Depressed? Grab Your Floatation Device and Hold On.

As we drift along on the ocean of life, our daily and weekly non-negotiables are the what keep us afloat. By this, I mean the things we do on a regular basis, that help us to maintain positive mental health.

Each person's list of healthy behaviours will be unique to them, but they'll often feature some common themes around diet, exercise, sleep, socialising and quality time with loved ones, work and engaging in meaningful activity.

Some behaviours have a depressant effect on us, particularly if we do them too often and for too long. For example, too much sleeping or lying on the sofa watching TV, or too much social media or Youtube. These things might feel good to do in the short-term. They represent the path of least resistance, minimal effort, the easy, comfortable option. And the easy option is very seductive, especially when mood and motivation is low.

But this is a trap... because inactivity compounds low mood and low motivation in the medium and long-term. The less you do, the less you want to do. And the more inactive you are, the more unfulfilled you're likely to feel. You're gonna sink unless you change something.

When it comes to this kind of depression, characterised by low mood, low motivation and subsequent inactivity, cognitive behavioural therapy recommends that you audit your behavioural repertoire and modify it, if it isn't working for you. Identify behaviours that have a depressant effect on you and do less of them. Identify behaviours that have an anti-depressant effect on you and do more of them.

You've probably heard of anti-depressant medication. Perhaps you're prescribed it. There's certainly a role for medication in mental health, but it's also crucial to pay attention to what you do day in day out, and increase anti-depressants behaviours - many are completely free, extremely effective and have zero side effects.

Therapy can help you to carry out your behaviour audit and schedule anti-depressant activity, whilst cutting down on or giving up the depressant activities that have been keeping you down.

Your new set of anti-depressant behaviours can then become established as non-negotiables that you do daily or weekly, to stay feeling good, to stay afloat. It will be your behavioural prescription. And sometimes you won't want to take your behavioural medicine. You won't always like the taste of it and you'll be drawn back to those easy options. The sofa, will often seem more appealing than the gym. But too much sofa time, without that contrast with work, productivity and meaning, will lead you to sink back into the sea of depression.

Contrast is important. The weekend feels great, because of the working week. A takeaway is a treat, because you usually cook healthy meals from scratch. Too much of a good thing dilutes it. And before you know it you can't seem to find pleasure in anything. The weekend is meaningless, because you stayed in bed all week. The takeaway is boring because you ordered one everyday for the past fortnight.

So you have your list of anti-depressants behaviours, you know which ones drag you down if you do too much of them, you've set you're non-negotiables and you're getting better at sticking to them routinely. The seas are calmer. You're happier.

But then a storm begins to brew on the horizon (the gas bill arrives, the car breaks down, you have a bad day at work or an argument with your partner). The waves get bigger and before you know it, it's difficult to stay afloat again. What we typically decide to do in these stormy moments, seems pretty dumb. And we're all susceptible to this illogical reaction: we discard our flotation device. We toss it away into the waves. We eat shit, we don't stay hydrated, we stay up late, lie in the next day, call in sick for work, cancel meeting up with a friend, skip the gym or the run we'd planned to do. Our non-negotiables, are suddenly up for negotiation and the self-sabotaging, shadow-self tries to sink us.

So, in these moments, hold onto your flotation device. Keep doing the things that make you feel good, not in the short term when you zoom into a situation, but when in the long-term, when zoomed out.

Sink or swim. Your choice.

But there's also help out there. So if you think you'd benefit from therapy, to help you manage you mood, get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.

Joe Badham

Psychotherapist at Peak Performance Psychotherapy