Self-Management of Depression

If you are receiving mental health care, the treatment plan is a key document that you will develop in collaboration with your treatment provider. The treatment plan lists your treatment goals, the types of interventions that will be used, and how outcomes will be measured. In addition to these generic elements of a treatment plan, a personalized treatment plan also incorporates your strengths, needs, vision of your own recovery, and desired quality of life.  6 key elements of a treatment plan A successful personalized treatment plan has the following six attributes (Adams & Grieder, 2005): Is centered on your goals and values Respects your experience in dealing with your mental health issues Addresses not only managing symptoms but also learning to successfully cope with life’s challenges and building resilience Empowers you to move toward self-management of your mental illness Focuses on positive functioning in a variety of roles and building positive relationships Is oriente...

When it comes to exercising, we have our usual litany of excuses, and some of the familiar ones include: “I don’t have enough time.” “I am too out of shape.” “I am too sick.” “I already get enough exercise.” "I don't have the right kind of equipment." “Exercise is boring.” “Exercise is painful.” “I am too embarrassed.” “I am afraid that I might fall.” “I am too tired.” “I will look silly.” “I am afraid I will hurt myself.” “I am too old.” “It is too cold or too hot.” “I will not do it right.” If you find yourself using one of the above excuses for not exercising, then one of two things is happening here. First, you may be making wrong assumptions about your ability to exercise (e.g., I don’t have enough time, exercise is tedious or painful, or I am too embarrassed). Second, if the issue is genuine (e.g., it is too cold or too hot, or I don't have the right kind of equipment), then you may not have done enough to find a solution. While changing your wrong assumptions a...

Emotional intelligence has become a modern-day buzzword. Academics, self-help coaches, and management pundits have written millions of words and filled hours of airtime explaining the meaning and importance of emotional intelligence. But when it comes to enhancing this trait, one is left with the arduous task of sifting through a mountain of psychobabble to tease out pragmatic, easy-to-use, and workable strategies.  So, what is emotional intelligence? In psychological terms, it is one’s ability to engage in sophisticated information processing about one’s own and others’ emotions and the ability to use this information as a guide to thinking and behavior (Mayer et al., 2008). In plain English, it means using your emotions intentionally and intelligently to improve your well-being. Emotional intelligence increases with age and experience. Research shows that people with high emotional intelligence are likely to be more socially competent, have better quality relationships, and are v...

Much has been written about the benefits of mindfulness. While there are several ways to practice mindfulness, the image that comes to most people's minds when they think about mindfulness is of a person in a yoga pose, breathing mindfully. Well, mindfulness certainly goes beyond these stereotypical characterizations across popular media. There are practical ways to approach mindfulness that appear less amorphous than some traditional practices, and this article discusses one such practice. Before we delve into the details of this particular practice, it would be prudent to first define what mindfulness exactly means. In simple terms, mindfulness is moment-to-moment awareness of your present experience with curiosity, openness, and acceptance. Knowing what you are doing while doing it is the essence of mindfulness practice (Kabat-Zinn, 2013). Mindfulness is not approached with an attitude of getting to someplace better, or getting something, or fixing what we don’t like. Min...

When feeling depressed, one often tends to overlook the positive moments that one experiences because negative, irrational thoughts make one  disqualify the positives  in one’s life. However, we can home in on positive feelings and experiences even when feeling depressed by reflecting on and reliving moments of joy and well-being. The three ways you can accomplish this are below: Track What is Working Well You may use a well-being diary  for this strategy. In the diary, you monitor the thoughts and events surrounding periods of well-being for the last 24 hours and record them every evening. This active recording of moments of well-being serves four purposes (Otto & Smits, 2011): With depression making you focus on what is not working well in your life, keeping a well-being diary makes you adept at searching out the good moments. It helps you relive the good moments and feel the pleasure again when you review these moments in the evening. It helps ...

What Constitutes Resilience? When adversity strikes, we are reminded to be "resilient." But what does it really mean to be resilient? For starters, resilience is not a single entity but a broad array of abilities for constructively and positively adapting to risk, adversity, or some monumental negative event (Dunn et al., 2009). Implicit within this definition are the two critical components of resilience – experiencing an adversity and a positive adaptation to it. Positive adaption has variously been defined, and the general consensus is that it connotes not only an absence or low levels of psychological symptoms (e.g., anxiety or depression) but also competence to meet societal and cultural expectations (Masten, 2001). The good news is that resilience is not a personality attribute that is fixed but is a dynamic process that individuals can develop (Luthar et al., 2000). In other words, no one is “born” or “naturally” resilient; it is something you learn and develop o...

Achieving goals feels good – it is inherently satisfying to exercise your skills, talents, and abilities to achieve what you desire in your life (Emmons, 1996). In addition, achieving goals that are consistent with your interests and core values, i.e., meaningful goals, enhances feelings of well-being and also satisfies your basic psychological needs of experiencing competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999). Goal attainment also enhances well-being by positively influencing other facets of your life as described below (Sheldon et al., 2002): Changes in your self-concept (e.g., you view yourself and your capabilities in a totally new way) Changes in life circumstances (e.g., you gain valuable new opportunities or a new intimate relationship) Changes in basic attitudes or philosophies regarding living, which may transform your general mood and well-being Approval from others that enhances your global assessment of yourself So, how does one choose mean...

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every 40 seconds a person dies by suicide somewhere in the world and over 800,000 people die due to suicide every year. When it comes to therapeutic approaches that have shown to reduce suicide attempts, there are only a handful of evidence-based treatments. One of these treatments is cognitive-behavioral therapy (Brown & Jager-Hyman, 2014). A safety plan is a key element of the cognitive-behavioral approaches that has been widely and effectively used for preventing suicide. In a nutshell, a safety plan is a document that is developed though collaboration between the person at risk of suicide and a treatment provider and consists of a prioritized written list of coping strategies and supportive resources that a suicidal person can use before or during a suicidal crisis (Stanley & Brown, 2008). A study comparing Safety Planning Intervention with usual care found a 45% reduction in suicidal behaviors and the double the odds...

Kindness is an investment in social relationships that will yield you high dividends. Research shows that genuine acts of kindness, even when they are unpleasant or when one doesn’t expect anything in return, make the doer happy (Lyubomirsky, 2007). The relationship between kindness and happiness is not merely correlational (happier people by nature may be kinder or vice versa) but causal. Simply put, acts of kindness do make people happier (Curry et al., 2018). When you get recognition through smiles, thankfulness, and friendship for your acts of kindness, it helps satisfy a basic human need to connect with others. When doing something for your partner, you sometimes, either consciously or unconsciously, want something from them – “I cleaned the garage; she should clean the bathroom.” Rather than keeping a mental score of your and your partner’s good deeds, remember that giving is its own reward. This reward is the feeling of happiness and contentment you receive in know...

Much has been written about how work-related stress is associated with burnout and depression. Burnout has become a buzzword that has spawned a modern-day cottage industry of one-size-fits-all wellness programs. Before we discuss the remedies for burnout, let's examine what causes it in the first place. From a psychological perspective, the hazardous effects of the work environment on health, aka burnout, have been explained by the effort-reward model . According to this model, the imbalance created by high “costs” (spending high effort at work or over-commitment) and low “benefits” (in terms of monetary gratification, career opportunities, esteem, respect, and job security) produces emotional distress affecting both mental and physical health (Siegrist & Li, 2016). In fact, research shows that this effort-reward imbalance is associated with a 1.5-fold increased risk of depressive disorders (Rugulies et al., 2017). In this context, the concept of “job crafting” is a ...