Like 21 million other adults in the United States, you’re tired of living under the cloud of depression and you want to do whatever you can to break free.
Seeking expert help with Dr. Diana Ghelber and the team here at Institute for Advanced Psychiatry is a great first step. We’re well versed in treating depression, and we offer a wide range of effective treatment options, including transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy and ketamine infusion therapy.
While we’ve had great success with these approaches, they work even better if you support them with your own steps, such as the ones we outline here.
The power of exercise when it comes to mental health is one that shouldn’t be ignored. We understand that when you’re in the middle of a major depressive episode, finding the energy to get up and move can be difficult. But it’s very much worth the effort.
A recent analysis found that exercise can be 1.5 times more effective against issues like depression and anxiety than medications and psychotherapy. For example, for people who exercise 150 minutes a week, the meta analysis found an average reduction in mental health symptoms between 42% to 60%, compared to 22% and 37% with psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, respectively.
When you have depression, certain areas of your brain — your medial prefrontal cortex and your amygdala — work together to keep you in a state of heightened fear and mood dysregulation. Meditation, on the other hand, fires up your hippocampus for healthier brain function and mood regulation.
When we talk about meditation, we’re talking about any practice that emphasizes mindfulness — staying in the present and not dwelling on the past or dreading the future. This is a simplistic explanation, but keeping your mind on the here and now can help keep it more balanced.
Whether you practice guided meditations or you meditate on a long walk in the woods, there are many different forms of mindfulness that can help with your depression.
One of the keys to happiness in humans is connection, and we’re not talking about your phone and social media. We understand that when you have depression, it can be tough to be around others. Still, we urge you to try. Get out and take a walk with a friend or go to the movies — just be around other people and try to engage as much as you can.
These connections are vital to your mental health and can go a very long way toward battling depression.
Again, we will certainly do our part to remedy your depression, but any steps you take to support these efforts are ones well worth taking. For more ideas, please contact us at the Institute for Advanced Psychiatry in Granbury or Fort Worth, Texas.
