Try building these 10 tips into your everyday life and they should help bring you out of your slump and set you on your way to better mental health.
1. Get a massage
An aromatherapy massage will not only relieve tension, but the oils that are used can help ease depression. A good masseuse should ask you what you want to achieve and use scents that will help.
If you can't get down to your local massage clinic, try dropping a few drops of essential oils into a bath or burner:
- Ylang ylang oil is from a tropical tree and relieves feelings of anxiety and stress
- Jasmine is enhances mood and is also known to ease anxiety. It also helps with catarrh, coughs and laryngitis
- Rose is very soothing and is works as an anti-depressant. It also ease headaches and is good for the circulation.
2. Have sex
A side-effect of depression is a loss of interest in sex, but being intimate with a partner can have many benefits.
Psychologists have proved that having regular sex boosts our immune levels. It also helps to reduce stress, and a number of scientific studies show that it lowers anxiety, boosts relaxation and helps sleep. All of these will help fight your depression.
However, it is important that the sex is meaningful and with someone you care about. Having casual meaningless sex is more likely to make your depression deeper, because it will increase how worthless you feel about yourself.
If having sex still feels like too much of an effort, remember that even close contact like a hug with someone you care about will boost your mood and increase your 'happy' serotonin levels.
3. Spend time with friends and family
Take time out to be with people who care for you. Go out for an evening with a group of friends. You don't have to talk about yourself, but simply socialising and being with a circle of people who know you and are there for you will give you a satisfying feeling and help to boost your mood.
You're also more likely to have a laugh and joke when you're relaxed and out with friends. Laughter has also been scientifically proven to fight the symptoms of stress and increase feelgood hormones in your body that will obviously help to lift your mood and your state of mind.
4. Eat properly
We're not suggesting you only eat healthy things, but eating the wrong food can bring on the wrong mood.
You should avoid food with lots of sugar and caffeine; they may give you a burst of energy, but they later bring about anxiety and tension because they upset the blood sugar levels in your system.
There are some foods that can help lift your mood, though:
- Avocados: these are a great source of the mineral selenium, which is full of stuff to stop you feeling depressed.
- Kiwi fruit: Vitamin C is important for boosting your immune system and increasing your wellbeing and kiwis contain more than other fruit, even oranges or apples.
- Bananas: low levels of the chemical serotonin in your body are associated with depression and eating a couple of ripe bananas a day can help to increase those levels.
- Chilli: capsicum is the ingredient in chillies that make them hot. It stimulates the body and improves the circulation and also releases feelgood endorphins in the brain.
- Try our Beat The Blues Diet
5. Drink water
A lack of fluid has more than one negative effect on the body.
- Dehydration causes tiredness, which is one of the factors that can easily throw people into a depressed state.
- It stops you feeling hungry. Many people tend to think they're hungry, when they're actually thirsty. Eating when you're dehydrated will cause you to become overweight and people who are overweight are more likely to suffer from depression.
Nutritionist Amanda Geary says: "80% of people who tried having more water as a way of improving their emotional and mental health reported significant improvements. Water came out top, ahead of fruit and vegetables and oily fish."
Ideally, you should aim to drink at least two litres of water - that's about eight glasses - a day
Top tip: if you get bored with water, try the odd cup of green tea. It contains high levels of antioxidants that help fight depression and it won't dehydrate you like normal tea, because it contains no caffeine.
6. Keep a diary
Getting your head right is one of the biggest parts of coping with depression. Try setting yourself small goals every day or every week to complete and write down when you've achieved them. These goals will start to focus you into doing something specific and get actively involved in something, which means the feelings of depression are less likely to take over.
Another thing to do is write a 'thank you' journal. At the end of each day, sit down and right down five reasons why you're grateful. It might be difficult to start with, but it will remind you of the good things you're not focussing on, rather than what's making you sad.
7. Get some exercise
Research has shown that even small bursts of activity - 10-15 minutes a day - can improve people's mood.
It's not known exactly why exercise can help relieve symptoms of depression, but scientists think it's something to do with it affecting the levels of mood-enhancing transmitters in the brain and boosting feelgood endorphins - the so-called 'happy chemicals'.
Exercise also helps relax your muscles, reduces stress levels and will help you sleep better.
Try to find something you enjoy, be it walking, jogging, swimming or even dancing, because you're more likely to keep going with it.
- Five fun workouts for winter
- Find the right exercise for your age
8. Get outside
Recent research says that during winter, 90% of British adults don't get enough Vitamin D, something that is found mainly in sunlight and this is a major factor in the rise in depression.
We know that winter isn't always the most enjoyable time to get out of the house, but even being in the fresh air on a cloudy day is more beneficial than staying inside.
Although the winter days don't have the same light intensity as those in summer, even 10-15 minutes walking around outside will give you and your body a massive boost.
If it's impossible to leave the house, or office during daylight hours, try sitting near the windows in light-coloured rooms. According to a study by Essex University, even looking out of a window at nature can have significant effect on moods.
During winter, the condition SAD, seasonal affective disorder, takes hold of many people. It's a specific form of depression that usually disappears once spring comes round and the days get longer and lighter.
One cure that many sufferers use is a lightbox or lamp that produces the same sort of light that you would find on a bright summer's day.
- Read all the facts about SAD
- Read Nikki's story of how a lightbox changed her life
9. Take a supplement
Getting important vitamins and minerals into your body that you might be lacking in can help a lot.
- A cod liver oil tablet will not only boost your vitamin D levels, but also help your immune system.
- B vitamins are also crucial for your mental health. B6 is needed to process serotonin, which is the chemical that produces the happy feeling, melatonin, that helps sleeping and dopamine that is vital for your nervous system.
- Meanwhile, a lack of B3 (niacin) can bring on anxiety, while not enough B5 can cause severe depression.
- Zinc and iron also help to produce serotonin.
- Studies have also revealed that fish oil, a source of Omega-3, can help depression, so taking a supplement that contains any, or all of these could seriously lift your mood.
10. Build your self-confidence
A lack of self-esteem is known to contribute to depression, so building yourself up is important.
Obviously, when you're feeling blue, it's tough to feel good about yourself, so get a close friend to help. Ask them to write a newspaper advert for you, detailing all the good things about you. You can then carry it around with you and look at it, whenever you're feeling down.
And it's not just about how you feel inside. Force yourself to look good as well. Wear clothes that make you feel good, make the effort to do your hair and make-up - these are all things that remind you that you're worth putting a little time into.