What Helps Charlie, 29, With Depression
Editor's Note
Any medical information included is based on a personal experience. For questions or concerns regarding health, please consult a doctor or medical professional.
With our ongoing “What Helps Me” series, The Mighty is leaning into what sets us apart from other health sites: We aim to provide real health advice from real people who live it.
In this spirit, we asked our community for the best insights and tips they’ve developed for managing their conditions. As always, they responded with their unique health stories and we are happy to pass along their well-tested resources to you.
Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Today, we meet Mighty member Charlie. She is 29 years old and lives with depression.
Charlie, what helps you?
THE MIGHTY: What helps you most when your condition affects your physical health?
CHARLIE: Taking things slowly but surely helps me. I break down tasks and focus on them one bit at a time. Sometimes I might choose one or two things that would make today a “win” — perhaps showering and doing something I enjoy, like coloring, [writing] to a friend, or knitting. This makes allowances for the heavy limbs, foggy brain, and various aches living with depression can give me.
What helps you most when your condition affects your mental health?
One of the most helpful things when I feel depression creep in or get worse is to stop, recognize it, and tell someone I trust. There’s something powerful in talking about my depression aloud, and sharing it somehow opens up the path to getting better and stops it from weighing so heavily on me.
How do you cope when your normal self-care isn’t working?
I usually feel quite frustrated and a bit annoyed, so I let myself feel that for a bit before working out what else I might need.
I also try to remind myself that I do live with depression, so some days I will feel it more than others, especially if life has had more difficulties or stress in it recently. This stops me fighting my depression and instead turns me towards myself to sit tightly and wait for it to pass. I guess you could call it giving myself permission to up the self-care even more!
Thank you to Charlie for her contributions to our community. Did you find this helpful? Add your gratitude in the comments.
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Image via contributor.