bit.

Baby steps. Your GP will have suggestions for alternative things you can try to help manage your depression from day to day, and will be able to assess what to do next. Check out support options for depression here.

These include some apps you can use to help with symptoms of depression. Read about treatments for depression. Get personalised support options for depression with the ReachOut NextStep tool.

Depression Self-help for depression Self-help for depression.

Practice relaxation techniques. A daily relaxation practice can help relieve symptoms of depression, reduce stress, and boost feelings of joy and well-being. Try yoga, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or meditation.

Practice gratitude. It sounds simplistic, but taking a few moments to consciously note the things you appreciate in your life can have a notable impact on your stress levels and mood. Even being grateful for the sun shining or a smile from a neighbor can help you keep things in perspective.

Come up with a list of things that you can do for a quick mood boost. Try and implement a few of these ideas each day, even if you're feeling good. For more ideas on tools to give your mood a quick, effective boost, read: I Feel Depressed: 9 Ways to Deal with Depression.

When you're depressed, just getting out of bed can seem like a daunting task, let alone working out! But exercise is a powerful depression fighter —and one of the most important tools in your recovery arsenal. Research shows that regular exercise can be as effective as medication for relieving depression symptoms.

It also helps prevent relapse once you're well. To get the most benefit, aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise per day. This doesn't have to be all at once—and it's okay to start small. A minute walk can improve your mood for two hours. Your fatigue will improve if you stick with it.

Starting to exercise can be difficult when you're depressed and feeling exhausted. But research shows that your energy levels will improve if you keep with it. Exercise will help you to feel energized and less fatigued, not more.

Find exercises that are continuous and rhythmic. The most benefits for depression come from rhythmic exercise —such as walking, weight training, swimming, martial arts, or dancing—where you move both your arms and legs. Add a mindfulness element, especially if your depression is rooted in unresolved trauma or fed by obsessive, negative thoughts.

Focus on how your body feels as you move—such as the sensation of your feet hitting the ground, or the feeling of the wind on your skin, or the rhythm of your breathing. Pair up with an exercise partner. Not only does working out with others enable you to spend time socializing, it can also help to keep you motivated.

Try joining a running club, taking a water aerobics or dance class, seeking out tennis partners, or enrolling in a soccer or volleyball league. Take a dog for a walk. If you don't own a dog , you can volunteer to walk homeless dogs for an animal shelter or rescue group.

You'll not only be helping yourself but also be helping to socialize and exercise the dogs, making them more adoptable. Sunlight can help boost serotonin levels and improve your mood. Whenever possible, get outside during daylight hours and expose yourself to the sun for at least 15 minutes a day.

Remove sunglasses but never stare directly at the sun and use sunscreen as needed. For some people, the reduced daylight hours of winter lead to a form of depression known as seasonal affective disorder SAD.

SAD can make you feel like a completely different person to who you are in the summer: hopeless, sad, tense, or stressed, with no interest in friends or activities you normally love. No matter how hopeless you feel, though, there are plenty of things you can do to keep your mood stable throughout the year.

Do you feel like you're powerless or weak? That bad things happen and there's not much you can do about it? That your situation is hopeless? Depression puts a negative spin on everything, including the way you see yourself and your expectations for the future.

When these types of thoughts overwhelm you, it's important to remember that this is a symptom of your depression and these irrational, pessimistic attitudes—known as cognitive distortions —aren't realistic. When you really examine them they don't hold up. But even so, they can be tough to give up.

Rather, the trick is to identify the type of negative thoughts that are fueling your depression, and replace them with a more balanced way of thinking.

Once you identify the destructive thoughts patterns that contribute to your depression, you can start to challenge them. For example, if your significant other was short with you, you may have automatically assumed that the relationship was in trouble.

However, a more realistic way to view it might be that your partner was just having a bad day. Examine the evidence that your thoughts are true. When challenging your negative thoughts, ask yourself if there is any evidence that your thoughts or beliefs are not true?

Is there another, more realistic way of looking at your situation? Think outside yourself. Think about less harsh statements that offer more realistic descriptions.

