Depression is a feeling of hopelessness and chronic sadness which is persistent for more than 3 months. The symptoms of chronic depression are losing interest in normal activities, feeling low all the time, lack of sleep or sleeping too much. These feelings may last for years intruding on your work, relationships, and daily activities. People with chronic depression don’t know what Happiness is or the circumstances and the inner feelings they have, have made them forget what Happiness is…

Is there a cure for chronic Depression?

Yes, with proper treatment chronic depression can be treated. The severity of the depression decides whether one needs to take the medicines or not. But along with medicines, talk therapy is a must. Without talk therapy, perhaps there won’t be any change in the emotional and behavioral symptoms. Medicines will help in balancing the chemical issues in the brain.

What can you do to get out of Depression?

Balanced diet: Healthy diet with vegetables, the proper amount of protein, milk products, dry fruits need to be consumed. When you eat right and less of junk your mood levels get automatically right. In case you are binging or overeating, reduce the amount of food you eat.

Exercise: Any form of exercise helps to release good hormones, makes you feel good.  You may not have that motivation which is needed. Even if you have, you may not still feel like doing so. Make a conscious effort to exercise at a certain hour and at a stipulated time.

Sleep: If you are having an erratic sleep schedule, try to keep your sleep schedules normal. Sleep only during night hours and ensure you sleep at a certain time daily.

Routine: As stated earlier, set up a routine for yourself. Get yourself engaged in activities you love. Even when you don’t feel like waking up from your bed, stick to the timetable you have set.

Set up your goals: When you set goals to give it a deadline and work to achieve your deadline. This will ensure you are out of the gloomy thoughts. When you have an aim to achieve and a will to get over depression one would try to overcome the weird feeling.

Get enough sunlight: Go and grab a daily source of vitamin K at around 9.30 am. Try to keep your rooms well lit. Do not sit in darkness.

Smile: Be around people who make you smile and have the potential to deal with your chronic sadness and help you to come out of it. Laughter and smile come from within. There should not be an effort while doing so.

Work on the core issues: If you have been through a traumatic past that is still bothering you and that issue is the reason for depression, address the issue by taking the help of your friends, family, and counselor.

Work on negative thoughts: If you have gone through a bad phase/event and you are having negative thoughts or repetitive images of the same event, you need to take the help of a counselor to challenge the negative thoughts.

Never hesitate to take the help of a psychologist to overcome depression. Let your psychologist analyze the severity of depression. You can get over chronic depression with or without medication however talk therapy is necessary.

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All images by Pixabay.

Happiness is a choice and it’s a journey. Some people remain happy in hard times and there are these people who cannot be happy even when there is nothing to cry for.

So we have tried listing 10 roadblocks of happiness.

Having Unrealistic sense of Self

Do you feel you are not good at anything? Do you feel you “should” have done this or do you feel that others “should” have done that? Keeping unrealistic expectations from self and others will ruin your happiness.

Entitlement

A sense of entitlement — a feeling that you have a right to something — is the root cause of most people’s unhappiness. Parents are unhappy when they don’t get the respect from their kids that they think they’re entitled to. Employees feel unhappy when they don’t get the raise they feel entitled to.

Anger

Being happy, when angry is highly impossible. We get angry when things don’t turn up the way we want or we are hurt. If these things are happening in your daily life then you need to work on them & self to eliminate anger.

Resentment

When we keep our negative thoughts/anger to ourself we get a feeling of resentment. Resentful people look at life through darkened glasses, expecting the worst and being on the ready to defend themselves from harm.

Greed

Greed is all about competition & undeserving, but happiness comes more from cooperation & what you deserve — an effort to act in harmony with the world around you. Happiness is being happy with what you have. It’s also about thriving to achieve it with own efforts.

Aggression

Aggression means “moving against the world.” Two types of aggressive behavior occur between human beings — achievement-driven aggression and combative aggression. Achievement-driven aggression can lead to happiness, but combative aggression does not.

Depression

Feelings of lethargy, low appetite, negative self-image, unable to do regular chores, lack of pleasure, guilt can never make us happy. One needs to work on these persistent symptoms to be happy.

