What's your favourite 'depression busting' activity?

[Lilysparkles]

Cooking/baking etc stocking the freezer with homemade stuff i know my kids absolutely love.

[chloe12345]

I like dancing best but i wasn't on the poll.

[starla1979]

being silly , blasting music, getting a shower

[Epictetus]

A kind of self-comforting inner talk which is like hypnosis I guess.

[Handon Frypan]

I voted message boarding, but in reality, either listening to appropriate music or going out for a movie or other good activity.

[DarkRain]

Cooking foods I love!

[MaddieLouise]

Shopping. . .of course, then I get depressed about how I wasted money. . ha!

[Brokenme]

lurking on the forum.. which I've been all day oops

[Here_Now]

I don't see an option for it in the voting tool, but the only thing that seems to be helping me lately is talking with other people. I guess this is something akin to the "forum" option, but not on the same order of magnitude.

[Epictetus]

Comforting my brain with love and calming it with wisdom. Being aware of it. Being aware of all it does for me. Honoring it with no strings attached. Cherishing it. Listening to it. Hearing it. Responding to it. Being grateful for it. Being friendly to it. Being sensitive to its moods. Being sensitive to when it needs stimulation and when it needs relief. When my brain is really hurting I can comfort it sometimes just with a calming sound like shhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[starla1979]

Playing piano

[Cupcake_girl]

Mine are cleaning and cooking. Both just clear my mind, and put my thoughts on something else. I also like it that I see a result of my work haha. And also getting out of the house and do something nice, my mom is really good at making me do that even if I don't feel like it.. She just goes with lol and well I love spending time with her.

Edited November 14, 2012 by Cupcake_girl

[jmg]

Chocolate. Being with our dogs and cats. Reading on DF. Helping my grandson.

[emmabnm]

talking to people.

[Pinga]

Lately my depression busting activity has been listening to the radio!

[jmg]

This might seem weird, and maybe only works for me, but sometimes I just turn on the radio. I dont listen to news or triggering songs. Just some mindless stuff that helps to drown out my evil self-talk chatter. -jmg

[RatBoy]

I voted walking/other exercise because of the actual long-term benefits, but actually anything that occupies my mind to the extent that I don't have time to dwell on what a loser I think I am! :verysad3:

[mpcb]

I find that singing helps me with my depression. I love to learn new songs and I will blast them in my car on the way to and from work with the windows down (usually on the highway, lol) and sing my heart out. I can't stand my job, so it helps with the anxiety/ depression that accompanies the anticipation of my workday. Sometimes, when I get home and no one is there, I will put on some karaoke from youtube and practice singing. It usually helps my depression/anxiety, at least while I am singing. I think that perhaps the breathing involved in singing helps calm me as well. What I really love to do is karaoke with a live band, the energy is great and you don't have to be perfect, and for a little while, everyone is listening to you - you can feel like a rock star for a few minutes . Not many of my friends enjoy karaoke, so I'm usually relegated to "in-car performances," lol. I do take medications and therapy as well though.

[Kittybups]

Exercise all the way. Never fails to lift the cloud if only for a couple of hours. The more strenuous the better. I think it has something to do with mindfullness/being in the present moment. That coupled with doing something physical, takes my mind away from the incessant negative thought patterns.

[HappyFuntime]

Boxing.

[Epictetus]

My favorite, favorite, favorite and most helpful depression busting activity is frequently reading from a little card I keep in my pocket which contains just one word: over-simplification.

99.99% of my psychological miseries [can't speak for others] come as a result of my over-simplifying complex realities. Human organisms are very complex, made up of trillions upon trillions of things and events. That applies to you and I and everyone else. I "tend" to over-simplify myself and others and "sum up" others and myself in single words or phrases which do violence to the truth of others and myself. I take these over-simplifications as the truth when they are gross exaggerations. Here are some:

selfish, lazy, weak, cowardly, ugly, rude, deceptive, insincere, hypocritical, stingy, cheap, un-cool, angry, hot-tempered, short fused, hopeless, no good, rotten to the core, bad to the bone, self-centered, ignorant, stupid, dumb, lame, careless, disobedient, ungrateful, disrespectful, lustful, easy, slutty, proud, arrogant, a pig, a rat, a weasel, a skunk, a shark, heartless, cold-blooded, a gossip, bitter, a mouse, a scardy cat, chicken, yellow, dense, clueless.

