If you're depressed right now, you can change that.

Depression is essentially the inability or the refusal to adapt to a certain situation, setting.

Depression is basically an inability or refusal to change your way of thinking or your behavior so that you can better maneuver through your life.

Depression does not define you in any way.

Yes, its okay to feel sad.
No, it is not okay to let that sad feeling define who you are- you are more than your feelings.

If you feel depressed right now, here are some things to do:
(p.s.- don't think these are stupid and don't think they won't work, these all will work if you GENUINELY TRY.)

-When a negative thought pops up about something that is wrong with you or the situation you are in, instead of trying to block it out, think of a positive thought about something you are thankful for that is right with you or your current situation. Don't try to force out the negative thoughts, try to think positive ones instead. If you feel overwhelmed, try saying the positive thought out loud- you can do it so no one will hear you, it will still work.

-If you have extra time, make a list of all the things you like about yourself and the world, write about EVERYTHING you like for 10 minutes, be very genuine and serious. Don't think about anything else except the positive list you're making while doing this. If you have time, do it twice a day.

-Ask the people you care about if there is any way you can help them out. If they say no, ask them if they would like to talk about anything. If they say no, try another person. Use your best judgement on who to call and when. Reach out to people.

-Go outside, leave your phone, laptop or other electronics inside. Just go outside and pay attention to nature and let go of the busy thoughts from your day. Pay attention to your breathing. Pay attention to what you're smelling. Pay attention to what you're seeing. Don't think, just pay attention to whats immediately around you. Be present. Do this for as long as you can, as often as you can, even if it's only 5 minutes.

-Make a very small goal you can achieve by the end of the day, it doesn't matter how small or "dumb" you think it is. This is just for you, make a goal You can do. Do this every day. Make sure you make a small goal and complete it every day. Maybe eventually you will be making bigger goals.

Thank you for reading this post and I hope you take the time to try at least one of these options if you are feeling depressed. They work. The only way they won't work is if You don't work- get it? Thank you and I hope you feel better soon. You will win.

If you take the time to try one of these out, or maybe more than one , please tell me how it went and how you're feeling.

This post is for You.

Bye for now

Thank you for your perspective. You are right, depression does not define who you are. However, there is more to depression than what you have described and I think your phrasing can be somewhat damaging to an already sensitive population. To many, depression is so much more than a refusal/inability to adapt to change or refusal/inability to change the way one thinks. It's a chemical imbalance in the brain. It's biological. It's genetic. It's physiological. The mind did this, not the person. And, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I find the first part of your post to be somewhat accusatory. To imply that it falls on the person suggests blame. So many of us already fault ourselves for being in this darkness. Perhaps, just the ideas of what to do to get us out would have sufficed, rather than your interpretation of what you think depression essentially is.

Dear Shining17,
I appreciate different points of view and the time it took you to post all of your suggestions (and I will try to incorporate some of them into my life). I'm relatively new to PsychCentral myself and have been reading lots of postings. I personally believe depression is extremely complicated. I have no healthcare training. However, I believe there is a genetic component in addition to "the switches" that the environment "turns on" in our genes. I do not discount that we can do things to fight against the depression monster but for some it is not easy. For example, a person who has suffered abuse as a child has an extremely hard time turning of the anxiety and depression that comes over them. Sometimes it was implanted in them at a time before they even had memories because their language skills were not even developed. There brain "remembers" in the parts of their brain where there is sort of less reasoning and is more instinctual. I think it's the same way to some extent with PTSD. Again, I think you share some valid points and hope you keep posting and reading about other people's wide-ranging experiences.
Sincerely, Myst

Shining17, I can understand the different opinions you have, but I don't think depression is simply one's refusal to adapt to a situation. I think that's more specifically an adjustment disorder. I think you're coming from the right place in trying to help some with changing the way you think, but I find that a little offensive the way that was worded

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From what I've found to be {true} from my experience in this world

what people commonly refer to as "chemical imbalances" are essentially negative thought-loops that are in some way negatively affecting their {behavior/perception/life}.

Thoughts lead to actions which lead to life experience.

I want people to know that they have way more control over their experience/mood/depression than they are being led to believe by the majority of "professionals" who are quicker to write a prescription than to have an earnest heart to heart with them.

The complexity of depression stems from the emotional baggage/attachments that we ascribe to it. Beyond our own emotions, and personal narratives we all continually enforce- it is all rather simple. I want to remind people how simple it can be.

If you feel my post was acussatory of callous, its because I wasn't taking your personal feelings and wants into consideration because I wanted you to see beyond them- I wanted you to see the simplicity and I think that's what shocked or made many of you uncomfortable.

I want you all to know how powerful you are and how damaging the labels that we let people ascribe to us are, I want to remind people of their inner power and strength.

If you would genuinely try what I said and move beyond feeling hurt or personally attacked by my words, then I think you could glimpse your inner power.

Thoughts are powerful, they shape our reality-I'm sure many of you have experienced this.

I would be more concise and type more, I'm about to go on at work though.

