Depression Getaway with Wendy Love

Do you believe that exercise is more effective than antidepressants? Are you willing to look at some findings on that? Any chronic illness is a challenge and depression is no exception. Strength is required to endure the painful emotions and challenging out of control moods. One of the best ways to get some strength to endure such an illness is exercise - apparently.  Apparently exercise is better than antidepressants. Need proof? Read on.

Why does doing something creative, with your hands, help you cope? Is it simply the distraction of the activity? Is it the feeling of being productive? Is it the planning and processing of all of the steps required to carry out the projects? Is it the act of throwing yourself into a creative activity that so engulfs you that you completely forget, for awhile, about your depression? Is it the feeling of being useful? Well guess what? It is ALL of those things! That's right! Working with your hands, especially if you enjoy it, is a creative activity packed full of benefits!

Look at my latest project! Isn't it pretty? Actually, the picture doesn't do it justice, it is so much brighter than this! I am going to give it away, probably to a women's shelter, like my last projects. Even more important than how pretty it is and where it is going to is how much fun I had doing it. I've discovered I can sew even when I am not feelingwell. I have learned that while I do something with my hands, my thoughts change and I am unable to dwell on negative thoughts while my hands are busy. This post could also be titled: "SEWING SAVES MY LIFE" . Am I suggesting that a needle could sew my life back together? Not at all. But the sewing activity helps. Last time I shared a book review with you called "Crochet Saved My Life" .  Today I am sharing my own experience but I have changed the word 'saved' to 'saves' because it only works when I do it and I have to keep doing it! 

When you think of creativity, what do you think of? Arts and crafts, gardening, interior design, dance, drama, music? Do you think you need to be good at any of these things in order for them to be therapeutic for you? Would you like to know how creativity can help with mental illness?  "These types of therapy can be a healing force for the body and the mind in part because the creative process helps release brain chemicals that fight depression. Research shows that art therapy can also improve your sense of well-being by reducing depression and anxiety." says Routa Segal, certified creative art therapist.

I used to be an avid gardener. Oh the joy of going out to my big vegetable garden and observing my progress! I tried all sorts of new seeds every year. It was a happy hobby for me. I like to think of some of the strategies that I employ for depression as seeds in a garden. Some seeds take root and do well. Some don't. I am always trying something new, I have to keep on keeping on even if most of the crazy stuff I try makes no difference. It is in my nature to continue the search. So here are some things I have tried recently.

We have a growth chart like this on a wall in our home. The grandchildren love to look at it and get measured and see how far they have come.  Measuring progress can be an encouraging exercise for those of us who are challenged with depression too. I am sharing my personal progress with you this week.

We have been chatting for the last two weeks about good memories and recalling them in lots of detail so you can use some of that detail as comfort, as a depression getaway. Details are also useful in tracking your progress.  I have confessed to you that I am not really good at recalling in detail. I have confessed that I tend to over generalize and I shared some theories about why that is not such a good thing. One of the things I don't do often in this blog is share my personal journey, especially the bad stuff. I prefer not to go into all of that negative stuff in great detail. I like to consider this an uplifting blog and I don't find reviewing my actual depression uplifting.

Getting the most out of good memories requires remembering in detail. Getting the most out of therapy requires sharing in detail.  Detailing memories is a great depression strategy and might be a super depression getaway for you and for me. There is only one way you can do this memory retrieval well and that is to write it down in detail! These notes, these details could save your life! They could also save a lot of grief for the loved ones who have to put up with you!

A car 'detailer' has an important job. If they didn't do their job a brand new car would not be worth its value would it? It is the final touch. So, it's all in the details is it? I love watching the decorating shows. They all agree on one thing, the details bring a good design together. Details are important, sometimes. And if we are going to do some recalling of good times, to enhance our antidepressant regime, we apparently have to do it in detail . I have been taking an online course called 'Bipolar IN Order'(no longer available. I cannot recommend it - yet. I am still trying to figure it out. The author, Tom Wootton , recommends that we analyze and record our moods in great detail. This is a problem for me. I don't want to think about my moods. I want to ignore them. I just want them to go away! It is hard enough to cope with the moods let alone think about them in detail, over and over again. But, this is what is required if I am going to atte

Why do details matter so much?  The artist who created this didn't do it in a day. Why the laying out of the design alone would have taken weeks. Then a few more weeks for the base colours. And after that, months, even years on the details. The details make it! Last week I shared some theories about over generalizing in the way we recall good memories. Psychologists have suggested that we who are challenged with depression tend to do that. And if they are right, then we are missing out on the opportunity to remember in detail what once gave us pleasure and apply those good memories in continuing to find pleasure, thus alleviating depression!

Memories and depression - it is not only what we recall but how we choose to recall it that can affect our depression, in a good way or a bad way.  Recent research has suggested that depressive biases in personal memory may be due to an inability to progress beyond a general level when trying to retrieve specific positive memories.  This study produced further evidence of this phenomenon. When trying to access specific hedonically toned memories, depressed patients more often responded with a general memory and, especially for positive cues, were unable then to progress to a specific memory, even after prompting.  The implications for cognitive therapy for depression are discussed.

Memories and depression. You may be thinking that there are some things you don't want to remember, maybe things which you believed led to this old depression . But that is not the point I am trying to make this week. Apparently we depressed folks tend to overgeneralize when we remember. This overgeneralizing works against us. At least that is what this Oxford study suggests.

Summer is just about over. The teacher in me tends to start new projects in the beginning of September. It is an old habit that is hard to break. Another habit that is hard to break if you are depressed is recalling bad experiences - sometimes ruminating about them, which means dwelling on those negative memories and thinking about them over and over again. I have done a little bit of remembering this summer on this blog. It was sort of an experiment to force myself to recall some good times. I did it as a writing exercise and as an antidepressant. But I learned some interesting things during the process which I would like to share with you. Have you ever been in a deep depression and tried to recall something pleasant? It is almost impossible when you are in that stage. But it is in that very stage that it might be helpful to do that. Have you ever been in a deep depression and tried to recall something pleasant? It is almost impossible when you are in that stage. But it

With mental illness there are times when nothing works.  A brisk walk, a hot bath, a caring friend, a good sleep, an ice cream cone are all little pick me ups that give me some momentary relief -  sometimes. But other times, not even those little things help.  The desperation is unbearable.  All seems hopeless and pointless.  When I get that low, only my faith in God will help me and hold me and prevent me from doing anything foolish.

'Depression 180' sounds like a depression getaway to me! As a depression blogger I sometimes get emails from authors and other bloggers asking me to promote them. When I got this email from Craig Meriwether about his new book I thought "ya right, another book about depression.... yada yada yada...." but couldn't resist taking a look at it. The book is called 'Depression 180' . That is a powerful name for a book about depression. The title caught my attention.

Today I am counteracting my depressed thoughts by remembering my 'cat in a bucket' story. It wasn't as cute or as alive as this cat though. It was a beautiful fall day. My girls and my husband and I were walking over to our neighbours to enjoy a nice evening. Our cats followed us over which they often did. This time however there was reason for concern. There was a stray dog in the area. These neighbours were keeping it in hopes of finding out who it belonged to. We didn't know this dog. My girls didn't trust it and were worried about the cats being safe around the dog.

For a cat loving family we have had our share of unfortunate (although kind of funny) incidents. One of those kittens I wrote a story about last time matured and was about to have babies, or so we thought. She was really pregnant and each day when my girls would get home from school they would run around looking for her hoping to find her with kittens. Finally one morning she looked ready to burst and even had a few other signs. I told my girls with confidence that there would probably be kittens by the end of the day. But there were not.