DEALING WITH DEPRESSION

In one of my earlier posts I talked about some things to do to deal with depression. These came straight from one of my earliest visits with my pastor, Carl Broggi. I had had a miscarriage earlier that year and after school had started I plunged myself into work and had some major burn out. Between the hormone changes in my body and other things going on externally with work and with my marriage, I was not emotionally stable. I had never felt so bad in my life. Pastor Carl shared some very practical things that one can do to help cope with depression. I want to share these with all of you that might read this blog:

1. Personal thought time or quiet time. At least 10 -15 minutes every day, pray.

• When you pray, express your feelings specifically.
• Write out specific requests in light of your feelings and keep these in a journal or notebook. Hebrews 4:16 "Let us therefore draw near with confidence ot the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

2. One day at a time. Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

• Take 5 minutes to make a written schedule for the day - hour by hour.

3. Personal exercise - at least 10 minutes.

4. Support partner for accountability.

I can say that I do most of these things. I don't do the written schedule, but I am thinking about implementing that one starting tomorrow. Sometimes the things take longer. My quiet time ends up about 30 - 45 minutes as I usually read the Bible and make some notes on what I read and then pray in light of what I read AND what I am feeling. I also do some other Bible study like The Grace Awakening by Chuck Swindol for my Sunday School Class.

Caroline and I joined Curves last year and that is a 30 minute workout so that also takes longer, plus we have to drive to get there.

I am making it a point to cut back on my caffeine and carb intake especially bad carbs (I know I shouldn't have eaten those M&Ms a while ago and I should have stopped with one bag!)

I am trying to go to bed earlier and get rest, but I still need to work on the rest issue, since I don't sleep well and haven't for a long time.

I have several ladies that are my accountability partners. One especially right now, as I had a melt down at her house last week. She is calling me each morning to make sure that I am getting up on time and not just being lazy and sleeping in every day. After she calls, I have to call her back in about 15 minutes to let her know that I am up and moving.

I did start feeling better once I started excercising again on a regular basis. Get out there and get moving and you will begin to feel better, too.

CHRISTMAS

We finally took down our tree just today and put all the Christmas decorations away. I know that it has been a month since Christmas, but I just hate putting the decorations away. Christmas still makes me sad even after all of these years. We rush around shopping and doing all kinds of stuff and don't really take the time to enjoy the season and to remember the real meaning of Christmas. We eat too much and especially too much sugar and junk food and don't exercise. Then I get real depressed and can't figure out what is wrong. I don't do everything that I know I need to do to feel good. I don't get enough sleep, eat too much, eat too many carbs, drink too much caffeine, don't exercise, don't spend time in God's Word every day as I know I should, watch too much TV ( at my sister's; I still don't have TV here). All of this is a recipe for depression.

Christmas day comes and then the flurry of opening presents, eating , opening more presents, and eating again. Then we are exhausted, but finally Christmas is over. We hardly move for a day or two which doesn't help how I am feeling. The more I sleep and sit around the worse I begin to feel. Then we went to see my aunts. They are 84 and 86. They have a multitude of health problems and don't get around too much. They really need more help than they have and don't really have anybody except the lady they pay that comes in three afternoons a week to help them. By the time I left there, I was really depressed. Now what do we do about depression????