How to Overcome Depressed Mode

Feeling Under the Weather and Strategies to Overcome Depressed Mood

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a serious illness diagnosed by the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) used by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. However, even without the illness it is normal to sometimes feel blue or under the weather, as the expression goes. Only when the symptoms persist over a long period of time and are severe enough, it is time to talk about depression, the rest of the cases it is simply low mood, which is normal, more habitual to some people than others, but still unpleasant even when experienced by someone with perfect mental health.

Cat-Hat. Pets also make many people feel better. Image - Elena

Luckily, there are many strategies which one can use to make oneself feel better. For example, from a girl’s point of view, sometimes doing your hair in the morning and putting on makeup, even if you’re not going out, or going to school or to work, where you usually don’t wear makeup may make you feel good. Additionally, if the action itself doesn’t put you in a better mood, the compliments you receive may do so. For men, this could mean wearing cologne and perhaps clothes reserved for special occasions, putting gel in one’s hair and otherwise making oneself feel better by taking care of one’s appearance.

Other strategies to make oneself feel good include exercise. Exercising regularly maintains a more optimistic outlook on life, while exercising in the moment releases endorphins – the body’s natural feel good elements. Eating well also contributes to a good, positive mood in the long run. Of course, there are shortcuts to feeling good, like drinking alcohol or taking drugs, but in the long run such bad habits create much more problems than they solve, and thus, result in worse mood over long periods of time. Alternatively, having an optimistic outlook, being hopeful and trying to look at the bright side of life also helps with persistently having a positive demeanor, which in turn may bring about more things to be happy about.