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Welcome To Dems PC Consulting, Portland Oregon!

By Mary Ellen Copeland, M.S., M.A.

When you are depressed it is often very hard to think clearly or make any decisions. It is also hard to think of anything to do to help yourself feel better. This brochure will help you take positive action in your own behalf.

Keep in Mind

See Your Doctor

Depression is serious. You need to see a general physician as soon as possible-- don't wait longer than a few days. The sooner you get treatment, the sooner you will feel better. You need an appointment with your physician for a complete physical examination to see if there is a medical condition that is causing or worsening your depression, to plan your treatment and for possible referral to a specialist. If you do not have a physician, contact a mental health organization in your area for a recommendation.

If any of the following apply to you, insist on an appointment within 24 hours or ask a friend or family member to do it for you (it's hard to do things for yourself when you are depressed).

Ask a family member or friend to stay with you until it is time for your appointment. Make sure you keep the appointment.

When you see your doctor, take a complete listing of all medications and health care preparations you are using for any reason, and any unusual, uncomfortable or painful symptoms.

Self Help Techniques You Can Use to Help Yourself Feel Better

1. Tell a good friend or family member how you feel-ask them if they have some time to listen to you. Tell them not to interrupt with any advice, criticism or judgments. Assure them that you can discuss what to do about the situation after you get done talking, but that just talking with no interruptions will help you feel better.

Your friends and family members may not know what to say. You can tell them to say any of the following:

"I'm sorry you are having such a hard time."

"What can I do to help?"

"Tell me how you feel."

"I'm here to listen."

"I love you."

"You are very special to me. I want you to get well."

"You will feel better. You will get well."

2. Get some exercise. Any movement, even slow movement will help you feel better-- climb the stairs, take a walk, sweep the floor.

3. Spend at least one half hour outdoors every day, even if it is cloudy or rainy.

4. Let as much light into your home or work place as possible--roll up the shades, turn on the lights.

5. Eat healthy food. Avoid sugar, caffeine, alcohol and heavily salted foods. If you don't feel like cooking, ask a family member or friend to cook for you, order take out, or buy a healthy frozen dinner.

6. If you are having lots of negative thoughts or obsessing about difficult issues and hard times, divert your attention away from these thoughts by doing something you really enjoy, something that makes you feel good--like working in your garden, watching a funny video, working on a craft project, playing with a small child or your pet, buying yourself a treat like a new CD or a magazine, reading a good book or watching a ball game.

7. Relax! Sit down in a comfortable chair, loosen any tight clothing and take several deep breaths. Starting with your toes, focus your attention on each part of your body and let it relax. When you have relaxed your whole body, notice how it feels. Then focus your attention on a favorite scene, like a warm day in spring or a walk at the ocean, for at least 10 minutes.

8. If you are having trouble sleeping, try some of the following suggestions: drink a glass of warm milk, eat some turkey and/or drink a cup of chamomile tea before going to bed before going to bed:

9. Ask a family member, friend or co-worker to take over some or all of your responsibilities for several days--like child care, household chores, work-related tasks so you have time to do the things you need to to take care of yourself.

10. Keep your life as simple as possible. If it doesn't really need to be done, don't do it.

11. Avoid negative people who make you feel bad or irritated. Do not allow yourself to be abused in any way. Physical or emotional abuse can cause or worsen depression. If you are being physically or emotionally abused, ask your health care provider or a good friend to help you figure out what to do.

12. Avoid making any major decisions like career, relationship and housing changes until you feel better.

Things to Do After You Begin Feeling Better

1. Educate yourself about depression so that if you ever get depressed again, you and your supporters will know exactly what to do.

2. Become an effective advocate for yourself--figure out what you need and want for yourself, and then work toward it until you get it.

3. Develop and keep a strong support system of at least five supporters, people you feel comfortable with, trust and enjoy. If you don't have five supporters, make some new friends by joining a support group, attending community events, or taking an interesting course.

4. Write a plan to keep yourself well. Include lists of:

Ask your health care providers, family members and friends for help in developing these plans.

5 Beginning Steps for Dealing with Trauma

Did you know that bad things that have happened to you in your life can cause or worsen psychiatric symptoms? There is more and more research that is confirming the strong connection between traumatic life events and psychiatric symptoms. If you feel this is true for you, medications may help you be able to do some work on this issue (you can decide about that) but there are other things you will need to do. Begin with the following.

1. When you are traumatized, you lose control of your life. You may feel like you still don't have any control over your life. You have to take back that control by being in charge of every aspect of your life. Others, including your spouse, family members, friends and health care professionals will try to tell you what to do. Before you do it, think about it carefully. Do you feel that it is the best thing for you to do right now? If not, you should not do it. It is important that you make decisions about your own life.

2. Talk to one or more people about what happened to you. Make sure it is a person or people who understand that what happened to you is serious and that describing it over and over again to another person is part of the healing process. It should not be a person who says something like: "That wasn't so bad." "You should just forget about it." "Forgive and forget." or "You think that's bad, let me tell you what happened to me." You will know when you have described it enough, because you won't feel like doing it anymore. Writing about it in your journal also helps a lot.

3. You may not feel close to anyone. You may feel like there is no one you can trust. Begin now to develop close relationships with another person. Think about the person in your life that you like best. Invite them to do something fun with you. If that feels good, make a plan to do something else together at another time--maybe the following week. Keep doing this until you feel close to this person. Then, without giving up on that person, start developing a closer relationship with another person. Keep doing this until you have close relationships with at least five people. Support groups and peer support centers are good places to meet people.

4. If you possibly can, work with a counselor or join a group for people who have been traumatized.

5. Develop a Wellness Recovery Action Plan so you can do what you need to stay well, and so you can effectively respond to symptoms whenever they come up.

Look for the self help book on relieving the effects of trauma that I wrote with Maxine Harris. It came out in the fall of 1999