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Find Out Why Depression Happens and How to Help Yourself

A Depression Self-Help Guide

Everyone has their bad days when they feel under the weather and when they just want to stay in bed. But there are some of us that cannot shake the blues. Depression can persist for days, making it difficult to work, take care of the family, and perform everyday tasks. There are many causes of depression. It is something that cannot be ignored if it goes on for more than a week, especially if there is no reason to be feeling down.

The following is an overview of what major factors could contribute to a person experiencing depression:

  • Life events that are causing stress
  • Any medical problems
  • Medication side effect
  • Imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain
  • Genetic factors

Different depression disorders may arise from these factors. They are major depression, persistent depressive disorder, psychotic depression, postpartum depression, seasonal affective disorder, and bipolar disorder.

  1. Major depression – If you have major depression, the symptoms will be severe enough to interfere with your work, sleep, and other areas of your life. It usually is situational, where someone close dies, for example. This type of depression can occur multiple times in a lifetime.
  2. Persistent depressive disorder – This disorder is one that lasts for at least 2 years in duration. This person will have episodes of major depression along with less severe symptoms in between.
  3. Postpartum depression – If you just had a baby and feel overwhelmingly helpless, this could be attributed to postpartum depression. Hormonal changes and having the responsibility of a newborn can bring this on.
  4. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – This condition comes about in the winter months when there is less natural light and shorter days. The depression then goes away in the spring and summer months. SAD can be treated with light therapy or antidepressant medication.
  5. Bipolar disorder — Bipolar disorder is not as common as the others. It is called manic-depressive disorder also. A person afflicted would experience extreme highs and extreme lows in mood. This is usually due to a chemical imbalance in the brain

How Can I Help Myself If I Am Depressed?

When you have depression, you will feel exhausted and helpless. All hope will seem to be lost. It will take everything in you to get up and do anything about it. It is imperative that you seek help to get better. You can do things for yourself as well if you follow these depression self-help guidelines:

Self-Care

Ahhh, self-care – a buzz word in today’s society, and for very good reason, too!

In an ever-changing world that is increasingly reliant on technology and less focused on face-to-face interaction, self-care often hits the wayside. Maria Baratta Ph.D., L.C.S.W, defines self-care as “the mindful taking time to pay attention to you, not in a narcissistic way, but in a way that ensures that you are being cared for by you.”

Self-care means different things to different people. For example, an athlete with a frenetic lifestyle may get massages weekly because it feels good to their body. A teacher with a free period may use that period to quietly play music while grading papers rather than interact with other teachers. A nurse may choose to use her lunch break to meditate away from a busy unit.

Practicing self-care is important to everyone, regardless of their career or age. It is especially important to those with mental health disorders.

Connection

Sure, a weekly or monthly appointment with a therapist might be essential, but find a connection with at least one friend or a close family member who you can speak with.

Discussing your feelings, problems, and emotions might be difficult, but making that connection with someone that you love and trust will make it easier.

Bonus: once you get used to sharing with this person or group of people, it will get easier to open up as time goes on.

Get Moving

The last thing that you may want to do is exercise but exercising produces endorphins. It is common knowledge that endorphins make us happier.

If you’ve never been someone who has exercised before, experiment with different types of exercise. You don’t need to purchase an expensive gym membership to reap the benefits!

Seek out community exercise classes, attend a yoga class, find a barre class on YouTube, or simply put on a pair of tennis shoes and take a walk or a slow jog! Make it even more fun by asking your children to dance with you or seeking out an accountability partner to exercise with you.

Yes, it is hard to get off the couch when we’re feeling pretty awful – but studies indicate that exercise actually helps the brain produce new neurons.

This may not mean that you’re ready to kick your antidepressant – but it is a great way to feel better.

Meditation

Anecdotally, I can tell you that meditation has improved my life immensely. I can’t tell you that my mental health has improved by X% in X amount of days, but I can tell you that the practice of meditation has been life-changing.

