World Health Day Theme – 7th April 2017 -- Let’s Talk About Depression. So this year the focus is on Mental health -- Need of the hour. But let our efforts to grow awareness, resources and management avenues continue beyond this day, week, month and year.
To put it in simple words: A Healthy Mind is happy, peaceful and productive. The moment it loses peace or happiness, it reaches out or searches for it. If successful, life is fine. If not, this search may become endless and eventually creeps into helplessness and the hope to find peace and happiness gradually decreases leading to Depression.
Here I mention some tips to live a healthy, satisfying and fulfilling life – leading a happy life – the trick lies in understanding and implementing the following:
1. Problems are just difficult situations. Each one’s list is different.
2. Accept life’s hardships and bounce back.
3. Accept imperfections/fallibility in and around you.
4. Give up self-rating games – it doesn’t matter so much what people think about you & what you are doing.
5. Keep up with your emotions without being emotional -- Don’t let your thoughts and actions be driven by overwhelming emotions.
6. Evaluate -- did your behaviour or emotion help solve the problem in short or long term; If no long-term benefits are seen then it’s time to throw them in the dustbin.
7. Emotional self- management is the key to stress management.
8. No two people can be the same.
9. Responding and not reacting is the key to fulfilling relationships.
10. Everyone is running life’s race for happiness, love & acceptance.
11. Self-defeating emotions and behaviours take us away from reality called life.
12. See uncertainty as a challenge – do not be afraid of it.
13. Don’t blame others for making you unhappy. Take responsibility for making yourself happy because Happiness lies in you & you only.
14. The strength is in you. It’s time to act on this realization.
15. Anger, frustration and sadness are often outcomes of expecting the expectations to be fulfilled.
16. We cannot change the past; we can change how we let the past influence our present.
Expectations from a Mental Health Care Professional (Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Counselors)
To help/guide you to increase your emotional self-management in order to empower you to change those things that you can change (Most of you have already tried/done this for years/months before landing with us) and/or Help/guide you to get to accepting (though you may not like) those things you cannot change.
Options are Medications with various therapies -- As per need.