We need to know types of depression.
My sister called me to say that she is depressed. She has been taking anti-depressants for years. I was able to tell her that she does not have “clinical depression.” As a former licensed therapist, clinical depression is the inability to do daily tasks like cooking, sleeping, loss of humor, thoughts or threats of suicide, isolation, or the inability to have normal relationships with those around us. Such depression needs the intervention of medical people.
My sister is facing the “blues” that all of us are facing with covid-19. She may need to increase her current dose, but she is not clinically depressed.
Here are some tips to cope with the normal depression we all must face at this time:
1) exercise, even if it is daily walk.
2) cultivate a new hobby.
3) decrease or eliminate alcohol consumption.
4) have a gratitude journal. Each day WRITE one thing for which you are grateful.
5) read The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon who gives personal stories that helped people deal with depression without medicine, (he spent a lifetime trying to understand and counter his depression). It is absolutely the best book on depression ever written and avoids the simplistic reasons that most books talk about.
6) another magazine called “Mental Health: a new explanation” by Time Special Editions published in June is available on store shelves. Mental Health issues tend to increase in times of disaster.
