Dealing with Depression and Anxiety

Shifting Out of Insecurity into More of a “Yes I Can” Mentality

Dealing with depression and anxiety can feel challenging. Often, the more you focus on your anxious or depressed emotion, the more intense it becomes.

Sometimes, you can do things to make yourself feel better like listening to music or taking a walk, only to find that you’re not experiencing as much relief as you’d hoped. In such instances, the answer might be taking small steps. You should continue to live the life you want, just don’t expect change to occur all at once. For example, if you went to the gym and all you could do was one push-up, take the win. Next time do two pushups. Build up your successes through a gradual approach. It’s a rinse and repeat sort of process, each time doing a little more than the time before.

Tips to Shifting Your Perspective

Mindfulness-centered behavioral therapy (CBT) suggests a few approaches for  dealing with anxiety and depression. You can take one of these approaches at a time and apply it in your life.

• Decide your day. Instead of waiting for anxious or depressed emotions to dictate your day, first thing in the morning, make your own decision. Decide whether your day will include joyful activity or loving someone and choose worthwhile ways to spend your attention and energy.
• Replace worry with problem solving. Worry doesn’t offer solutions. It’s an emotion that replays and spins in circles. Instead of letting yourself get caught up in worry, figure out what the problem is and entertain some ideas of possible solutions.
• Take charge. Anxiety will make you avoid life. When it takes over, you might feel like you’re afraid of everything. The truth is, most people can find something that’s more important than being afraid. If you do that, then you can do whatever that is. Put yourself in charge and let the emotions take a back seat.
• Conquer fear with love. Fear and love are opposites. When you love other people, you find your fear dissipating. As love increases, fear decreases, the same way light makes darkness fade into nothing. Instead of waiting for someone to show love toward you, express love toward them.

These are just a few approaches and you can find more in this Psychology Today article

Professional Help Is Available for Dealing with Anxiety and Depression

Professional and compassionate therapists can help you alleviate problems and create a focus that makes your life more enjoyable. If you would like to arrange a session for counseling, you can contact us online or call (818) 907-7974.