I started a meditation practice when I was getting ready for a craniotomy. I already had anxiety, but it worsened with all the “what ifs” of the procedure. I relied heavily on the meditation practice during my recovery – and a year and a half later, my meditation practice is going strong.

As an anxious person, I still have a difficult time quieting my mind. I rely on guided meditations. However, when a guided meditation isn’t available to me (like a busy story or a traffic jam) I practice breathing exercises or repeat mantras.

Journal

Cliché, yes. Essential? Definitely.

I keep notebooks all over my house. I always carry a planner and several mini-Moleskin notebooks with me. Why? Because I need to jot down my thoughts and feelings at a moment’s notice.

Without a pen and paper, how can I dissect my interactions with others that would otherwise cause my distress? How else would I be able to lament about the issues in my life that are causing me to feel badly about myself? How else can I also keep track of the progress I’ve made in improving my mental health?

Journaling is probably the most powerful tool in my depression self-help repertoire.

Find Your Thing

Find the self-care “tool” that makes you feel great. Something that you can rely on that will make your body and mind feel amazing.

For me, I read books. I buy them on my Kindle. I purchase them from Amazon and Target. I check them out from the library. I trade with friends. I always have a stack of books on my bedside. I am never without a book to read.

I also get monthly massages. It is an indulgence that I save up for – and as a bonus, I see a massage therapist who is also skilled in working with my migraines.

What is something that you can do for yourself that will make you feel great?

Test – Use a Form Backup for Gravity Forms (See How It Works)

Always Greater Changes Tool (Backup Test)

Wistia Test Post

VIDEO 1 TEST (WEBINAR TEST)

ARVE Error: No oembed src detected




VIDEO 2 TEST

ARVE Error: No oembed src detected




Let’s see if I can add text under a Wistia video like this…

Or for another example, go to training courses here: https://depressionstrategy.com/module-1/video-walkthrough-plugins-use-sell-online-courses-website/

SHOW/HIDE TEST

19 Finance Websites Worth Checking Out

If you’re interested in finance and making more money, here are 19 websites we found that might be of interest to you.

Check them out for yourself and see what you think!

1. The Wall Street Journal

WSJ online coverage of breaking news and current headlines from the US and around the world. Top stories, photos, videos, detailed analysis and in-depth reporting.

2. SmartBrief

SmartBrief brings you the most important business news. Editors curate top stories from more than 10,000 credible sources & summarize them for you.

3. The New York Times

Find breaking news & business news on Wall Street, media & advertising, international business, banking, interest rates, the stock market, currencies & funds.

4. CNNMoney

The world’s largest business website, CNNMoney is CNN’s exclusive business site with business, markets, technology, media, luxury, personal finance and small business news.

5. MarketWatch

MarketWatch provides the latest stock market, financial and business news. Get stock market quotes, personal finance advice, company news and more.

6. TIME

Get breaking news and analysis from TIME.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science and entertainment news.

7. Calculated Risk

A top ranked economics and finance blog with a focus on the housing market.

8. Fox Business

FoxBusiness.com provides he latest news on business, investments and stock market events and data.

9. StockTrader

Daily market recaps subscribed by over 17,000 investors along with hundreds of stock education articles and the Trade Journal tool.

10. MoneyWeek

Intelligent, easy-to-read analysis of the financial news, with practical investment advice and share tips from MoneyWeek, the UK’s best selling financial magazine.

11. Market Folly

Daily updates on what top hedge funds are investing in: SEC filings, 13D, 13G, 13F, hedge fund investor letters, buyside investment conferences.

12. 20s Money

Aggressive yet responsible wealth building for 20-somethings.

13. CEOWORLD Magazine

CEOWORLD magazine is the world’s leading business magazine and news site for CEOs, CFOs, entrepreneurs, senior executives, and business leaders.

14. Free Money Wisdom

A personal finance blog dedicated to helping average Americans manage their finances, grow their money, learn frugal habits, retire early, and reach financial freedom!

