Sunny Days Ahead: The Ultimate Depression Self Care Checklist

Around the world, 300 million people suffer from depression, so you’re not alone.

Depression can be ugly and make you feel awful, and sometimes it may feel like it’s going to win. But there are things you can do to help fight the little battles every day.

You’ve got this! Keep this depression self care checklist handy to make sure you’re caring for yourself as best as possible on good (and bad) days.

Listen to Music

Music can be a powerful tool that we can use to boost our mood. When you’re feeling depressed, you probably want to put on your sad playlist and just wallow in the sad and numb feelings, but sometimes this can make us feel worse.

Instead, try putting on a happy playlist and see if it boosts your mood. You may start to feel happier just from listening to the right music. Singing out loud while you’re driving may also make some of the bad feelings melt away, so give it a shot.

Journal

Sometimes when we’re depressed, all our thoughts get stuck in our head and get tossed around like dirty laundry in a washing machine.

Having all of those negative thoughts and thinking about them over and over in our head can make us feel worse, so sometimes journaling and writing them down on paper can help.

Putting them on paper can also help us analyze them and figure out exactly what emotions we’re feeling and why. Journaling could even help you recognize your triggers so then you can figure out how to avoid them.

Meditate

Meditation is always recommended for managing stress, anxiety, and depression.

There are many apps out there that can help guide you and show you how to do it, and they make it easy and fun to do.

Meditation is great because it teaches your body how to relax and teaches you how to control your emotions and thoughts.

If you find it difficult to meditate or feel like you don’t have ten minutes a day, just try calling your attention to something around you when you’re feeling bad. Like what do you smell in that moment? What sounds do you hear?

Even these small seconds count as meditation and can help improve your mood.

Call a Friend

One of the symptoms of depression is that it convinces you to isolate yourself; it convinces you that no one cares about you and that you’re truly alone.

But that’s not true.

Sometimes reaching out to a friend to just hang out or talk can really help boost your mood and help alleviate your depression.

It may take a lot of energy to do that, but it will be worth it once you do. Tell them that you’re not feeling great and need a distraction.

Download Helpful Apps

There are many different apps that can help you track and manage your depression.

In addition to the meditation apps, MoodNotes is a great app. You can log your mood at any time of the day and then select all the feelings you are feeling at that moment in time.

If you’re feeling happy, you learn ways to think happier. If you were feeling sad, it will help you change your thinking.

This app is similar to Cognitive Behavioral Thinking (CBT) therapy and tries to change your thinking so that you will feel better.

There are also different apps that can help, like 7 Cups and anxietyhelper. These apps will provide resources that will help you learn about mental illness and feel better.

Take Your Medication and Go to Your Therapy Appointments

If you are going to therapy, don’t skip your therapy appointments. As therapy goes on, you may start feeling better and think that you don’t need to go, but you do.

If you are having a hard time going, tell your therapist so that they are aware of it. They may start scaling back how many sessions you need to attend but don’t start skipping just because you think you’re doing better.

If you’re not in therapy, there are many resources for you to get help.

If you are taking medication, don’t start skipping your dosage for the day. Once you do this, it will be less effective. If you’re not taking the right amount, your depression may start to come back.

If you start feeling worse, think about if you skipped therapy or medication, and then try and remember to accomplish those things.

Exercise

Everyone will tell you that exercise will cure any problem you might have. But when you’re depressed, getting up to go for a run may seem impossible.

It may be the first few times, but the important trick is to find a workout that you love.

If you hate running, you’re not likely to go out and run every day which means that you won’t keep exercising. But if you find that you really love swimming or Zumba classes, do those.

Not only will it give you something to look forward to and get you out of the house, but exercising creates endorphins which will make you feel happy.

Be Kind to Yourself

The most important thing to remember is to be kind to yourself.

Depression is difficult to deal with, and if you have a bad day and can’t seem to get anything done, don’t beat yourself up. This will just make you feel worse.

Instead, treat your body kindly and don’t say harsh things to yourself because then you will start to believe them.

Thoughts play a big part in how we feel, and if we’re thinking negatively about ourselves all the time, then that’s how we will start to feel.

So just be gentle and remember that not every day is going to be a good day. Not every battle is going to be won.

But you’re fighting and that’s the important part.

Use This Depression Self Care Checklist Today

Having a depression self care checklist can be very helpful in managing your mental illness.

While these suggestions are helpful and standard, you may want to consider taking it and customizing it to fit your needs. Everyone’s coping strategies are going to be different.

The important part is that you do take time to take care of yourself.

If you want to learn more about depression or dating with depression, feel free to contact us here.