self help for anxiety and depressionSelf help for anxiety and depression is often as simple as changing the parts of your life that are making you miserable. If you hate your job, look for a new career. If your relationship makes you sad more often that it brings you joy, talk to your partner and work together to make the relationship better. If that doesn’t work, end it. If you’re overweight, go on a diet and start exercising. If you’re sick of being in debt, stop using credit cards to make purchases.
People are too eager to see their doctors and ask for pills to make them feel better. Pills are often unnecessary. Self help for anxiety and depression comprises accepting those things you are powerless to change and having the tenacity to change what you can. It is fear of change that stops people making progress. We are afraid of what we don’t know. Yet change is both perfectly natural and inevitable. Self help for anxiety and depression means stopping the excuses and losing the victim mentality. If it hurts when you put your fingers in the fire, stop doing it, then it won’t be necessary to ask the doctor for pills to take the pain away.
Self help for anxiety and depression also involves accepting things you can't change. Sometimes feelings of depression come from having unrealistic expectations. You might wish your spouse was more demonstrative, for example. If your husband or wife is naturally quiet, there is nothing you can do to make them an extrovert, so accept them as they are, or move on. You should also avoid comparing yourself to others. I could measure myself against a Hollywood actress such as Keira Knightley, but that would be fruitless. I will never be twenty-three again. Nor will I ever be a size zero, unless I stop eating altogether.
Self help for anxiety and depression comprises making practical changes, but avoiding unrealistic goals and knowing your limitations.