Depression Getaway with Wendy Love

Avoiding Getting Help? Many people avoid getting help for mental illness—and they usually have reasons. Real reasons. But are they true reasons? In this post, I share some of the most common excuses I’ve heard from real conversations. If you’ve ever talked yourself out of seeking help, maybe it’s time to listen to a different voice—the one that says there’s hope. But the truth is, many people are determined not to get help. In my last post, I mentioned that I would share some of the excuses I’ve heard people give for avoiding help for mental illness . These aren’t from a formal survey—these are real responses I’ve heard in conversations.

Depression is real but so is hope for those walking through it. What do I mean by that? Let me give you a bit of background.   Why I Keep Writing About Depression How many years have I been writing about depression ? Let’s see… oh my goodness — over 17 years! Over that time, I’ve written articles about journaling , therapy , diagnosis , and medication — all in an effort to teach, inform, and shed light on this complex illness.

 

  The word 'thankfulness' is not something that comes to mind when you suffer from depression. The word 'thankfulness' is not something that comes to mind when you suffer from anything! Recently I had a conversation with three friends. All of them had horrendous heartbreaking stories of suffering, mostly at the hands of their own families. That made me extra thankful for my life.  Yes, I have known heartache, but none that matches theirs. I felt overwhelmingly thankful. Yes, I live with depression. But I manage it. I do have a life. A good life. I have never had to be hospitalized. I am able to take part in activities which bring me joy. I have so much to be thankful for. So I decided then and there that this is going to be a YEAR OF THANKFULNESS .  I looked up 'thankfulness' in my favourite book, my bible, and it equates thankfulness with praise. Therefore I can only assume that when I praise God I am automatically being thankful. I have written about 'th...

  Have you heard the buzz? I mean the buzz that humming is helpful? Humming helped me recently. I was on a short flight and one the things I usually do to stay calm while I travel is to listen to a book. But this time my earbuds would not work. I just suffered through for a few minutes and then remembered what I read on instagram recently, that humming was a great reducer for stress. And so I hummed and it helped! As simple as that. It's easy, it's cheap, it's immediate. What's not to like about that?  Psychology Today gives this explanation of humming: Humming does more than create sound; it produces vibrations that ripple through the body, stimulating the  vagus nerve . The stimulation activates the parasympathetic  nervous system —the system responsible for calming you down and reversing the fight-or-flight response. When activated, the body shifts into rest-and-digest mode, which decreases stress and promotes relaxation. According to the Mayo Clinic Some of the p...

  Grandchildren coming to visit is definitely  "something to look forward to"  for me. It happens fairly regularly at our place on Wednesday and Thursday and so each one of those days I have   "something to look forward to." I had a therapist one time that always ended our sessions with that question   "what have you got to look forward to?"  It left our visit on a positive tone. Sometimes I would have to think for a bit before, in my depressed state, I could think of anything to look forward to. But then when I did think about it I was surprised that I really did have few things coming up to look forward to! In my daily devotions, when I write in my journal, I include a little measurement of my mood. I have a list which I put a note beside with these titles: sleep, food, body, mood, mind, yesterday, today and tomorrow. This helps me get a sense of what I might be up against that day. It also gives me an idea of what might already be good about the day, ma...