Let me share with you something i learned through years of struggle unfortunately the hard way but ive learned it and this is the truth. Sometimes thoughts and feelings lie. The antidote to depression is action. The very way you beat it, is to do the thing you feel least like doing. Look at what cavey said, he got up went out and started doing and if you notice hes feeling better now because of it. Ive did the same thing youve done for litterally years and trust me the longer you sit there the harder it can seem to change it. But notice i said seem, its not reality, its not rational and nothings really changed except your thinking. Youre the same person youve always been. You just have to force yourself sometime to get up and get back out there in the world. It wont feel natural at first and it wont be comfortable alot of the time but theres really no easy way to get around it. Trust me though if you sit there like youre doing the depression and worry will eventually eat you alive.
As far as raising your self esteem, im just wagering a guess here but you have a bunch of negative thoughts right? Like im not good enough, im ugly, im bad at this activity, im boring, etc. Maybe not exactly like those but those are some of the ones I have. Ive had low self esteem for years and just recently started raising my opinion of myself. The key comes in countering all your automatic negative thinking. Everytime you have a negative thought like that, write it down. Learn to recognize those thoughts. Realize theyre NOT TRUE and then write down a counter statement for each one. Like for example, the im ugly one, thats a big one for me because i was hurt in an accident and had issues with the way i look for a long time. Now everytime i go to tell myself im ugly, i counter with im not a male model but i look normal and attractive. The key is to go neutral and rational with your thoughts.
One thing i learned in this program im doing is that your brain will believe anything you tell it, as long as its rational. It cant differentiate between a lie or half truth, and the whole truth.So if youre sitting there telling yourself all this bad stuff, your brain believes it. Theres even a neural pathway in your mind dedicated specifically to that sort of thinking. The good news is you can replace that neural pathway with a positive one. And yes im talking about physically in your brain there is a bundle of nerves dedicated to making you feel bad if you can believe that, it kindve blew my mind when i learned it. Once you begin using the positive neural pathway though the old one will die out from unuse.One thing to note though, this doesnt happen overnight, it takes months and months of constantly reinforcing the positive behaviors to replace the old negative ones but it can be done. Im in the process of doing it now, have been working on it for about 3 months and i feel like a new person for the most part, if i can do it you can too.
Everytime you start to have a negative thought, say outloud STOP im not going to think this way anymore and challenge it.
Its good to get a set of maybe daily affirmations i guess yould call them? Read those daily outloud. The reason its important to read them outloud is because it causes you to use more of your mind to focus on that new thought and it begins to form a new neural pathway with postivie thinking. When you begin to think positively this new neural pathway is strengthened because youre using it rather than the old negative one. It takes months and months to truly reprogram your thinking and your mind but im not kidding i feel so much better. The program im on is for social anxiety but if you want to pm me i can send you info about it. Its really changing my view of myself and the world. I still have bad days but overall i know that my life is changing for the better and i dont have to be stuck in depression and anxiety any longer. You dont either, i promise.
Pm me if you need somebody to talk with, I hope youll be okay.
Oh and one last thing i forgot to throw in that you may find helpful. However you see yourself, others probably see you that way too.
World View and Self Fullfilling Prophecy.
<<HOWEVER YOU SEE YOURSELF IS HOW YOU ARE..>>
If you expect people to not like and reject you they probably will.
If you expect people to like you, then they probably will.
If you expect good things, youre more likely to be open and more outgoing with people and if youre quiet and reserved due to believing they wont like you. They will probably react in this way. You can CHOOSE to change your negative beliefs about the world and see GOOD things instead of Negative.
