Tips and Tricks for coping with bad depression days

Hey everybody!

So this week kind of started out badly because somebody I trusted as a friend lied to me and hurt me. This triggered some really horrible memories from when I was a child and left me full of negative thoughts and feelings. I had a couple of bad mental health days but I am proud of how I coped and wanted to share some tips and tricks for coping with bad depression days.

Self-care is a big part of my personal plan when it comes to bad mental health days. I’ve suffered depression since I was 14 so I’ve had a lot of bad days bad spells and I try and keep things quite positive on here but I think it’s quite important to talk about. Its also important to remember that self-care means different things to different people at different times it’s a very
fluid thing and it’s important to keep that in mind on a bad day.

Sometimes you do have to give in to it you do need to just lie in bed and cry all day and that’s okay as long as it’s just that one day. You know I couldn’t stop crying for a week once with a breakdown and that was terrifying I even cried in my sleep I think!

So I’ve been there I know how it feels but I think they all need times when we just we need tips and tricks for coping with bad depression days.

Mindfulness:

Mindfulness is something that I talk about a lot here on my blog and it really helps me because I’m in the moment. I can appreciate where I am what is happening and not getting lost in negative thoughts. Instead, I’m thinking about the sounds in the room, the clock ticking, and my dog snoring!

When I’m being mindful and my thoughts start to go into a negative
spiral I can kind of track it back a bit easier to the real root of the problem.
I can see what’s going on, what triggered that thought and that’s really important. If you can track it back to where it began a lot of the times it’s something that you assumed or something that you thought that really has no basis in reality. It’s just kind of distorted by the illness that you have and once I started to understand it was a big game changer.

I would definitely say try and learn to be mindful and it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort so don’t give up! I’ve been doing mindfulness now for a couple of years it’s not easy but it gets easier and it’s definitely helped my mental health. This is because it’s just helped me to be able to track my thoughts back and to see where they start and to kind of realise okay that is that real or is that made-up? It helps you to kind of take it apart and deal with that situation rather than spiralling that’s a big one I would say it’s very helpful

Self care

Self-care can be very difficult to do when I’m depressed I don’t want to get dressed I don’t want to get of bed, I don’t do any of the things that I know will make me feel better. So if I can possibly push that thought aside and get in the shower or just get in the bath, even if I’m not washing myself and just sit there it helps. Especially if you’ve got like a nice bath bomb or some nice oils and things you can put in the bath and make it really special candles and things like that just spoil yourself.

When I towelled myself off, I felt so much better because I just felt like I
had washed all that negativity down the drain it had gone back to the earth. I just felt so much lighter, sometimes it’s really hard to get from the bed to the shower, but once you’re in there you will feel better you will!

Meditation

Now I love meditating and it can be difficult to begin meditation I’d say if you don’t have some form of meditation practice already definitely look into getting one. Even if it’s just five minutes a day it makes such a difference I use insight timer which is a free app and they have thousands of free meditations. I love the guided ones because I can just close my eyes concentrate on the voice and I did one about being in a waterfall and having all that negativity just washed away.

So I just had a shower and imagined washing the negativity away, and then I did a guided meditation and imagined the same. I can’t even tell you how nice it felt to just get rid of all that negativity and that negative feeling. It just really helped my brain to clear of that negative thoughts and it just kind of resets you. I always think meditation is a bit like you know when your computer is messing up you think I’ll just turn it off and then turn it back on again? I’ll just restart it it will be fine it’s kind of like that so just kind of restarts your thinking and I found it to be so helpful.

Rest

This is a big big one I think we all have to do lists and things we want to get done, I know I do! Granted my list is considerably less than someone without Chronic Fatigue, but I didn’t do a lot yesterday I kind of rested. Instead of doing things that I should have been doing I just listened to my body. I was just like I need to just chill so I kind of curled up with my husband and the dog and we watched the kindness Diaries.

If you haven’t watched is incredible it’s on Netflix and it’s this man who’s travelling around the world he doesn’t have any money he doesn’t have anywhere to stay. He’s travelling on the kindness of others and then occasionally somebody really touches him and he will pay them back with really kind gifts and things that they need. One woman he paid for her to care for a hundred dogs for a year, and another he is helping set up a charity.

And oh I just love that program so much it lifted my heart it helped me just feel like yes there are good people out there. I might have been hurt but look at these wonderful people who were just out there in the world and doing good things. The programme really just helped me to feel a lotbetter about myself and better about humanity in general. But the reality of things is people struggle but people also help each other. That just really lifted me up I just felt amazing after resting and watching that.

Furry friends

If you have a little furry creature you will know they can really help our mental health. So cuddle a dog, cuddle a cat, stroke a rat, whatever animal you have cuddling them is such a big help. Telling them what’s wrong is a big help because they don’t talk back they don’t argue with you they don’t make you feel bad they just listen and that’s a beautiful thing!

I love having animals around me, but it’s just anything you can do on a bad day to lift your spirits is a good thing. Even if it’s something small like you can’t get out of bed but you can reach over and open the curtains. Or you go to the toilet and you can’t quite face a shower but you clean your teeth and then you feel a little bit better.

It’s finding little things that work for you and the other day these are all the things that I did that helped me and today I’m feeling so much better. I feel more human again I don’t feel bogged down with negativity I don’t feel upset. I kind of feel thankful you know I’m thankful that I went through that it taught me a lot about myself about my resilience and how much more strong I am now than I used to be, I’m pretty proud of myself actually!

So I just hope that this post helped somebody out there if you’re having a tough day if you’ve got some tips and tricks of your own definitely share them down below. I think it’s important that we share what works for us and the tips and tricks for coping with bad depression days.

Namaste xxx

This post was sponsored by Sleepline a website that aims to help you understand sleep better and find ways to get a better night’s sleep

https://www.sleepline.com/mental-illness/
https://www.sleepline.com/sleep-and-dopamine/ https://www.sleepline.com/sleep-health/ https://www.sleepline.com/loneliness-and-sleep/