Loneliness

You can be lonely in the midst of a large gathering of people, and not feel lonely when you’re by yourself. Happiness is more about belonging than about having money, power, and success.

Vindictiveness

Hurting a person because they were hurt is vindictiveness. Vindictive people think that by hurting the person who caused them pain — whether physical or emotional — they’ll somehow feel better. But the painful memory stays with you always making you unhappy.

Addiction

Any addiction be it drug, alcohol, food is going to give temporary happiness. Address all your emotional traumas and baggage to overcome addiction and lead a happy life.

If you are suffering through these issues and are unhappy, consult a Psychologist soon.

All images are courtesy Pixabay

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Loneliness is a universal human emotion that is both complex and exceptional to each individual. Because it has no single common cause, the prevention and treatment of this potentially damaging state of mind can differ vividly.

Health Risks Associated with Loneliness

Loneliness has a wide range of negative effects on both physical and mental health, including:

Depression and suicide: When you feel so low that things you previously enjoyed no longer hold that same joy.

• Cardiovascular disease and stroke: conditions that involve narrowed or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain or stroke.
• Increased stress levels: Your body responds to stress by releasing hormones that increase your heart and breathing rates and ready your muscles to respond.
• Decreased memory and learning: forgetfulness, confusion, difficulty concentrating and other problems that disrupt daily activities.
• Antisocial behaviour: actions that harm or lack consideration for the well-being of others.
• Poor decision-making
• Alcoholism and drug abuse: addicted to alcohol, nicotine, opioid painkillers, and others.
• The progression of Alzheimer’s disease: causes a progressive loss of brain cells that leads to memory loss and the decline of other thinking skills.
• Altered brain function

Tips to Prevent Loneliness

Loneliness can be overcome. It does require a mindful effort on your part to make a change. Making a change, in the long run, can make you more contented, improved, and enable you to impact others around you in a positive way.

Here are some ways to prevent loneliness:
• Firstly you need to recognize that loneliness is a symbol that something needs to change.
• Then, you need to understand the effects that loneliness has on your life, both physically and mentally.
•  Consider doing community service or another activity that you enjoy. These situations present great opportunities to meet people and promote new friendships and social interactions.
• Focus on developing quality relationships with people who share similar attitudes, interests, and values with you.
• Expect the best. Lonely people often expect denial, so instead focus on positive thoughts and attitudes in your social relationships.

If you feel burdened by feelings of loneliness or feel them throughout the year and find it difficult to deal with, you can also talk to a professional about how you feel; this can often be more helpful than people expect.

All images are courtesy Pixabay

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Stress is also an unavoidable and normal part of life. We cannot discard or remove stress from our lives. Still, there are certain relaxation techniques and other methods.To manage stress so that we have control over our stress and normal body functions.

Some of the methods with the help of which stress can be dealt with can be described as follows:

Identifying the sources of stressors

One of the major ways to deal with stress is by identifying the sources of stress in your life. Many times, there are certain hidden or underlying, thoughts or anxieties that govern our feelings and behaviours. These underlying thoughts and anxieties can be revealed if you look closely at your habits, attitude, and excuses. It may be that you every time feel yourself loaded with work or you always feel your workplace or home to be crazy always, or you blame other people or outside events responsible for your stress. In such circumstances, it is necessary for you to accept your role and responsibility. Once you can identify the stressors of your life and try to understand your role. Then the level of stress will automatically remain under your control.

Avoid or Alter the Situation

If a situation or person makes you feel stressed, then it is better to avoid such a kind of situation or person. At times you cannot avoid such situations or persons from your life, then in such case try to alter it. You should also be flexible, open to new ideas and compromise. Further, you should also be prepared for the worst situation. You should wisely deal with problems by anticipating them in advance and preventing them. For example, you have your exams the next day, but your friend is excited to tell you the story of the movie that he had watched. Be bold enough to tell him that he has only five minutes to talk.

