Fruit is a pretty big deal!

According to a July 22, 2024 article in the online site Science Daily -- Your source for the latest research news -- fruit is a key tool for warding off depression later in life. 

Now, I'm already kind of "later in life," and my fruit consumption has been inconsistent, to say the least. But today I had a banana and a peach, and most weekdays I start with a fruit smoothie that's about 3 servings, so I feel pretty good about today. The past? Not so much. But, hey, I'm only 63 and plan to live to 100 so let's call this the beginning of "later in life," shall we?

And the study, linked below, states "These findings suggest that promoting fruit consumption for individuals in mid adulthood, typically defined as ages 40 to 65 years, could yield long-term benefits for their mental well-being at late adulthood beyond 65 years." So maybe I'm right on time!

Frankly, a key point about depression is that yesterday doesn't matter nearly as much as today. So here is a link to this truly great article, which offers a valuable tool against depression: 

Source: National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Summary: In a large Singapore cohort study involving over 13,000 participants spanning close to 20 years, higher consumption of fruits during midlife was found to be associated with lower odd of depressive symptoms at late-life.

I'm back from my unintended break from this blog!

See, I have some brain damage that causes me to get confused a lot, and coincidentally this blog's platform changed to one I'm not as familiar with at the same time that I decided to make some changes. So from early this year to today I've been unable to cope with trying to get the blog updated, and the url was pointing to nothing for several months.

I THINK the problems are resolved, and I intend to update with new tips for Coping With Depression every day or so. 

I also just went back into therapy, because it was time. We all need help once in a while.

Get Help!

There's a stigma against taking medication for depression. Snap out of it!

Check out THIS great article on overcoming that stigma.

No one has to feel ashamed of doing what makes them well.

You don't have to stop yourself from feeling sad sometimes. Sad is good. A full range of emotions is healthy. Bereft, melancholy, miserable, grief-stricken – these are all important feelings. Feel them.

Depression is not sadness, it's misery unrelated to your situation, or often a lack of feeling, altogether.

If you feel you're sad all the time, or over a long period of time, or if feeling down is interfering with living your life (going to work or school, grocery shopping, paying your bills) – that's when it's time to seek help.

It's Not About You

Try not to take everything personally.

When friends, family or co-workers cancel plans with you, you could get upset and take it personally. The truth is things often have nothing to do with you.

People get sick, or need family or alone time, or have to work. Whatever. People have their own full lives and – sorry – you probably aren't the focus of them a lot of the time.

Or they may be suffering from depression, as well, and sometimes need to flake out whether they really want to or not.

You're probably quick to assume that the positive stuff isn't about you. Best to figure the negative stuff isn't about you, either.

"I can't be a pessimist, because I'm alive. To be a pessimist means that you have agreed that human life is an academic matter. So, I'm forced to be an optimist. I'm forced to believe that we can survive whatever we must survive."

- James Baldwin

Don't Forget...

Did you take your pills?

It's so easy to forget medication, especially as depression saps your will to do anything, your ability to care about self-care, and your memory.

Daily alarms on your phone, sorting your pills into daily units and putting the pillboxes on your bathroom counter, post-its on the bathroom mirror, phone apps...

Find a way to stay consistent. It's key to monitoring and maximizing the effectiveness of meds.

Bipolar Disorder

THIS extremely informative slideshow on healthcentral.com answers a lot of questions about bipolar disorder in clear, simple terms:

Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder.
Bipolar disorder always includes mania.
Unipolar depression is not bipolar disorder.
Borderline personality disorder is not bipolar disorder.
Narcissistic personality disorder is not bipolar disorder.
Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder, not a mood disorder.
Dissociative identity disorder is not bipolar disorder.

When you're depressed you may constantly remind yourself of everything negative you do and everything negative that happens around you. It's a lousy habit, but a persistent one.

It seems only fair, then, to acknowledge the positive things that happen, too.

Make a list.

Did you stick to your diet today? Run errands? Clean out your emails? Spend quality time with family? Do the dishes? Refill your prescriptions? Do your online banking? Take much needed time to do nothing?

Then today was a good day!

A Blast from the Not-So-Distant Past

Remember COVID? Even as life goes on, many people are still suffering from Long COVID -- which can be hell -- or experiencing it all over again. I hope if you are getting it again your vaccines and/or prior bout(s) are making this time less disruptive and awful.

When we were in the thick of it, the whole world changed... and we demonstrated one amazing aspect of being human. Resilience!

Here's my post from February 16, 2021. It seems a lifetime ago...

"Quarantine to protect you and your loved ones from COVID-19 is a fact of life for many of us. For those with underlying medical conditions it could be a factor for a long time even as most of society opens up.

"If you're quarantined with family, ease the isolation by having meals together at least once or twice a week. If you're kept away from family, use social media and on-line chat sites like Zoom to connect, or game sites like pogo.com to enter game rooms with friends.

"Take walks and talk to people you meet from a safe distance of 6 feet or more. Many events and celebrations involve drive-through get-togethers or gatherings in parks – at that safe distance.

"Humans are social animals, and finding a way to stay social can prevent or ease depression."