I appreciate the responses, Im trying to address them all Im at work on a phone though.

I hope some of you who tried these things or read through the post can find something that can help you.

Clearly your experience does not match mine.

Your suggestions are certainly good ideas, and they are good things to incorporate into one's life. However, depression is much more complicated than your understanding. Depression is not simply the result of not acting/thinking in healthy ways.

Maybe for some it would be as easy as changing a thought process. But as kecanoe stated, that is not my experience. I've been dealing with treatment resistant depression for years. Am I simply treatment resistant because I refuse to change my thought process? Because I've tried. I'm still trying. Yes changing your thoughts and creating new neural pathways is part of it, but it's not that simple. I'm sure if it was, then nobody would be depressed. Depression, just as any illness, mental or physical, is complex and there is no simple way to fix it. I think you need to see beyond your own personal beliefs and try to understand that majority of people who have been diagnosed as depressed cannot just change their thoughts and be cured. I don't know if you've had any experiences with depression, I would find it hard to believe you had because anyone who is dealing or has dealt with this would, I think, not view it has such a simple thing.

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Interesting post. My bipolar depressive episodes aren't situational. There have been times where my life was going VERY well and I was in the worst depression of my life. In fact, I was confused by the irony of it, but I get it now. It's cyclical, for me.

I'm sure the original poster has heard enough to know that there's more to depression's cure than "thinking oneself out of it". I personally know that my chemical imbalance, and my brains pattern of dampening my pleasure receptors, are both things I have NO control over. I would give anything to wake up not depressed. Thank you for your thoughts, but please know it comes off as platitudes to those of us who have researched and lived through depression.

I do like your suggestions. Anything that helps snap the whirling thoughts that go through your head during an episode is good. But depression for many is not just sadness. When I'm really bad (like now) there is another component that is very hard to describe... My brain just shuts down! I can feel it in my head. It's not pain like a headache, and it's not just feeling foggy, like from medications, but something is not right... I can't seem to make people understand what it is, but I'm basically paralyzed, non-functional... Like I can't even decide what to eat, what to do... I just know that I need it to STOP!

Okay, here's the thing. I have tried what you have said. And I mean genuinely tried. I've lived with depression for over ten years, so believe me when I say that I've tried it. Thinking positive thoughts, therapy with and without medication, lifestyle changes with diet and exercise, increasing my magnesium, etc. I've tried. There are some of us, that, it's not that simple.

Your post can probably help many on here. But there are also some that it comes across as hurtful. And it's not about feeling personally attacked, or not seeing beyond our own personal feelings. It's this air of false expertise your post brings. Most of us have researched our illnesses well, or just through experience alone know them inside and out. We know what it is and what it isn't. It's different for everyone. It's never simple. It's complex and it's cruel. And if we never face it, never face that label, how can we hope to overcome it?

You want people to have control over their depression? Help them to know it first. To understand what depression is, not just what you think it is. But what it is to them. Because as I said, it's different for everyone.

Depression doesn't have a cure-all, and people who are depressed don't need bootstraps. If these "strategies" work for you, count yourself lucky, and stop being patronizing to those whose bodies or brains are wired differently.

I've been depressed, and have been able through diet/exercise/supplements, to "pull myself out of it", but I have also had depressive episodes where I was in a fog like state for months, and couldn't really say or know what was wrong with me until it passed.

I count myself lucky, that I can notice the signs of the beginnings of deeper/darker depression in myself. That doesn't qualify me to preach to others.

As I stated before the "complexities" of depression are mostly, if not entirely, rooted in peoples emotional {baggage/attachments/narrative} that they've been dragging behind them(dwelling on the past) or placing in front of themselves(dwelling on the future).

It is a matter of will power. If you're upset or bothered by anything I've said, it's because I'm calling attention to your lack of {willpower/commitment}. I'm not saying you didn't try, I'm giving a different perspective to people who've taken the time to read all of this.

There is no way that someone who Truly wants to pull themselves out of depression is going to keep finding themselves in the depths of it. It is impossible. Do or do not.

Why bother replying with {isolated examples/hypothetical scenarios} or complaining about how you didn't try enough/making excuses? What's the point? Do you just want someone to feel sorry for you?

Whenever people say that thoughts are powerful, it is always an understatement.

I know why big pharma makes so much money and grows bigger with every passing year. Its because they're capitalizing on peoples weaknesses- they're capitalizing on the majority of peoples fear of change and their refusal to change. They're just selling people "crutches" and {enabling/romanticizing} their neuroses for the sake of profit.

What I'm saying is not just "thinking yourself out of it" it is "living yourself out of it".

Everything from your thoughts to your actions has to change.
Thinking positive thoughts isn't going to cut it. I'm talking about creating a positive mindset, not just "trying to think positive" for a couple minutes every time an article on the internet reminds you to.
When I say positive, I'm not even saying rainbows and sunshine, I'm saying a mindset that you are {happier/more content with} whatever that means for you personally.

I detest labels and I see so many here are utterly entrenched in them.

