Living with Depression

A great article on learning how to live alongside depression, which I think can be generalised to mental health issues more generally, as well as psychosomatic illnesses.  It demonstrates the small choices in ones lifestyle that can be pivotal in preventing a spiral into depression for example – something that so often is seen to arrive completely out of the blue, which one has little control over. It requires someone to be highly attuned to their body, signals that things are slipping, their triggers, as well as what makes them better. They have to be determined to counteract the beginnings of depression, anxiety, ME, chronic pain for example, to stop it escalating into something more severe and harder to manage and pull oneself back from. This is done by finding ways that keep you calm, lift your mood and give you the best chance of riding it out. I like the jam jar conceptualisation of this and think it’s a useful tool for anyone to do to ensure that they are balancing their days.