Feeling low?

Have you been feeling low of late? It is often difficult to know at what point to ask for help when you have been feeling low. Depression is a term used by people when they are feeling low or having a bad period but at what stage does this become what doctors would call depression.

Depression is diagnosed based on the following criteria:
- persistent sadness or low mood;and/or
- loss of interests or pleasure
- fatigue or low energy
at least one of these, most days, most of the time for at least 2 weeks

symptoms should be present for a month or more and every symptom should be present for most of every day.

Does this ring any bells?

If it does there a number of things you can start to look at to try to help - things that doctors refer to as lifestyle measures.

Alcohol - although this can sometimes numb your feelings and make you feel better at the time, alcohol actually acts as a depressant and will worsen feelings of low mood. For this reason if you are feeling low alcohol is best either avoided altogether or consumed in very modest amounts

Exercise - the positive effects of cardiovascular exercise on health are widely recognised, but few people appreciate that it actually has a very positive effect people's mental health. Exercise releases endorphins which are the body's natural "feel good" hormones and can help to combat stress, anxiety and depression. Some form of exercise that gets you out of breath and gets your heart rate up for more than 30 minutes at least 3 times a week is recommended

Diet - eat healthily and make sure that you don't skip meals. Also look to reduce caffeine intake in things like tea, coffee, chocolate and some energy or carbonated drinks. These all tend to give you temporary increases in energy but then leave you feeling more tired afterwards.

There are also a number of helpful web resources available to you. A really good online resource is http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/ this is based on cognitive behavioural therapy and goes through some of the things a counsellor would begin to cover if you were to see them. It is free and something I regularly recommend to my patients. Another really good resource is the self help pamphlet developed by Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS trust. Again this follows a very CBT approach which is a common sense and pragmatic way of looking at the thought processes around depression.

I have also put together a list of the books that I find useful for patients and these are found at the bottom of the blog.

As you can see there is much you can do to help yourself, but if you are suffering from the symptoms listed above it is really sensible to seek attention from your GP. Although very nerve racking, they will be very understanding and hopefully help you navigate through the path to recovery.