If you’ve read the previous blog posts in this series on depression management, you would be familiar with the definition of depression, the ways to identify if you or someone you know is going through it, and the stigma that still exists around depression in our society.

While this knowledge is important and fundamental to any serious literature on depression, we’ll now get down to the brass tacks in this post – namely what are the simple steps you can take to fight depression, overcome it, and prevent it from recurring. With the right resources and support, anyone is capable of overcoming depression and bouncing back to a jovial life!

Step #1 – Consult Your Doctor

Even before you visit a psychiatrist, it’s important to rule out other causes of symptoms that you may have associated with depression. That means getting a thorough check-up and guidance from a trusted doctor. Run through the various tests to see if vitamins, magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron, and other nutrients are at required levels. Deficiency of any of these could have an impact on your mood, energy levels, and mental health.

Step #2 – Find the Right Therapist

Once you’re certain there’s no significant variation in your nutrient levels, it’s time to seek help from a professional counsellor, or better yet a trained psychiatrist who can do a complete evaluation before putting you in touch with a therapist. It’s important that you search for someone whom you can connect well with, as you’ll need to open up about what you’re going through for them to help you. Find comfort in a non-judgmental, neutral third person.

Step #3 – Introduce Exercise in Your Routine

While this may sound like a no-brainer, we cannot stress enough upon this step. Consistent body movement has been found to show drastic improvement in various states and stages of depression. A mere 10 to 20-minute walk is all it takes to produce endorphins or your body’s happy hormones, which are essential for the brain and mental health.

Step #4 – Improve Your Quality of Sleep

This is again something we’ve all heard enough about, but few of us tend to follow it religiously. Studies have proven time and again how quality sleep can boost your mood and reduce depression symptoms. If you are someone who struggles with sleep, here are some quick tips to promote good sleep hygiene:

• Fix a particular time to hit the bed, and stick to that routine
• Keep away from all screen activity at least an hour before bedtime
• Avoid consumption of caffeine close to bedtime as it stimulates brain activity
• Make sure your room is dark and cool, away from bright sources of light
• Ensure there is no noise where you sleep/ limit external noise for a calm environment

Step #5 – Create a Life of Purpose

Keeping yourself occupied with something rewarding that you like doing is one way to battle depression. When you commit to a cause that is bigger than you and devote your time to a passion project, you’ll find focus automatically shifts to constructive thoughts. A good initiative on this front could be taking up some form of community service that you identify with.

Step #6 – Alter Your Diet

You might find this fact interesting – 90% of the serotonin, a mood enhancing hormone, which gets released in the human body is produced in the digestive tract. Do you need more reason to improve your gut health? By altering your diet to include probiotics, more whole foods, multivitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids, you’ll see significant improvement in gut health over time.

Step #7 – Practise Mindfulness and Meditation

Last but certainly not the least, add 10 to 20 minutes of meditation to your schedule, every single day. You’ll find it helps you achieve a more tranquil state of mind. Begin your day with mindfulness and see how your outlook changes completely over the course of the day. There are plenty of online resources – apps, articles, and communities that can help you cultivate and stick to this lifechanging habit.

That concludes the seven actionable steps to overcome depression and this blog on depression management with your coach Manoj Radhakrishna. Keep an open mind and use this knowledge to help yourself or someone else. That being said, depression is no trivial matter and as we’ve highlighted in #2 usually requires the intervention of a trusted mental health professional. If you know somebody who is battling depression, the least you can do is to offer help through open, non-judgmental conversations. It’s high time you and the ones you care about lived a depression-free life.