Have a Positive attitude

Having a positive attitude helps us in changing our outlook and providing a big picture of the stressful situation. If we cannot change the stressor, we can at least change ourselves. One can adapt to a stressful situation and regain self-control by changing the expectations and attitude. Like each coin has two sides, each situation has different perspectives; it depends upon the way you perceive it. For example, if you are caught in a traffic jam. Then instead of fuming, you can always look at it as an opportunity to pause and reorganize. Listen to your favourite radio station or enjoy some alone time.

Accept and Move Forward

At times you cannot remove or alter the sources of stress, for example, death of a loved one, a serious illness, or a national recession. In such cases, the best way to cope with such stressors is to accept them as they are. Acceptance may be difficult, but in the long run, better than worrying about the situation which cannot be changed. The major challenges of your life can be looked upon as opportunities for your personal growth. If the stressful situation has been a result of your own fault, then rethink and learn lessons from the mistake.

Relax and Recharge Yourself

One of the ways to manage the level of stress is to relax and recharge yourself. Nurturing yourself by taking out time for fun and relaxation is a better way to handle the day to day stress. Morning walk, spending time in nature, long bath, listening to music, giving time to your pets, massage is few of the ways. which can help you to relax and face life in a more positive way. Further, a healthy lifestyle like having healthy diets, regular exercise and enough sleep can boost energy within you. So that you can deal with the stressors more effectively.

All images are courtesy Pixabay

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Stress is a condition of bodily or mental unrest which occurs as a result of any physical, emotional or chemical imbalance in our body.

There are several factors that may cause this condition.  The physical and chemical factors that may cause stress include trauma, infections, toxins, illnesses, and injuries of any sort. While the emotional factors that lead to stress and tension are numerous and varied, having a mainly psychological basis. Basically, it is a state which leads to instability and disparity in normal body functions.

It differs in its types, intensity, and form. There are individual differences in the extent to which an individual can tolerate this condition. Generally, it can be of two types which can be explained as follows:

1)Acute

The most common type of stress found amongst individuals throughout the world is “Acute Stress”. It is a condition which occurs due to the anxiety of the near future or dealing with the very recent past. At times, it is also a good thing to have such kind of stress in life. The examples of acute stressors are –running, exercising, or any kind of exciting or thrilling experiences such as riding a roller coaster. The acute form is of short duration and is a result of the excitement and fun that an individual experiences for the specific time period. This is less damaging to the body.

2) Chronic

Unlike acute condition, “Chronic Stress” causes a lot of wear and tear to the human body. The extent of damage due to this kind of pressure may lead to very serious health risk like memory loss, loss of spatial recognition, loss of eating if it continues over a long period of time. The effect of this differs from person to person and also varies amongst men and women. Studies have shown that women can bear longer durations of stress than men without showing any maladaptive change, whereas, men can deal with it for a shorter duration, but if the duration increases, they have a chance to developmental issues.

All images are courtesy Pixabay

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Who is a Caregiver?

A caregiver is a person who gives help to any other person in crisis, for example to a spouse who is ill, a child who is disabled or a family member who is ill. Although, when your parents get old and you are the person responsible for taking care of them emotionally and physically,you fail to identify yourself as a caregiver; but if you recognize your role it will be easy for you to seek help and care for yourself.

Care giving is overwhelming , especially if you feel it is overflowing beyond your capacity and you have little or no control over the situation. This continuous feeling of being out of control can lead to stress. Stress motivates you to work in appropriate amounts but persistent stress can take a toll on your physical health, mental health ,Job and relationships. The continuous demands of care giving and persistent stress as a result of it can cause caregiver burnout. The most important thing to understand here is that when you are in this burnout state ,it will become difficult for you to do any work, leave aside the difficult task of care giving.

Taking care of yourself being a caregiver is therefore a necessity and not a luxury. You can only help your loved one when you are functional and not when you have joined their crisis.

Symptoms of Caregiver Stress:

• You have reduced energy levels
• You do not care about your needs anymore
• Exhaustion, despite rest
• Inability to relax even when there is help
• You patience has decreased with the person your are caring for
• Increase in irritability about everything
• You have become more susceptible to cold and Flu.
• Your hopes have reduced and your helplessness increased.
• It has become hard for you to concentrate
• You are drinking, smoking or eating more

Here are a few things you can do to Find balance and regain your sense of self and Joy in Caregiving:

Shift your attention to things in your control

This is the most important step in regaining your sense of control. When your feel powerless or out of sync of the situation,you have burnout. You cannot force your Partner to help you more with the care giving but instead you can focus more on how you react to a problem.