If a little girl is ever-so-slightly overweight to the point of it not being noticeable to anyone she meets, and yet someone(maybe a cruel parent, doctor or classmates) has told her she is fat enough times- now she has it in her head that she "is fat". She has a {{complex}} now. Now her thoughts revolve around her "being fat" and inherently her life starts to revolve around her "being fat". Do you think she is optimistic about not being "fat", about losing weight? Or, do you think she has resigned to "being fat"? How easy do you think it will be for her to see past her "fatness" in a decade if she keeps up that way of {thinking/being}?

Please be careful, shining...

I don't know what forum you thought you were posting on, but this one is to SUPPORT people who have depression/anxiety, diagnosed as bipolar etc. You know nothing about the strength and willpower that we have. If all you plan on doing is essentially telling people that their depression is their fault, then go somewhere else. We don't need your arrogance or insights here.

You don't know me. You don't know any of us on here. You do not know our levels of willpower, or what we have or have not done to get ourselves out of that deep, dark pit that is depression. Do you honestly think that the people here want to be here? Do you honestly think that they aren't doing everything they can to get out? When you say 'There is no way that someone who Truly wants to pull themselves out of depression is going to keep finding themselves in the depths of it. It is impossible. Do or do not', this shows lack of understanding and compassion.
You want to encourage people with depression to change by bringing a positive mindset into their lives? How is insinuating that their depression is their fault, claiming they are just making excuses, that they lack willpower/commitment, that the people they seek to help them are just out to make profit, going to do that? How is that supportive, which is the entire premise of this board? It is your wording and your message, that is hindering your cause. I think it needs some work. You do not realize the damage you could be doing with what you are saying.

There is a difference between supporting someone and {babying/coddling} someone.

How is Your depression not Your fault?

Is there someone who is forcing you to feel or think a certain way?

Are people not accountable for their own {actions/thoughts/inner-space}?

How is calling the sky blue arrogant?

Both of your comments have the "you don't know me" sentiment being expressed, which I find that people only utilize once they've been outed to an uncomfortable degree and are using that statement evasively, to deflect, to attempt to obscure a facet of themselves that they are uncomfortable with that has been brought to light.

Yes, people are obviously here because they want to be. They registered to be a user here just like everyone else.

Even people in "bad" living situations are only there because they want to be on some level. Even if they find it very "undesirable" or even "painful", because at a point a persons pain can easily become their pleasure- which is obvious in how some almost gloat about their pain and are so into their own suffering and suffering in general. The news/media knows this, that's why they show the stories they do.

Why do some people get "trapped" in an abusive relationship for so long? Because on some level they {liked/like} it for a time.

Why do some people get trapped in an impoverished environment fo so long? Because on some level they {liked/like} it for a time.

Why do some people get trapped in depression for so long? Because after a while they "like" it, they don't mind it so much anymore, it becomes normal, it becomes pleasurable- even though they may outwardly create the appearance of being "fed up with it", they do more actively to enable their own depression than they do to try to resolve it.

Oh god, please get off this site. You have no idea how much you don't know about depression.

Very well said Penguin. I appreciate the good intentions of the original poster but thinking that you have a universal solution for everyone and framing one's thoughts that way... in ANY situation that is a good way to get your ideas dismissed even if they are good, and in THIS situation, it can actually be hurtful and triggering to people who already think they are to blame for their depression.

Agreed.....

The same thing happens with me - almost a complete brain shutdown, it seems that I have no brain with which to think or move around.

Hi!
You are giving explanations that psychology or psychiatry textbooks give us. I think people get trapped in an abusive relationship for so long coz they love the guy/gal. Some people get trapped in an impoverished environment coz they dont have the means to come out of it. And for getting addicted to depression, even if we mentally try with our willpower to break out of depression, is our willpower strong enough to fight the scientific environment that switches on our genetic switches causing depression?
BTW when I read your first post I never thought you were blaming depressed people like me for our inability to break free from our depression coz we choose to think negatively. I only thought that you were giving a definition of depression.
I have been in depression since childhood, I would like to get help from you.
Thanks.

I cannot reason with someone whose sole purpose appears to be to tell me what I feel, think, and know about a disease that I live with daily. I am not uncomfortable because you assume that your words have brought some sort of feelings to light that I'd rather avoid. Do not try to Psych 101 me. You know what makes me uncomfortable? Your all-or-nothing way of thinking, your presumptive and generalized statements, your arrogance...that makes me uncomfortable. The fact that you don't see it, makes me uncomfortable. You posting about solutions as if they are a cure-all and we are to blame for our illness, that makes me uncomfortable. Your comments about abusive relationships, eating disorders, impoverished environments, as if all those situations are the exactly same, every time, as if you know what it is like for every person that has been there...that makes me uncomfortable. People like you, make me uncomfortable because you set us back. Would you do this to someone with cancer? Would you talk this way to someone with MS?

Dont be so angry please. I guess the guy is simply pulling our leg.BTW why is he not replying any more?

This thread has turned into an argument. I'm going to close it while we discuss what needs to be done with it.