How to Cope on Days When You Feel Like Hanging Yourself

Getting through the life's darker periods takes a lot of courage and effort. Focusing on achievable goals is one way to a better life. Getting energized and empowered by your achievements is the key to getting out of your depression.

Steps

1. Give yourself plenty of time to figure out how to turn your life around. Many people have been in your situation. All those who tried, found their individual solution. Your solution to this problem will be also highly individual. Make an effort to solve this problem by giving yourself time and by talking to other people about this problem. A solution to your problem may not be obvious, but it exists!
2. The right way to assess your condition is "depression". People have been dealing with depressions for ages. They have found their individual solutions with the help of their relatives, friends, and professional advisors. Talk about your depression to whoever you find comfortable talking with about it.
3. One way to think about your depression is that you are bleeding energy (so that your energy level is depressed). The main issue that you should address is how to get the level of your energy back up. Focus on how to get more energy in and less out.
4. What are some reasons for your energy to flow out? It may be negative feelings towards people (relatives, friends, teachers, enemies) or things (school, subjects, projects). It is very important to get to the reasons for your loss of energy.
5. Once you figure out what the causes are, focus on trying to improve your attitudes towards them. Even if a person hurt you in the past, try to you improve your relationship with that person. If a subject is a source of constant pain, can someone (such as a teacher or a friend) help change your attitude towards the subject?
6. Think about ways to get yourself energized. What do you enjoy doing? What gives you the most satisfaction? Do you like to cook or to help your friends or to play with your dog? If you were not pressured by your circumstances, what would you be doing the whole day? Think carefully about it and spend more time doing these things.
7. Thus, the key is to improve your attitudes to things that you hate and to spend more time doing things that you enjoy doing.
8. Also remember that your friends and family love you, it may not feel as if they do, but they care for you, and most of the time they just want to help you get through this.

Tips

• Remember that it will take quite a bit of time for you to figure out what these things are and to change your attitudes and time patterns. Getting out of a depression is a slow process of restoring your energy. It is very similar to getting cured from a serious desease. So, do not expect a speedy recovery, but take it one day at a time.
• Watch out for and be thankful (to yourself) for any minor improvements in your condition. By the end of your depression, you will have learned to help yourself, which is what life is all about.
• One thing: sometimes antidepressants are the answer. There's no shame in it; should diabetics be ashamed of needing insulin? Depression is a disease, and for some people, it's organic; it could be that your brain produces the wrong amounts of certain chemicals. If talk therapy doesn't work for you, ask your mental health professional about antidepressants.

Warnings

• In a severe case of depression, you may at times feel suicidal. If this is ever the case, please call a suicide support line such as 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255), your local information and referral hotline, or go to your local emergency room.
• Remember that suicide is illegal in some countries. In theory this means you would get arrested if/ when you fail a suicide attempt. However in western cultures you are more likely to be seen by a mental health worker than by the police.

Related wikiHows

• How to Cope with Depression
• How to Be Thankful
• How to Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia
• How to Deal With Severe Clinical Depression
• How to Help Someone With Depression
• How to Know if You Have Depression

Sources and Citations

• http://www.suicide.org/
• http://www.save.org/depressed/thoughts.html

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