How to deal with depression

By anakdenesor - Oktober 03, 2020

 


How to deal with depression | Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home.

Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:

  • Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
  • Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
  • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
  • Loss of energy or increased fatigue
  • Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., inability to sit still, pacing, handwringing) or slowed movements or speech (these actions must be severe enough to be observable by others)
  • Feeling worthless or guilty
  • Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
  • Thoughts of death or suicide

Symptoms must last at least two weeks and must represent a change in your previous level of functioning for a diagnosis of depression.

Credit to american psychiatric association 

Being listened to

It is important for people to have the opportunity to explore difficult feelings.  Being listened to in confidence, and accepted without prejudice, can alleviate general distress, despair and suicidal feelings.

Often being listened to is enough to help someone through a time of distress.  Even just showing that you are there for them, and that you know they are going through a distressing time, can in itself be a comfort.

Are you a good listener?

Do you:

  • Always try to give people your undivided attention?

  • Let them sit in silence and collect their thoughts if they need to?

  • Question them gently, tactfully and without intruding?

  • Encourage them to tell their story in their own words and in their own time?

  • Refrain from offering advice based on your own experience?

  • Always try and see their point of view even though you may not agree with it?

... these can help show someone that you are really listening to them.

or Do you:

  • Look around the room or glance at your watch while they are talking?

  • Finish their sentences for them and correct their grammar?

  • Interrupt to tell them how you once had a similar problem?

  • Make a snap judgement based on their accent, dress or personal appearance?

  • Tell them what you would do in their position?

  • Say you understand before you've heard what their problem is?

... but these can give the impression that you are not listening.

 

Helping a Suicidal Friend or Relative

 

Be quiet and listen!

If someone is feeling depressed or suicidal, our first response is to try to help. We offer advice, share our own experiences, try to find solutions.

We'd do better to be quiet and listen. People who feel suicidal don't want answers or solutions. They want a safe place to express their fears and anxieties, to be themselves.

Listening - really listening - is not easy. We must control the urge to say something - to make a comment, add to a story or offer advice. We need to listen not just to the facts that the person is telling us but to the feelings that lie behind them. We need to understand things from their perspective, not ours.

Here are some points to remember if you are helping a person who feels suicidal.

What do people who feel suicidal want?

  • Someone to listen. Someone who will take time to really listen to them. Someone who won't judge, or give advice or opinions, but will give their undivided attention.

  • Someone to trust. Someone who will respect them and won't try to take charge. Someone who will treat everything in complete confidence.

  • Someone to care. Someone who will make themselves available, put the person at ease and speak calmly. Someone who will reassure, accept and believe. Someone who will say, "I care."

What do people who feel suicidal not want?

  • To be alone. Rejection can make the problem seem ten times worse. Having someone to turn to makes all the difference. Just listen.

  • To be advised. Lectures don't help. Nor does a suggestion to "cheer up", or an easy assurance that "everything will be okay." Don't analyze, compare, categorize or criticize. Just listen.

  • To be interrogated. Don't change the subject, don't pity or patronize. Talking about feelings is difficult. People who feel suicidal don't want to be rushed or put on the defensive. Just listen.


    credit to befrienders.org.my


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15 comments

  1. semoga orang2 depress sentiasa dilindungi Allah

    BalasPadam
  2. What an important topic to tackle. I am so glad you shared this. It is really important to be a good listener and make other people feel heard. Sometimes, that can make such a big difference.
    the creation of beauty is art.

    BalasPadam
  3. STRES KENA TANGANI SEBAIKNYA N SENTIASA INGAT ALLAH

    BalasPadam
  4. i always wanna be a good listener..and my DM always open for anyone .. bc sometimes..its easy to talk to strangers :)

    BalasPadam
  5. Kena prihatin sekeliling kita, mana tahu ada di antara ahli keluarga dan rakan-rakan mengalami depress. Kesian kan. Itulah perlunya memiliki serba sedikit info tentang masalah depressi ini. Tq for sharing.

    BalasPadam
  6. Penerimaan orang tak sama tentang depression tapi harap sangat masyarakat cakna pada orang sekeliling. Saya selalu depressed dulu. Tapi saya pelik bila suami tak pernah depressed. Biasanya kalau ada masalah, dia tak jadi macam saya, bila tanya pun dia kata tak rasa depressed, anxiety, stress. Jeles dengan orang macamni..tapi terima je la sebab mungkin hati kita lebih sensitif dan rapuh. Semoga Allah kuatkan.

    BalasPadam
  7. Hello!! this is an important topic. Thanks for sharing.


    Blessings!!

    BalasPadam
  8. terima kasih atas perkongsian

    BalasPadam
  9. thanks for the sharing. Sekarang ni macam banyak masalah kesihatan mental kan.. kita kalau boleh peka dengan orang sekeliling, mana tau ada keluarga atau kawan terdekat ada simptom ini. Serba sedikit boleh kita bantu mereka, at least dengar masalah mereka

    BalasPadam
  10. bagus sebenarnya bila makin ramai yang kongsi pasal depressions ini.. Sebab ianya perkara serius tambah dengan keadaan sekarang ini.. Lagi ramai yang ke arah depressions ini.. Semoga semua orang lebih cakna dan tak mempermainkan pesakit atau sakit depressions ini..

    BalasPadam
  11. At the point when the dietary issue is removed and the individual is not, at this point in a spot or position to act it out, then, at that point the depression comes flooding in, in difficult and obvious manners. troubled teen help

    BalasPadam