Sometimes your day is extraordinarily stressful for no apparent reason. Sometimes you just want to cry.

Even having dinner with friends can be hard.

If you have a dinner out during a particularly stressful time, try to eat healthy and not have a sugary dessert. Wait – Yoda would say there is no try. So definitely have a healthy dinner and skip dessert!

(Or have dessert – just don't feel guilty!)

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

Get Help!

So, why are you avoiding psychotherapy? I know I have often done so.

HERE are "5 Reasons People Avoid Mental Health Treatment" from Jamie Wiebe on the website talkspace.com.

Facing Scary Feelings Is (You Guessed It) Scary

Therapy Can Take a Long Time…Will It Even Work?

The Shame Can Be Consuming

“My Friend Had a Bad Experience, So I Will, Too”

“I’m Not Crazy…Right?"

One Day at a Time

Take a page from the AA Big Book and focus on what you can do today.

It's so easy to fall short on long term goals, and probably fine to do so, as our needs and desires change.

Don't set yourself up for failure – set yourself up for success! What will you do today? Be realistic.

“Today I will get out of bed and have one healthy meal” may be what you know you can do. That's fine. Focus on short-term goals.

Just for today.

One element of coping with depression is getting the proper nutrition, and one way to eat well is to cut out the crap you know is not good for you.

Potato chips are a common culprit. You can eat a snack-size bag (or two) every day, telling yourself that if they're "sun chips" or baked or low-salt, they're okay.

Fine, anything is okay once in a while.

If you are what you eat, don't be junk. Don't be fried. Don't have unpronounceable ingredients.

Depression Lies

THIS is one of the best articles you'll read on depression.

7 Big, Stupid, Destructive Lies Depression Tells You. It begins with “Depression is a beast. It's an illness so insidious that sometimes you don't realize the scope of its life-threatening power until you're drowning under its waves.”

You will recognize some of these lies. Such as “You're not trying hard enough.” You may tell yourself these lies all the time, and not even realize it's the depression talking!

What others think about you does not have to be your reality.

Try to remember that the faith or lack thereof that people place in you is a reflection of their experience, beliefs and thoughts, not a reflection of reality.

Take a break...

Nature calms anxiety.

HERE is a live webcam of a nesting hummingbird. Take a break and watch for a while!

Scroll down the webcam page for links to other webcams – Hawaii, Alaska and more.

Even in the depths of depression, sometimes you have a great day. A content few hours. A joyful moment.

Sieze them! Clap along.

FlyLady

If just the words “de-clutter and get organized” fill you with anxiety, relax! There is help you can take in baby steps.

Flylady has a simple, step-by-step, little-by-little system to get you organized! No, really. It works. And it's free!

Give it a try. Take your first baby steps by checking out flylady.

And, if it just stresses you out more, then don't do it! See how this works?

Gurdeep Pandher Wins the Internet with Kindness

I recently discovered Gurdeep Pandher, who became an Internet sensation by dancing. Just gleeful jumping and free flow dancing in a traditional costume in the snow of the Canadian North. Offbeat is the way to get views!

His joy and his philosophy are inspiring. Below is a recent post from his Substack, with this title:

"When the Weather is Cold, Kindness Becomes Even More Crucial: Kindness does not just bring warmth and light into the lives of others, but it also heals many hearts, mending wounds and fostering a sense of peace, unity and care."

Kindness and dancing with abandon sound like a great prescription for battling depression.

Read his post HERE. 

Get Help!

If you are depressed, have been chronically depressed, or are in a crisis of depression and suicidal thoughts – please, get help.

You deserve to feel better. You deserve to get your life back on track. And you can and you will. You may just need some help from someone experienced in helping.

So, talk to your doctor or your spiritual advisor, minister or rabbi. Talk to a guidance counselor or teacher or trusted friend. Talk to someone and ask how to get the help you need. And then get it.

You deserve it.

Anti-inflammatory Foods

“Severe mental illnesses (SMI), including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, are associated with increased inflammation. Given diet’s role in modulating inflammatory processes, excessive calorie-dense, nutrient-deficient processed food intake may contribute toward the heightened inflammation observed in SMI.” (Frontiers in Psychiatry, May 15, 2019)

Anti-inflammatory foods include:

• salmon
• tuna
• flax seeds
• tart cherries
• oranges
• strawberries
• curry
• edamame
• green tea
• whole grains
• tomatoes
• olive oil
• blueberries
• green, leafy vegetables
• nuts

One Simple (but Pesky) Change

Do you have hundreds of unread emails haunting you but can't delete them because “what if one of them is important?”

Delete them. If you miss something important, you'll find out sooner or later. And you are much more likely to miss important things if your inbox is perpetually full.

After that liberating act, check your email and clean up your inbox(es) daily. Don't read everything. If it's not important, delete it.

If you've signed up for way too many email lists, unsubscribe as they pop up.

You'll feel so much lighter, so much more together and on top of things. You are so virtuous and organized!

Turn Off the News

Turn off the news.

That's it. Simple. I allow myself one hour of TV news a day, but rarely even do that.

Go to youtube and watch one or two short segments of a network you trust.

Read the paper.