15. Finance Questions and Answers

Finance QA is a finance questions and answers platform that helps you get answers to your personal finance questions.

16. Trading with Rayner

Trading with Rayner is a trading community dedicated to helping traders succeed.

17. Olivier Desbarres Website

The website of Olivier Desbarres offers commentary on the latest financial news from around the world.

18. The Hip Pocket

The Hip Pocket is a money and career hub for young people, by young people.

19. Trader Tim

Trader Tim’s blog shares trading tips as well as trading strategies and insights. It is aims to help traders learn from his trading successes and failures.

Another Test Post

Another test post to see if the first line is too big…

Hopefully not…

See how this…

This…

This…

This…
This…

looks.

Test Post

This is a test post to see if comments are added… (Weird, the first line isn’t larger anymore, after messing with stuff!!!)

And to see if the first line really is larger, which is strange to me…

But what can you do?

Here is an H2 header

I write some stuff…

Here is an H3 header…

I write some stuff…

Presumably, I have limited revisions to 1… Will that work here?

Thrive Leads Testing

Here’s where I’m testing different Thrive Leads options for how to do things WITHOUT using ThriveBoxes.

Thrive Leads Shortcodes

Below is a thrive leads with an id of 1367. An earlier example or a shortcode, before I mastered making the entire shortcode a button.

book

FREE DEPRESSION TRAINING: 5 Steps for Beating Depression the Easy Way

Now, here is a shortcode that is entirely a button:

Thrive Lead Group (Clickable Text)

NOTE: Only ONE LEAD GROUP can be active on any page at any time, so these clickable links won’t work if the Free Depression Training links at the bottom are activated. (They have ranking priority, so they will be activated, rather than these other tests.)

Here is a Thrive Leads workaround for adding in text and then clicking on it, WITHOUT using ThriveBoxes.

To see it in action, click this test for a popup and see what happens…

And here is a second text link for a popup to prove multiple text links work.

Still a work in progress: figuring out how to connect a Thrive Lead Group to a BUTTON popup (examples below don’t work yet).

Here Is a Mega Button Test for POPUP Link

Now a more simple button:

REAL Tests with Thrive Lead Groups

Have to enable lead group to work on this test post page. Then after that…

Do this: Get 5 Steps for Beating Depression the Easy Way and get a popup…

And do it again here for a popup to prove multiple text links work.

Here is a button:

BUTTON EXAMPLES (IDENTIFY CLASSES TO TEST WITH GRAVITY FORMS)

Large Green Button
Red Mega Button

 

5 Steps Webinar Video (Test)

You can go here to go to the webinar video to see if you can see it (or if it’s closed for enrollment).

 

GRAVITY FORM TEST(S)

AJAX VERSION…

Note: I originally added custom CSS to make a nicer Gravity Form button, but the only problem with that is that it adds an “Empty Cart” WooCommerce button to the top of the page, which I don’t like. (See code below).

CODE FOR BUTTON (THAT ADDS CART ICON, UNFORTUNATELY) IS:

/* Submit Button Gravity Forms
—————————–*/
body .gform_wrapper .gform_footer input[type=submit] {
color: #FFFFFF;
background: #ED3330;
font-size: 19px;
letter-spacing: 1px;
text-transform: uppercase;
float: left;
height: 60px;
min-width: 280px;
border: none;
border-radius: 5px;
margin-left: 12px;
}

body .gform_wrapper .gform_footer input:hover[type=submit] {
background: #494949;
}

Test: Free Depression Training (Shortcode)

Here’s is the shortcode for this:

book

FREE DEPRESSION TRAINING: 5 Steps for Beating Depression the Easy Way

And another test to see what this is all about:

Trigger goes here

First WordPress Post Test: Here Is a Title, Let’s See What Happens

Why is the text at the beginning larger?
So if I’m writing a post, I’ll continue writing it like this. And then I will add more content, and do more stuff with it, until eventually I’ll have an H2 header.
Like this:

