Coping strategies and safe behaviour

[prettymess]

DH and I both suffer from depression and have done on and off for the last decade. It's a big struggle to cope with every day life. We have some safe and easy things to fall back on when one or both of us go through a tough spell. Things like sliced cheese, ordering online, cleaning wipes... it might sometimes cost a bit more, but it really helps when we feel like crap and overwhelmed. I intend to prepare a little on days I feel good and energetic. I'm wondering what else I can do. I do try to keep up with being social and not withdrawal, but it's so tempting to shut the world out.

What are your little comforts, coping strategies and safe behaviours when you are going through the bad days?

Maybe taking up a hobby that can be done in the comfort of your own home for those spells of depression, simple things like reading, painting, crafts, anything that gives you head space and that ideally you can see results (so that you done end up feeling as though time is being wasted iykwim). If you have a garden then getting your hands in the soil can help to ground you and is good for getting some vit d, or even indoor growing for instance growing herbs (that you can use in teas etc, thinking lavender, camomile). Little things that you can look back on and feel a sence of pride and achievement, but at the same time do not use up too much energy.

I run.

I'm not a marathon runner or anything "big time". I just do 40 mins a day (and some of that is walking briskly). Sometimes though, I think a person needs to accept that it's time to "shutdown & reboot" as it were. I'm like that at the moment. Could be the weather....could be Christmas looming, which in the past few years represents a time of family rows and resentments rearing their annual heads. Could be that my son is going through a difficult patch (Aspie and OCD). Anyway, whatever it is I recognise the need to hunker down, read a good book, when I can concentrate for long enough, and turn my back on anything that isn't absolutely necessary to my survival.