Follow people on Substack and other platforms that compile articles and essays by author, and read only those.

Television and radio news are designed to agitate you. Turn them off.

Depression Lies

Do you get depressed because you think your life will never get better and there is no way to make changes and you will always be underemployed and in debt and broke and unlovable and pathetic?

PLEASE NOTE: 

You think these things because you're depressed.

They are not true.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

"King realized that to solve the problems of human life, especially the deepest problems - like racism, poverty, and war - we have to become, in a sense, abnormal. We have to stop going along; we have to stop accepting what everyone else believes. We have to become maladjusted if we are at all to become creative...

"King knew what it meant to be maladjusted, psychologically, because he was not normal, psychiatrically. He had multiple periods of severe depression, and twice made suicide attempts as a child. Near the end of his life, some of his staff tried to get him into psychiatric treatment, but he refused." 

Read the whole article from Psychology Today HERE.

Get Help!

In an online article (since deleted) I once read “10 Excuses for Avoiding Psychotherapy”. 

The first was a doozy: “If I go into therapy it means I'm a loser and I'm weak and can't stand on my own feet. It's better to work on myself without a crutch so that I keep strong.”

There is actually not a smidgen of truth to that. 

Just like you would do if your car needed fixed, or your heart needed surgery, or you needed legal assistance -- get professional help. You deserve to feel better.

The Rock on Depression

Depression is not a weakness.

CLICK HERE to watch this a short, surprising and inspirational video featuring Dwayne Johnson opening up about one serious bout of depression in his life.

Just Breathe

There is so much going on in the world – wars, major earthquakes, political unrest... For years now things have been vibrating at an extraordinarily high frequency and keeping many of us agitated. 

It's crucial to regularly still your mind, even for short intervals. But it's difficult when you're on the computer at work and in your “down” time. So much information and stimulation constantly. Just breathing is wonderful!

Simple breathing exercises will do. Breathe deeply. Hold that for a few seconds. Release.

Calm your thoughts.

Repeat for a few minutes.

Psych Central

For over 25 years PsychCentral has been a trove of information. It's a great website!

Here's a short article from 2016: 12 Ways to Shut Off Your Brain Before Bedtime.

Simple but proven tips like to turn off all of your screens 2 hours before bedtime. If only...

A Holistic Approach

“After years of experience dealing with anxiety, low-self esteem, an unfulfilling life path, I realized that my mental wellness was so much more than mental health.

“A large portion of mental health is overcoming negative thinking patterns, practicing mindfulness, and going to therapy and taking medication if you need it.

“BUT it's also about taking care of your physical health, your dreams, nurturing your spirit, realizing your confidence and power, and so much more!

“That's why we also focus on personal development as part of a holistic approach to managing your anxiety.”

     - the Mindaya blog

Self-Hatred Perspective

“‘What do you think about self-hatred?’ I asked when it was my turn to bring up an issue for discussion. I was eager to get directly to the suffering I had seen so often in my students, a suffering I was familiar with myself. The room went quiet as all of us awaited the answer of the Dalai Lama, revered leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Looking startled, he turned to his translator and asked pointedly in Tibetan again and again for an explanation. Finally, turning back to me, the Dalai Lama tilted his head, his eyes narrowed in confusion. ‘Self-hatred?’ he repeated in English. ‘What is that?’”

        - Sharon Salzberg

CLICK HERE for full a list of Sharon Salzberg's philosophical influences.

The Winter Blues?

Per the Mayo Clinic:

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — seasonal affective disorder (SAD) begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. These symptoms often resolve during the spring and summer months. Less often, SAD causes depression in the spring or early summer and resolves during the fall or winter months.

Treatment for SAD may include light therapy (phototherapy), psychotherapy and medications.

Don't brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the "winter blues" or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.

Click HERE for detailed Mayo Clinic information on symptoms, causes, prevention and more.

Depression Defined

What is depression?

“Almost everyone feels down from time to time... Clinical depression is different.”

CLICK HERE to watch a short TED Talk video breaking down what depression is.

Get Help!

Get help.

If you just can't shake your depression and it's impacting your life, like causing you to miss work or avoid time with your family, get help!

But you've tried that before and it didn't work? Or you don't need help. Or you're afraid people will judge you. Or…

Drop the excuses and do this for you. Just for you. Get help.

The Love of Money is the Root of All Evil

I'm not sure that's the case, but money -- the need for money and the lack of it, the money game -- can get into your head and mess with your self esteem.

If that is an issue for you, just for January, make a budget and stick to it.

For 30 days. You can do anything for 30 days.

It's a New Year!

On January 1, 2021 I posted "So Long, Farewell... And Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out!" 

And then came January 6th. Talk about depressing.

IMHO starting a new year is now rife with trepidation. Yet, I also know we can find joy and hope and love in any situation, and when something truly awful happens I know it will get better.

So let's raise a glass to 2024! I won't say it can't be any worse, because I know better than to tempt fate. But it CAN be spectacular for us personally -- with a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work we can keep depression at bay. Most of the time, anyway. 

Love yourself through your struggles, and know that there is always hope. Oh, and one more perhaps pointless platitude:

Happy New Year!