Accept your situation

When you face difficulties,you are often tempted to ask the question “Why it happened with you” or “How can it happen with you”.You can spend a lot of your time and energy on contemplating things you cannot change,Instead accept your situation because sometimes there are no clear answers.

Do not allow caregiving to take up all your time

It will be easy for you to deal with a difficult situation when you have other rewarding things in your life. Invest your time in things that give your life a meaning like re-cultivating your hobby, redesigning your career or taking care of your family etc.

Acknowledge your choice of caregiving

Embrace that inspite of all your stress and resentment,it is your conscious choice to be the caregiver. Focus more on the positive reasons of why you have taken the caregiving role. Maybe you want to take care of your elderly because they have taken care of you when you were young, or you want to set an example for your kids, it could be how caregiving can make you emotionally strong etc. It could be any positive meaning; that helps you sustain on the difficult path.

Celebrate small milestones

When you become hopeless, tell yourself that even if you cannot cure your loved one or make them happy; you can help them feel comfortable, loved and safe!

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James Middleton, Kate Middleton’s brother very aptly said Depression is the Cancer of the Mind in one of his recent interviews. In this interview, he discussed his struggles with depression. One would assume that the brother-in-law to the future King of England would not be one to suffer from depression. But depression knows no socio-economic group. Kings and their kin have known to suffer from cancer.

Thankfully, the stigma surrounding depression is reducing, and more and more people are becoming open about their struggles with depression. Some of the well-known Bollywood celebrities who have openly discussed their struggles with depression are:

• Deepika Padukone
• Yo Yo Honey Singh
• Anushka Sharma
• Varun Dhawan
• Aamir Khan
• Shahrukh Khan
• Manisha Koirala
• Randeep Hooda

How do you know if you or someone you love is struggling with depression? If they exhibit any of these signs, then you need to consult with an experienced Psychologist for treatment.

Symptoms of Depression

Behavior

• not  wanting to socialize with anyone
• not performing at work or school
• withdrawing from loved ones and close friends
• Indulging in drugs and alcohol
• not following up with their hobbies and passions

Feelings

• overwhelmed
• sad
• unhappy
• frustrated
• guilty
• irritable
• miserable
• lacking in confidence
• indecisive
• disappointed

Thoughts

• ‘I’m a failure.’
• ‘I’m worthless.’
• ‘Nothing good ever happens to me.’
• People would be better off without me.’
• ‘It’s my fault.’
• ‘Life’s not worth living.’

Physical

• tired all the time
• headaches and muscle pains
• sleep problems
• significant weight loss or gain
• sick and run down
• churning gut
• loss or change of appetite

Just as you wouldn’t treat cancer of the body yourself, you shouldn’t treat cancer of the mind yourself. Please consult with an experienced Psychologist who will be able to help you.

Read about High Functioning Depression

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Anger is just like other emotions we have; a little less would make us called as “non-expressive”, or too much would be “self-destructive”, but anger is also important for self-preservation and self-defense if managed properly.

Anger can also appear because of fear or perceived threat, as you are responding with a ‘fight’ response to which this may result in immediate action response verbally or physically. Below are the things you can do that would help you reduce your anger and help control it.

7 steps to Managing Anger

1)Breathing/counting: 

Its okay, if you have spilled the coffee of your angry outburst, but even after that, you can save yourself and others from an ugly fight just by breathing slowly, taking a deep breath one time will calm your mind and clear negative thoughts and help you relax.

2) Ask yourself about the reason:

Asking self about the anger that you have just blown out will help you to do self-analysis about your anger and the need of the outburst. It also helps to self heal your mind and body.

3) Step Comfort:

WRE (Walk-Run-Exercise) the 3 way my way to help yourself reduce anger. If you can’t do all 3 do at least one regularly.