Here is an H2 header

Then I’ll write some more. And here is a link.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris et elit sodales, tincidunt nulla eu, interdum ex. Cras arcu neque, congue ut risus ut, viverra pharetra elit. Sed ut eleifend tellus. Cras pretium risus ut nisi accumsan egestas. Nunc mattis nisl quis dui rutrum maximus. Donec elementum pellentesque quam, at blandit tortor. Donec eu vehicula ligula. Nulla ex tortor, pharetra ut placerat ut, rhoncus eget nisi. Cras sem neque, fringilla non ultricies vel, pharetra a diam. Ut pellentesque metus id justo suscipit commodo. Proin orci justo, suscipit et elit a, mollis ullamcorper sem. Ut scelerisque fermentum lorem nec scelerisque. Mauris nibh ligula, gravida sed enim eu, dictum laoreet erat. Aliquam ut purus nec tortor pulvinar tincidunt vitae id lacus. Sed id nisi quis ante venenatis pulvinar. In hac habitasse platea dictumst.

H3 Header

Integer eros risus, sollicitudin quis lectus vitae, scelerisque consequat leo. Cras vitae augue sodales, porttitor nibh eget, scelerisque ipsum. Ut tincidunt arcu ut maximus dapibus. Fusce sed ante sit amet risus aliquam euismod. Cras ac viverra eros. Sed faucibus lorem ac dignissim varius. Etiam dictum libero sit amet vehicula lacinia. Praesent ante tellus, ornare at auctor a, feugiat vitae ante. Pellentesque mollis blandit ornare. Sed eu leo lorem. Donec bibendum vitae nulla eget eleifend. Nulla vel sem quis est cursus accumsan. Integer hendrerit tempus elit, nec tempus ligula auctor dignissim. Donec a nisl et sapien pulvinar interdum at vitae sem. Aliquam et varius nulla, sed consectetur diam.
Nam non ipsum id erat convallis vestibulum. Nunc ornare gravida est, nec aliquet metus gravida in. Vestibulum luctus quam lorem. Quisque vulputate elementum est in placerat. Aliquam facilisis, nulla sed malesuada facilisis, lacus sapien tristique ipsum, et sodales enim nulla eu ipsum. Fusce lacinia leo ante, a venenatis risus aliquet ac. Duis a commodo sem. Mauris sit amet magna volutpat, maximus urna eu, ullamcorper mauris.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec eu mollis nulla. Proin tristique, mi at tincidunt convallis, erat nisi sagittis tellus, id ornare diam risus vel purus. Aenean scelerisque diam ut sodales congue. Aliquam quis ornare turpis, non malesuada nisl. Nullam id tellus dictum, rutrum quam nec, maximus magna. Curabitur vehicula fermentum euismod. Quisque interdum dignissim viverra. Nullam et mi est. Nullam condimentum ullamcorper turpis sed tincidunt. Cras tempor, tortor pulvinar consectetur gravida, dui dolor molestie odio, ac viverra sapien elit eu quam. Morbi gravida, velit et viverra bibendum, lacus dui ultrices neque, non dictum dui nisi non augue. Suspendisse sagittis dignissim mauris, sed lacinia odio viverra in. Cras nec elit commodo nisi scelerisque hendrerit ut et lorem.
Proin ornare aliquam est, sit amet blandit enim blandit sit amet. Etiam ante dolor, efficitur eget leo quis, semper maximus purus. Nam ac tristique leo. Fusce at mauris eleifend, consectetur ante at, fermentum urna. Etiam felis quam, condimentum at sollicitudin a, tempus ac enim. In sed odio eu lacus iaculis fermentum volutpat sed est. Sed et iaculis erat. Donec eget maximus eros, non vestibulum nunc.

Would you recommend the depression training you have received so far? If so, what is the #1 reason?
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Here is a review by John Doe... Maybe I will enter an image later, maybe not...

John Doe
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