10 Self-Care Tips for Managing Depression

Author:

Hayley Snelling

B.S. Psychology

Editor:

Emma Loker

B.S

Depression can make you feel like you’re constantly weighed down, and like life will always feel this hard.

However, making some small changes to your self-care can make a massive difference. Below you will find ten practical tips for self-care for depression. If you’re looking for ways to naturally lift your mood, you’ll find simple lifestyle tweaks and mindfulness techniques amongst other suggestions that can help you to feel like the weight has been lifted from your shoulders.

We’ll also give you three book recommendations that can be great for support and guidance as you heal from depression.

How to Improve Mental Health Naturally

Here are ten simple and natural ways to help you improve your mental health:

1. Mindfulness Techniques for Depression

Do you feel like you’re always in a rush, that it’s difficult to take a moment to smell the roses? Mindfulness and other holistic treatment methods are great ways to help you find those moments again, to be able to shut off the noise of the world for a few minutes, to breathe. It’s being aware and accepting of what’s happening right here, right now, in this moment.

Research shows that mindfulness can help reduce the symptoms of depression, including repetitive negative thoughts.¹ By practicing mindfulness, you learn to observe your thoughts without judgment and to bring your focus into the present moment.

2. Best Diet for Mental Health

Have you heard the phrase ‘good mood food’ before? It’s often used to talk about foods that do our mental health and well-being a world of good. We all know that it’s important to eat your fruits and vegetables, but what’s the research on food and how it can affect your mood?

Researchers have found links between good nutrition and low levels of depression. One particular study from 2022 found that eating a mostly Mediterranean diet could hugely reduce the symptoms of depression, with 36% of the patients in the study saying they had far fewer symptoms of depression after being on this diet in the study.² This suggests a Mediterranean diet could potentially help reduce symptoms of depression.

3. Journaling for Depression Recovery

Journaling can be a great way to get your thoughts and feelings out of your head and onto a page. It can provide an emotional release, and give you the chance to reflect and to get to know yourself better. After a few weeks of writing, you might start to notice patterns in what you are regularly doing and how it might be linked to how you feel. You could feel a new sense of clarity and understanding about yourself.

Studies show that journaling can lower the symptoms of depression, improve your mood, and boost your overall well-being.³

4. Stress Management for Depression

When you feel depressed, you don’t need any extra stress creeping in and making things more difficult for you. Stress has a huge impact on our ability to cope, whether generally or in unexpected situations, which is why managing it is so important when you feel depressed.

Studies have shown that learning how to manage stress can reduce symptoms of depression.4 Keeping this in mind, there are some helpful ways to manage your stress levels, including getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, finding relaxing hobbies, and doing breathing exercises.⁵

5. Daily Routine for Depression Recovery

When you feel depressed it can be difficult to find the motivation to do anything. You might stay up all night and sleep in the daytime, or not have regular meals and find your energy levels are at rock bottom. Having a daily routine can bring some structure at a time when depression can make things feel out of control, and help make sure your basic needs (like food and sleep) are being looked after.

Evidence suggests that making daily routines can help with mental health, especially if they ensure that our basic needs (food, hygiene, sleep) are being met.⁶

6. How Sleep Affects Depression

If you struggle with your sleep, know that you’re not alone. Depression can make your sleep worse, making it difficult to either fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up.

Studies have found that having too little sleep or too much sleep can increase the risk of depression.⁷ They discovered the best amount of sleep to get was 8 hours. Building a good sleep routine with regular wake-up and sleep times can be beneficial if you have problems with sleep and depression.

7. Exercising for Depression

Exercise isn’t just about improving your physical health – it also plays a role in managing your depression. Research shows that regular exercise can have a positive impact in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety.⁸

Exercise causes endorphins to be released in your body, which can have mood-boosting effects. It can also be a good distraction from worries and negative thoughts. It doesn’t have to be going for a 10k run either; it can be going for a walk around the block, doing some yoga, or dancing in your living room!

8. Building Resilience With Depression

Think about a challenge from your past when something didn’t go as planned. How did you react? Did you bounce back, or did you feel like falling apart? When you have good resilience, you find it easier to recover from these setbacks. Resilience doesn’t make the problems disappear, but it can help you to work through them better. It’s possible to learn skills to become more resilient.

Studies have shown that this type of psychological resilience helps you to feel less impacted by symptoms of depression and able to recover better.⁹

9. Social Connection to Ease Depression

Let’s face it; we’re not built to survive or thrive on our own, we need other people. Being with others lets you feel connected and supported, able to share your problems, and have others understand you. It shows you that others can help when your load is too heavy to carry alone.

