Sorrow is a natural part of existence. “I fall upon the thorn of life! I bleed” As Shelley puts it. But there’s a type of sadness and despondency that is not natural.
“Without any reason, one feels terrible. It doesn’t let you work, sleep, talk or eat properly. One becomes irritable and feels like crying. It goes on months after months and finally you feel like killing yourself”, says Prof Dr Md Waziul Alam Chowdhury, Director-cum-Professor of National Institute of Mental Health, Dhaka.
So, what can we do when we or one of our loved ones are suffering from such conditions?
Medications and therapies help to curb depression to a large extent. But the real lasting cure lies in the attitude you take towards yourself and your life.
“Social, environmental, personality and lifestyle factors are the major stimulus to depressive tendencies”, says Dr Waziul Alam to The Daily Star while discussing this issue.
So, it is you and me who have to know and take care of ourselves. ‘Self-help is the best help’ as the cliché goes.
Pattern of Thinking:One of the major aspects of depression is the pattern of negative thinking. Everything seems clouded by that one single negative emotion or idea or thought. You just can't get it out of your mind or get your mind move away from it.
“For such obsessive tendencies, we recommend behavior therapy. It's a psychological method of treatment to enable obsessed and depressed people to stop the thought at the very inception of it. It is also called thought stopping or response prevention”, says the psychiatrist.
So, if you notice any such negative thought process that you can't get rid of consult a psychiatrist and consider having a behavior therapy as soon as possible.
Practice Gratitude:Even in the darkest times of our lives, we have plenty to feel grateful for. Even at the times when tears run down our cheek, we have reasons to smile.
What experts tell us, is to practice gratitude each and every day for all the good things that you have in life. For all the people you love and all the people who love you. Be compassionate and grateful to others and even more so, to yourself.
Let Go; Live Free:The fears that spoil our today seldom become realities. Let it go; live free!
Life passes moment by moment. It is up to you how those moments of your life would be. It is up to you how you would feel in those moments.
Choose deliberately to be happy! Nothing; neither the worries of past and future nor any external stimulus can win over you. It is you who determines what will affect you.
