How to Deal With Stress and Depression?

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Hi, just poppin' on to share something I learned recently. I started working with a man certified in TRE (Tension and Trauma Relief Exercises). My goal was to help relieve my sometimes debilitating stress and anxiety. The gist is you start with seven specially designed exercises and by the 7th exercise, your body is tremoring. This "tremoring" is supposed to release tension, stress, and even past traumas that are held within your muscles. I found out your lower back is where most trauma is held. After a few sessions, you decrease the number of exercises and my teacher showed me how he tremors now after the one floor exercise. I'm down to three exercises now to start my tremor. And once the body shaking begins, you let yourself tremor for 10 - 15 minutes.

It sounds weird I know, but I went into it with no expectations, hoping for an honest response from my body. All I can say is I found it incredibly healing. I had injured a lower back joint two months ago and was left with lingering tightness. It's now gone. I tremor before bed and sleep very sound. And I felt an emotional release. A lightness to me. I met my sister for dinner after my first session and she noticed a difference in my mood (for the better) and asked what I had been doing.

If anyone wants to try it, Google TRE and the exercises are found online. I'd suggest starting with a certified teacher though before you move to doing it on your own. It was helpful to me for someone to lead me through it, reassuring me, offering suggestions. Just my experience. My teacher has three sessions with clients, then they are able to confidently do it at home on their own. So, a very low monetary investment to something I have found very helpful.

I hope you all find peace and joy in whatever you do to cope. ❤️

Just now read this. I have a friend who uses exercise and dance (just goofy but intense dancing around) and it helps her with stress and ADHD and depression and various other distractions and demons. Sounds a little like what you are doing. I do a small version of this: I walk every day I can, even when it is in the 90s out. If I am struggling I’ll walk for a couple hours. It really helps me. I sort of disassociate and look at clouds and people and just keep one foot moving in front of the other. Trying to figure out what to replace it with in the winter. I might try walking in the cold.

Buck up and get on with life! Socialize and get outside!

Quote by Icarus4

Buck up and get on with life! Socialize and get outside!

OMG!! I had no idea it was that simple! If only we had known all these years the simple cure to fixing it. Just buck up and get on with life.

https://www.verywellmind.com/worst-things-to-say-to-someone-who-is-depressed-1066982

Thanks for sharing your experience with TRE! It's incredible how different methods can help with stress and depression. Your journey sounds quite healing. I can relate to the power of movement in coping with life's challenges, too. Walking, even in the cold, can be so refreshing. However, remember that there's also a 24-hour mental health hotline you can contact from https://mentalhealthhotline.org/. Good luck!

Usually spend time with my dog & my 4 year old nephew.

Sharing a few more things I’ve learned. Anxiety is the thorny friend who won’t leave me alone when life gets tough around me.

1. Slow down in every way possible, even if just for a day.

2. Walk outside in nature

3. Try Traumatic Release Exercises (Google). I can immediately enter tremor state now.

4. Reflexology

5. Acupuncture (new for me). I felt pressure in the middle of my breastbone and head during treatment and was told it was energy blocks opening. Sleep immediately improved. Creativity improved. Emotional stability improved. Hormones balanced.

6. Unplug for a while

7. I always want to hide, but force yourself to do things that put yourself out there in some way, if you can.

8. Music! For me, I listen to my fav songs on repeat and crystal bowls on utube before bedtime.

9. Connect with animals that show affection back. You can foster pets short term if not able to care for one full time, or even visit your local shelter. We have cat cafes where you can go play in a room full of cats/kittens.

10. Last but not least, tell a trusted friend how you feel. Someone compassionate, a listener, who won’t just tell you to suck it up.

Hope this helps someone! ❤️

Stress is a killer and if you’re one of those people who feels it acutely then same.

What works for me: gardening - and I mean in the soil not the slang for weed although that’s fun too. Something about the garden and watching seeds grow and trying to fill that dead patch on my lawn that persists helps relieve stress. Not everybody has a garden but everybody should be surrounded by plants.

If I’m feeling really stressed I also use beta blockers, that helps the physical symptoms so that I can concentrate on other things.

For maintenance or trying to avoid stress I plan my day every morning when I wake up with a list, this keeps me on track with all the big and little things I have to get done and then I don’t tend to have the sense of dread.

Depression is kind of a work in progress, I recommend medication. I’ve exercised, clean ate, tried yoga and Pilates and nothing worked quite like an SSRI. I know people want to go the healthy non-medicated route but there’s a reason they exist and I feel no shame taking them. A walk can’t cure a broken leg just like it can’t cure a chemical imbalance in the brain

Long walks and limiting caffeine helped me a lot, but I also started using delta 8 distillate in the evenings when my mind just wouldn’t slow down. It mellowed out the racing thoughts without making me feel spaced out or heavy. I still talk to someone when things get too much, but this added a solid bit of calm to my routine.

Walks, exercise, Vitamin D supplements if you don't like being in the sun. Hugs if available 🫂

Quote by Wickediant

Getting outside and walking, even for ten minutes, helps me clear my head. Journaling works too—just scribbling whatever I’m feeling without thinking too much about it.

Which is one reason I take my really old and slow dog for a walk every day. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. Walking (as simple as it is) helps.

Honestly keep yourself busy with things you like to do. Like journaling, baking, reading. Force yourself to make time for it. Sit in the sun, 10000 steps! You'd be surprised how happy you get after your mental health walks.

I would highly recommend the Sedona Method, which is a wonderfully simple technique of releasing emotions and negativity.

Hit me up if you’d like to learn more, I could even guide you through some releases if you like

Quote by PrincessC
What works for me: gardening - and I mean in the soil not the slang for weed although that’s fun too.

Gardening is slang for weed? Good to know.

I've struggled with it too, though it's been better lately. My two cents:

• Like many others said, walking really helps. Exercise, cool rocks to pick up, gets you out of your head.

• Writing. Every day. Let writing be the lens through which which you view the world.

• I watch a lot of baseball, which I find deeply calming in a way I cannot fully explain. That's probably just me, though.

• Let go of the bullshit. The people who hurt you, the lucky break you never got. Live in the present.

I generally don't feel stress or get depressed and I'm not sure my advice is useful in that I take on both as an adversary to be beaten to dust. Kind of a 'fuck you' attitude toward both. For whatever reason this is a strong motivator for me, maybe because I just like a fight.

Lots of great advice here though and the number 1 for me is get out in nature, the woods, touch rocks and trees and water. This has been a huge part of my lifestyle since I was a kid and I am convinced this is the main thing that keeps me on an even keel.

#2: fill your life with good people. Folks who are negative, make you feel bad/unhappy/'less than' are fucking worthless, cut them loose.

Quote by LYFBUZ

#2: fill your life with good people. Folks who are negative, make you feel bad/unhappy/'less than' are fucking worthless, cut them loose.

That is so true. The negativity of somebody else can impact your state of mind and mental health.

I usually play with my dog (or take him for a long walk), listen to music, watch anime, etc. And of course, I also write. But even that can be stressful and depressing at times