Research shows that good social connections are one of the strongest factors that protect you against depression.¹⁰ Whether it’s a friend, family member, or support group, it’s good to spend some time with others and remind yourself that you are not alone.

10. Doing Things You Enjoy to Relieve Depression

Doing things you enjoy is a great way to bring some light back into your life when you feel depressed. But what if you don’t enjoy doing anything anymore? While you can’t (and shouldn’t!) force yourself to enjoy things, you can encourage yourself to do some of the things that used to bring you pleasure.

Researchers found having a hobby is linked to lower levels of depression and an uplift in happiness, so it may be the right time for you to pick up an old pastime again.¹¹ Even if it doesn’t instantly lift your mood, it might give you a nice break from the negative thoughts and worries that go around your head.

Best Self-Help Books for Depression

When it feels difficult to know how to best help yourself, a great book can offer guidance and hope. Three great self-help books for managing depression are:

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, by David Burns: David Burns outlines scientifically proven techniques that will lift your spirits and help you develop a positive outlook on life.
The Mindful Way Through Depression – Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness, by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn: Four experts deliver lessons drawn from mindfulness and cognitive therapy to demonstrate how to sidestep mental habits that lead to despair so that you can face life’s challenges with greater resilience.
The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living, by Russ Harris: Using the six principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), the author helps you to handle painful thoughts and feelings more effectively, break self-defeating habits, and create a richer and more meaningful life.

Getting Support for Depression

There are many different types of support available for you on your journey to recovery, including therapy, medications, guided self-help, and holistic approaches like mindfulness, yoga, and nutrition.

Several different therapy approaches have been found to be useful in reducing the symptoms of depression, such as:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT for depression is a form of therapy that delves into your unhealthy thoughts and feelings, and challenges these with more positive, healthy ones. Within research, CBT is shown to be highly effective for treating depression.¹²
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): DBT can help you manage the intense emotions and self-damaging behaviors that often happen alongside depression. With the help of your therapist, you’ll learn new coping strategies, so life feels more manageable. Research shows that DBT can be as beneficial for people with depression as traditional medication.¹³
Mindfulness-Based Therapy: Mindfulness-based therapy is a therapy approach that focuses on your present-day struggles, helping you lessen the impact of your difficult thoughts and feelings on your life and depression. This approach can help you become more aware of your thoughts and develop new strategies to cope.¹⁴
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT): IPT is supposedly as effective as medication for treating depression. It works by helping you understand your personal relationships and how difficulties within these may be contributing to your depression symptoms.¹⁵

Reach Out for Treatment for Depression

At Mission Connection, we are here to help you on the road to recovery. When you choose our services, you can expect a thorough assessment by a qualified professional and a completely individualized plan to help you feel better again. We will provide you with ongoing support as well as the skills you need to manage your depression, either through inpatient treatment, outpatient therapeutic support, or a combination of the two!

Ready to take your first step on your healing journey? Contact us today to find out how we can support you.

References

Li, P., Mao, L., Hu, M., Lu, Z., Yuan, X., Zhang, Y., & Hu, Z. (2022). Mindfulness on Rumination in Patients with Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 16101. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192316101
Bayes, J., Schloss, J., & Sibbritt, D. (2022). The effect of a Mediterranean diet on the symptoms of depression in young males (the “AMMEND: A Mediterranean Diet in MEN with Depression” study): a randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 116(2), 572–580. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqac106
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De Risio, L., Pettorruso, M., Collevecchio, R., Collacchi, B., Boffa, M., Santorelli, M., Clerici, M., Martinotti, G., Zoratto, F., & Borgi, M. (2023). Staying connected: An umbrella review of meta-analyses on the push-and-pull of social connection in depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 345, 358–368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.10.112
Mak, H. W., Noguchi, T., Bone, J. K., Wels, J., Gao, Q., Kondo, K., Saito, T., & Fancourt, D. (2023). Hobby engagement and mental wellbeing among people aged 65 years and older in 16 countries. Nature Medicine, 29(9), 2233–2240. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02506-1
Cuijpers, P., Berking, M., Andersson, G., Quigley, L., Kleiboer, A., & Dobson, K. S. (2013). A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Adult Depression, Alone and in Comparison with other Treatments. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 58(7), 376–385. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371305800702
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