Speaker 1: Hi Friends, Time for another mini episode. The topic this
Speaker 1: week is something that came up on our Facebook group
Speaker 1: this week, and it went something like this, I'm dealing
Speaker 1: with depression, and some people say the way to do
Speaker 1: that is to get up and exercise and eat right
Speaker 1: and try and connect with other people. And then other
Speaker 1: people say, hey, just go easy on yourself, take it slow,
Speaker 1: you know, just be good to yourself and relax. And
Speaker 1: so which should I do? And I think this is
Speaker 1: a great question. And the person in the group who
Speaker 1: said that also said, look, I know I should be
Speaker 1: doing some of these more positive things, but I just
Speaker 1: it's very difficult for me. All I want to do
Speaker 1: is lay on the couch watching Netflix and eat junk food,
Speaker 1: which I think we can all relate with to some degree.
Speaker 1: I think this is a very good question. It's also
Speaker 1: a very difficult question to answer because the answer is
Speaker 1: it depends, and I think it depends on a lot
Speaker 1: of factors, the most important one being you and what
Speaker 1: works for you. You've often heard me use the analogy
Speaker 1: of depression as the emotional flu and I think it's
Speaker 1: an analogy that is useful in this circumstance. So exercise,
Speaker 1: eating well, connecting with other people. All those things to
Speaker 1: me are like washing my hands a lot as far
Speaker 1: as preventing the flu and going and get in the
Speaker 1: flu vaccine. I can do a lot of that stuff
Speaker 1: as a preventative step, and when I'm doing more of that,
Speaker 1: I am less likely to get the emotional flu or
Speaker 1: about of depression. So those things are really important to
Speaker 1: me as preventative. As I slide into depression, depending on
Speaker 1: its severity, those things become much harder to do, and
Speaker 1: it depends. So I think that I try and keep
Speaker 1: doing those things because I know they're good for me,
Speaker 1: but I also give myself a lot more slack. And
Speaker 1: I think this is the way to kind of do
Speaker 1: both these things, which is, if you're feeling lousy like that,
Speaker 1: try and do something that you know is in the
Speaker 1: self care regimen. Try and do something that you know helps,
Speaker 1: even if that help is is insignificant in the moment.
Speaker 1: You know, a quick walk around the block, or three
Speaker 1: minutes of exercise, or three minutes of meditation, or one
Speaker 1: phone call to a friend, see if you can do
Speaker 1: something small, and then you've got the rest of the
Speaker 1: time to kind of take it slow and work with
Speaker 1: yourself and be easy on yourself. I also think it
Speaker 1: depends on what are natural tendency is some of us
Speaker 1: have a natural tendency to try and do too much.
Speaker 1: We're all is doing something and if we're not doing
Speaker 1: something or accomplish in something, we feel bad about it.
Speaker 1: And in those cases right taking it easier, taking it
Speaker 1: slower at certain points is really good for us. Others
Speaker 1: of us have the opposite tendency, which is that left
Speaker 1: or own devices, we will lay around and watch Netflix
Speaker 1: and eat junk food all of the time. And so
Speaker 1: in those cases, for people like that, the prompt or
Speaker 1: the encouragement to to push a little bit harder can
Speaker 1: often be helpful. It depends on where you're coming from.
Speaker 1: The other thing is circling back to the flu idea
Speaker 1: or analogy. Another concept comes up for me, which is
Speaker 1: how to deal with the flu or cold while I
Speaker 1: have it, and while I have it right, I just
Speaker 1: try and take really good care of myself, drink a
Speaker 1: lot of fluids, rest, rest, rest, right, and then when
Speaker 1: I come out of it, I'm able to engage in
Speaker 1: those preventative activities again. But the reason that that analogy
Speaker 1: of the flu or the emotional flu has been so
Speaker 1: helpful to me is that it doesn't cause me to
Speaker 1: fall into an existential crisis every time my depression rears
Speaker 1: its head. Now, I believe that we need to be
Speaker 1: spending time looking at our lives, and I do believe
Speaker 1: that depression has a lot of causes that relate to
Speaker 1: how we live our lives. Are we living with purpose
Speaker 1: and integrity? Are we doing a lot of those things?
Speaker 1: So those things are important to deal with. My experience
Speaker 1: has been in the midst of a cute bout of depression.
Speaker 1: Is not the time to re examine my life. It's
Speaker 1: the time to take care of myself and get better.
Speaker 1: So by knowing that I've kind of got something like
Speaker 1: the flu that in my case is gonna there's gonna
Speaker 1: be some at least lightening of symptoms at some point,
Speaker 1: that's the time for me that I think looking at
Speaker 1: the deeper underlying things can be helpful. And then the
Speaker 1: last thing I'll say is, you know, if depression is
Speaker 1: incapacitating to a great degree for a very long amount
Speaker 1: of time, I strongly recommend getting help and not listen
Speaker 1: into a podcast host for all your advice, because obviously
Speaker 1: depression can be a medical condition, and in a lot
Speaker 1: of cases, certain medications are very useful in treating depression.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're the whole story. I don't think
Speaker 1: that just taking a pill and going about living in
Speaker 1: whatever way you have been works, right. I think it's
Speaker 1: some more holistic answer. But medical help can be part
Speaker 1: of the solution, particularly if you're in such a place
Speaker 1: that you're unable to do the other things that we
Speaker 1: know will help with depression exercise, eating right, living a
Speaker 1: life of purpose, doing things that matter. If you're to
Speaker 1: the point that you can't do any of those things,
Speaker 1: then seeing a medical professional is probably a good idea
Speaker 1: because you have been unsuccessful in working your way out
Speaker 1: of it. So those are some thoughts on depression that
Speaker 1: came up from a post in the Facebook group. We'll
Speaker 1: have a new episode out on Tuesday. As always, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening. If you love what we're
Speaker 1: doing here, go over to patreon dot com. If you
Speaker 1: like these mini episodes, go over to when you feed
Speaker 1: dot net slash support and you'll get access to a
Speaker 1: bonus mini episode every month that no one else gets
Speaker 1: if you subscribe at a ten dollar level. So when
Speaker 1: you Feed dot net slash support if you like what
Speaker 1: you're hearing, and we'll talk Tuesday. Thanks, bye,