The list is endless. Every word above I have used at some time in my life to "sum up" the complexity of someone or myself. And the over-simplification leads to misery. It isn't truth that leads to misery, it is over-simplifcation, it is an error, an untruth, a lie that leads to misery.

So when somebody says something to me or implies something about me . . . or when I say something about myself in my mind . . . I look at the card and the word "over-simplification." I realize, then, that reality is not making me miserable. It is over-simplification that is making me miserable or making the other person miserable. I can't make the world into a paradise or utopia. But I can learn to stop over-simplifying and getting hurt or letting the over-simplifications of others get to me and get me to feel hurt as a result.

What a magic little word 'over-simplification' is. What a healing word it can be. What a consoling word it can. What an enlightening word it can be. What a strengthening word it can be.

Edited July 6, 2013 by Epictetus

[Marie241]

I put exercise though chocolate runs it close. However chocolate leaves me with guilt.

[Epictetus]

It is important not to be fooled by the ignorance of others in the general society. Depression is a serious illness. It is every bit as serious as having a massive heart attack or stroke or cancer. Every bit as serious. The world doesn't expect or demand much from victims of massive heart attacks and strokes or terrible cancers. But the world expects a lot from the depressed. The world is wrong! At the very least, the world expects the depressed to feel guilty about either their depression or its consequences. Don't do either one. The world is wrong! The world sees depression as a selfish pity party. The truth is that those who are depressed do not pity themselves enough, do not take their illness seriously enough, do not say "no" or "I'm sorry I can't" often enough.

If you are suffering from serious depression, you are seriously ill. Getting better is what is important. Everything else is secondary. It would be nice if depression did not present inconveniences and little frustrations to the world at large. But it does. Too bad for the world! Depression is like the brain saying: "OK, this is serious now. Take this seriously now! Pay attention to this." That's what heart attacks and strokes say. That's what cancer says. "Wake up now. You are sick. Getting better is your number #1 priority!"

[DerkHxC]

I have found two things that really help me.

Music being one of them, whether it's playing on stage with my band, or listening to music, that's a major one. Also, I really enjoy Skateboarding, I have a skate-park a 1/2 mile down the road from me, so it also helps take away some of the thoughts and things on my mind, and it keeps me somewhat in shape.

[Epictetus]

There are brain illnesses that cause victims to suffer auditory and visual hallucinations. Depression is a brain illness that causes us to have distorted thoughts and moods. The thoughts are compelling but illusory and accompanied by vivid feelings that scream at us to take the thoughts with absolute seriousness as the truth. But the thoughts are not the truth no matter how vivid and imperative they seem. They seem to involve certain traits: negative over-generalizations, negative over-simplifications, loss of moral perspective, vividness of negative memories and amnesia about positive memories, negative mind reading, negative fortelling of the future, taking all the blame for things and so on.

As we become more depressed, the negativity becomes more vivid, more persisitent and more believable while becoming more illogical. It is like a visual hallucination that starts as seeing non-existent mice and then non-existent elephants and then non-existent pink elephants and then non-existent pink elephants talking to one's mind. It is crucial to realize that this is the illness, not reality "out there." It helps to keep a little card in one's pocket or purse to remind one: all this is the effect of the depression, no matter how real it seems, no matter how persistent, no matter how vivid. This is the brain illness manifesting itself. It helps to keep that part of oneself that is "observing" the stream of moods, feelings and thoughts, above the stream. That is the challenge of it. This is where Cognitive Behavior Therapy and other evidence based therapies help. This is just my own little finite opinion here.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Epictetus