Please excuse the Star-Trek reference for those who don't like the show!
I've been using a number tools to overcome depression, stemming from
knowledge and understanding of how the human mind works and,
essentially, "hacking" my brain into doing what...
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Please excuse the Star-Trek reference for those who don't like the show!
I've been using a number tools to overcome depression, stemming from
knowledge and understanding of how the human mind works and,
essentially, "hacking" my brain into doing what I want. To begin with,
there are some basic principles I'd like to highlight upon which my
methods are based: 1. Self-Fulfilling Profecies I first came to see this
as a tool for hacking my brain when researching motivation.
Self-fulfilling prophecies are very useful in terms of increased
motivation and performance and can be used to help overcome fears and
more. 2. Turn it arround This concept is often used to help adjust
negative thought patterns but this method has some specific ways in
which you can apply the concept of turning it around. 3. Data, data,
data. I don't have a reference for this, it's just something that I find
that I need to do in order to actually make a difference to myself. I
record everything I can think of. 4. Using project management tools on
your own mental health to set goals. See: SMART criteria and SWOT
analysis I was first exposed to these tools in my job and I realised
that I can apply them to anything and everything. The benefit of using
these tools begins with the simple fact that they make you think more
deeply about your goals; that mere fact means you're more likely to
succeed! (Also see point 1, Self-Fulfilling Prophecies) 5. Reward
yourself Reward system and Anhedonia This one is important; when you're
depressed things are more difficult to do but you still see them as
trivial, like taking a shower for example, so you tell yourself that
it's not a big deal it was just taking a shower and then you make
yourself feel worse by thinking that it was so hard for you to do such a
trivial thing. Rewarding yourself means recognising that the task was
difficult for you in your current situation and yet you did it anway,
and this is an achievement worthy of celebration and reward. Choose your
reward carefully so as to not become dependent on something (don't
reward yourself with food, alcohol, cigarettes or anything else that has
a negative health impact.) 1. Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, an example: I
pretty common self-fulfilling prophecy that I encounter is "I can't do
it". Say I set out to go for a run first thing in the morning, that's my
goal. In my depressed state I'm going to tell myself, "I can't do it".
The problem here is that "I can't do it" comes with reasons why I can't
do it. I'm hopeless. I'm a failure. I can't do anything. And thus, when
I do fail to go for a run in the morning, I confirm my prophecy that I
can't do it and, by proxy, all of the negative "facts" associated with
it. I am hopeless; I couldn't go for a run this morning as was my goal,
this is proof. 2. Instead, we need to "Turn it around": Start by asking
yourself the questions; "Is it true?", If yes, "Can you know absolutely
that it's true?", "How do you react and what happens when you believe
that thought?" and "Who would you be without the thought?", then proceed
to turn it around. "I can do it." Elaborate on why you CAN do it.
3.Data, data, data. Write it all down. Write down all the thoughts and
questions and answers associated with it. The act of writing it will
help make it more real, additionally it will help to guide you as a
reference. For example, I like to keep a table (I work in IT so I do
most of my data on a computer) in Excel with all of the things that make
me feel good about myself. I like to keep a list of all of my
achievements. Write down my negative thoughts and my turn-arounds; but I
don't just list them, I write down my thoughts. How does it make me
feel? Why does it make me feel like that? I explore as deeply as I can
all aspects of how I'm feeling and I find that I discover things about
myself and my feelings that, often times, surprise the heck out of me.
4. For bigger goals, I've started using project management tools to
elaborate on my goals and help give me direction. For example, I want to
start running in the mornings. I want to eventually run for 5km every
morning. Combining the SMARTER and the SWOT helped me to identify my
strengths, weaknesses, obstacles, what I actually want from it, my
motivation and how I will actually know when I've succeeded. Most
importantly, this knowledge then helps you get off the ground. Clearly
it's an arduous task to suddenly one morning get up and run for 30
minutes every day. So how will I start? I'll just run around the block,
it's 5 minute run, if that. Motivation? I'll involve my partner. If I
don't get up to go for the run, she'll poke me and say hey, let's go --
just that little bit of extra help to get moving. I can come up with
these things because I put thought into my goal and how I was going to
achieve it. Again, writing all this down helps make it more real; 6
months down the track I can say that for certain I've reached my goal
because I wrote it down. It's solid, it's concrete, it's rewarding to
tick things off that list. 5. Reward yourself. Finally, stop comparing
yourself to everyone else. You wouldn't beat yourself up because you
couldn't run as fast a Usain Bolt, especially if all you've ever done
was jog on a treadmill for 20 minutes 3 times a week. It's an entirely
different field; wait until you're on the track next to Usain Bold
before you start comparing yourself to him. Realise that what's
difficult for you is just that, difficult for you. If running for 20
minutes on a treadmill is difficult for you, it's an achievement when
you do it, and even more so when you exceed it. So reward yourself for
the small victories, give yourself a pat on the back, congratulate
yourself on a job well done and move on to the next goal. Write it down
as a victory! Extra: Be positive about things when you're writing them
down even if you don't believe it at the time. Associate positive
feelings with things. It can be another one of your goals to associate a
positive feeling with everything that's good even if you don't
necessarily feel it! Disclaimer: Applying these things to yourself is
obviously an individual thing and these things are all based on my own
experience. Additionally, depending on where you're at with depression
it can be a near impossible task to think of things logically like this;
I still struggle to do it on my really bad days.
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