4)Engaging in a hobby:

If you like to read do a reading, knitting, gardening, playing an instrument or learning a new one. Do anything productive that would engage your mind and also helps you realize your potential.

5) Guided Imagery:

Imagine the last vacation you went to or a holiday well spent, the last time when you laughed fully feeling contended, hear what you heard that time, see what you saw, feel and amplify those feelings. These things help to calm you down and keep you relaxed.

6) Assertiveness is equal to balance:

Assertive is state of oneself being self-assured and confident be “Assertive” and not “Aggressive”. By “telling” and not “yelling” you can explain people around you your expectations, boundaries, and issues you face.

7) To Forgive and Forget:

To ensure long-term changes and healthy living it is important for you to forgive and forget, sometimes its difficult as past memories or thoughts might bring back the horror. For this one can visit a counselor for therapy certain things should be handled by experts also by doing so you choose a healthy way to get over any issue you may have.

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A pretty weird video was taking the social media by storm sometime back; This was of a boy applying chili on his girlfriends’ tampon. The girl is seen screaming and desperate while she is being filmed in a very embarrassing situation. This phenomenon is called Cloutlighting.

What all effort would you make to build your online presence? Whose privacy would you invade to get a few more likes?

You must have seen a lot of disturbing videos and photos online. Making pranks and fooling people has become a common topic of videos online. These distressing photos and videos are horrible and on the rise and it definitely makes you desensitized to these insidious horrors. These kinds of videos gain more likes when it sexual in nature.

Cloutlighting?

A new Genre of videos has emerged which is a form of Abuse called Cloud lighting. This term is made up of two terms, Clout meaning influence that is majorly digital and Gaslighting, which is referred to as psychological manipulation to change the victim’s reality.

Although, some of the videos look very harmless, where a boy takes away his girlfriend’s last bit of food and she is upset about it. The girlfriend is visibly and clearly very sad about what happened, she is told that she is ‘old milk’ that is ‘spoilt’. The words and actions are clearly damaging, But It is important to understand what would have made a person film such a moment and upload it on the internet.

The video of the youtuber who put chilly flakes in a tampon got more than Two lakhs subscribers but it brings up questions of how much Safety is there in a relationship, epidemic thoughtlessness and Subtle but extreme Abuse that is rampant.

Online Rules you should follow:

• Respect Other’s privacy
• Be Vocal, but keep it civilized
• Take permission from your near-ones when posting their photos and videos
• Check your urge to get ‘Likes’
• Always assess the impact of your actions before taking a step
• Check what you “Like’ and ‘Share’. Be Mindful
• ‘Tag’ with Care!

Learn more About Dr Prerna Kohli

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It is not uncommon nowadays to be attacked online by online bullies. Some mean-spirited people take a lot of interest in expressing their harmful and toxic views. These bullies spend a lot of time online and argue on harmless topics offensively too.

Since curbing your virtual presence is practically not possible in today’s world, here are a few steps you can take to save yourself from the Grind:

Avoid taking the remarks Personally

Although these people make sure that the negative comments have a unique personal touch for you, don’t take it personally. These people have their own issues in personality which often include Psychopathology too. There is a difference between expressing your resentment and tearing someone down completely to make yourself feel better. Understand that the behavior they are showing is about them and not about you.

Stop Indulging with them

When people show their resentment or views in a respectful and civil manner, only then engage with them. When they behave in a bad or disrespectful manner, use the ‘delete’ button. Do not absorb their toxicity. They have the right to express their views and you have the right not to listen to them too. Do not engage in hostility, instead use Mute, block, or delete whenever needed.

Focus on the Positive comments

Research shows that we attend to negative reviews and comments more than the positive ones. Even if the ratio of Negative to Positive comment is 1 is to 100, that one negative comment will bother you. Attend and embrace to the positive responses. You should be open to feedback in a proper manner and not disrespectful or dehumanizing manners.

Breathe

Find out some relaxing downtime for yourself as a part of self-care. Exercise, pray, meditate and take rest to keep things in perspective. Seek emotional support from your inner circle of friends, relatives, parents or spouse. Practice and deal with these situations with grace and Patience.

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