What would you tell a friend who had the same thought? Allow yourself to be less than perfect. Many depressed people are perfectionists, holding themselves to impossibly high standards and then beating themselves up when they fail to meet them. Battle this source of self-imposed stress by challenging your negative ways of thinking.

We all have bad days and life is often unexpectedly messy. Socialize with positive people. Notice how people who always look on the bright side deal with challenges, even minor ones, like not being able to find a parking space. Then consider how you would react in the same situation.

Even if you have to pretend, try to adopt their optimism and persistence in the face of difficulty. As you cross-examine your negative thoughts, you may be surprised at how quickly they crumble.

In the process, you'll develop a more balanced perspective and help to relieve your depression. What you eat has a direct impact on the way you feel. Aim for a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, and reduce your intake of food that can adversely affect your mood.

This includes caffeine, alcohol , and processed food with high levels of chemical preservatives or hormones found in some packaged food and cured meats. Don't skip meals. Going too long between meals can make you feel irritable and tired, so aim to eat something at least every three to four hours.

If you're wondering how to deal with depression, there are simple things you can do on your own. you want some additional tools to help improve your mood.

In addition to seeking help from someone you trust or a mental health professional, there are other ways to self help for depression. Writing down your thoughts is a good way to identify those that are making you feel down and depressed.

Learn more about CBT and other types of therapy that can help with depression. Sometimes, drugs and alcohol make us feel worse straight away; other times, they might make us feel better initially but later can bring our mood down even lower over time.

Get some tips on how you can reduce your alcohol or drug usage. Exercise and depression are a great mix! Exercise can make a difference to your energy levels and help stimulate hormones such as endorphins that help you to feel better about yourself.

Make a realistic goal to increase your level of activity. After that, you could start thinking bigger: set a goal of walking down the street or doing five minutes of yoga at home. Starting small will help make it more manageable and keep your expectations realistic.

Even so, each day, try to make yourself do one thing you used to enjoy doing, to give yourself a sense of achievement. The activity could be super-simple, such as reading five pages of a book, dancing to a song you like, watching a documentary or spending five minutes drawing.

Try to reconnect with friends. Getting outdoors can be a great way to approach self-help for depression. When you interact with nature, including pets, plants, gardens and parks, it reduces stress and boosts your mood.

Sunlight also helps to regulate your mood. Try standing for a few minutes outside in the fresh air, or if you can manage it, go for a walk around the block.

If you like spending time outside, you could even try spending an hour a day at your local park reading, drawing or writing. But the truth is, a healthy diet just means eating food which is convenient, comfortable, and gives you all the nutrients you need.

Even small acts of self-care in your daily life can have a big impact. Self-care looks different for everyone, and it is important to find what you need and enjoy. It may take trial and error to discover what works best for you.

In addition, although self-care is not a cure for mental illnesses, understanding what causes or triggers your mild symptoms and what coping techniques work for you can help manage your mental health. For other ideas for healthy practices for your mind, body, surroundings, and relationships, see the National Institutes of Health NIH Wellness Toolkits.

Seek professional help if you are experiencing severe or distressing symptoms that have lasted 2 weeks or more, such as:.

Talk about your concerns with your primary care provider, who can refer you to a mental health professional if needed. This service is confidential, free, and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In life-threatening situations, call GREAT: Helpful Practices to Manage Stress and Anxiety: Learn about helpful practices to manage stress and anxiety. GREAT was developed by Dr. Krystal Lewis, a licensed clinical psychologist at NIMH. Getting to Know Your Brain: Dealing with Stress: Test your knowledge about stress and the brain.

Guided Visualization: Dealing with Stress: Learn how the brain handles stress and practice a guided visualization activity. Mental Health Minute: Stress and Anxiety in Adolescents: Got 60 seconds?

Take a mental health minute to learn about stress and anxiety in adolescents. Note: This list of non-federal resources is provided for informational purposes only. It is not comprehensive and does not constitute an endorsement by NIMH, NIH, the U.

Department of Health and Human Services, or the U.