When you feel depressed you suffer from a persistent and painful down mood. Can you turn a bad situation about and build healthy coping skills and resilence for dealing with this advesity? You can if you don't procrastinate.
By applying counter-procrastination techniques to depression, you may put yourself on a speedier path to recovery. By teaching yourself how to deal with depression, you can build resilience and improve your chances for avoiding future depressions. However, you may first have to get yourself past a procrastination barrier.
You can find many parallels between depression and procrastination. In both procrastination and depression you may avoid taking corrective action. For example, if you believe you can't succeed you are likely to make a half-hearted effort or not try. This pessimism creates a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Pessimism is a hypothesis. You can examine it. If you believe that you can never stop feeling depressed, can you prove that in Court? There, you would be subjected to a cross examination to raise reasonable doubts about your pessimistic prediction.
Recognize that depressive thinking is unnecessary mental static, and it logically follows that you can change this form of depressive thinking. However, if you put off learning and applying methods to defuse depressive thinking, you can create a self-fulfilling prophesy that is based on belief and not on fact.
Believe you are helpless to overcome a depressed mood, and you've given yourself an excuse to procrastinate. When procrastination follows depression, this is a secondary procrastination that merits taking corrective follow-through actions.
You have many ways to overcome a combination of procrastination and depression. You can boost your awareness of both conditions through education. For example, read and apply information from self-help manuals on depression and procrastination that are written by doctoral level mental health specialists.Keep connected to other people, and you'll feel less lonely. Work with a counselor who specializes in depression.
Stop procrastinating on antidepression actions and you may create a positive self-fulfilling prophesy. By taking even the tiniest step toward change, you show yourself that you cannot be 100 % helpless. You signal yourself that you can command yourself to think and act constructively.
Taking corrective action for depression can prove challenging. Procrastination can interfere. However, if you stretch a bit to follow through on activities to curb depression, you are likely to find that you help yourself overcome depression. Here are five sample ways to execute this corrective process.
1. Recognize that depression has correctable features. For example, if you believe you are helpless to change, find exceptions to that line of depressive thinking.
2. Accept that depression can feel debilitating. But you can adjust your sights and start by moving toward progressively mastering techniques to end depression. This doesn't have to happen over night. Wasn't it the turtle that won the race against a speedy but overconfident rabbit?
3. Make yourself aware of tested tools to deal effectively with depression. They can range from developing empathy for yourself to following a predictable routine that includes potentially pleasurable activities (activity scheduling).
4. Experiment with antidepression activities. The idea is to find a combination of actions that work best for you..
5. Beware of procrastination. Tell yourself you will later learn and use coping tools when you feel better and you are in a contingency manaña procrastination trap. If you are in a depressed mood, how are you to feel good first?
The relief you seek likely comes from action which may be the last thing you want to do when you feel depressed. However, force yourself to daily follow a moderate physical exercise routine and this signals that you can take corrective steps. Physical exercise is as good an antidepressant activity as any other. This can amount to three brief 10 minute sessions of running in place a day. Consider a reasonable daily dose of Omega 3 from fish or a capsule. This correlates with an improved mood (Omega 3 is a buffer against coronary heart disease and may improve cognitive functioning.).
When you are feeling depressed, addressing depression through corrective activities can be a struggle. Nevertheless, act as if you were capable of acting effectively and you may soon find that you are acting effectively to quell a painful depression and to regain the energy and ambition you lost during this down period.
For cognitive, emotive, and behavioral methods for depression, see Knaus, W. The Cognitive Behavior Workbook for Depression. CA: New Harbinger: http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Behavioral-Workbook-Depression-St...
The Procrastination Workbook (Knaus, W. CA: New Harbinger) gives guidance for ending the more persistent forms of procrastination: http://www.amazon.com/Procrastination-Workbook-Personalized-Break...
Dr. Bill Knaus
