It's appropriate to focus on the importance of routine self-care in our depression recovery since International Self-Care Day was this past Tuesday, July 24. This kind of self-care includes daily tasks that are important for our health and hygiene, but we often find these seemingly basic activities overwhelming with depression. What are some of these routine tasks? Why are they an integral part of coping with depression and how can we find the motivation to complete these routine self-care tasks?

We should fight depression stigma now because May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the spotlight is on mental health and depression stigma. That means there is a greater opportunity to reach a wider audience about how we can work together to fight the stigma surrounding depression and other mental illnesses. With this in mind, how can we best use the time that we have during the month of May to fight depression stigma?

Managing stress and depression on a day-to-day basis can be overwhelming. Depression is stressful enough without considering the everyday life stress everyone experiences. So, how do we cope? How do we deal with both our depression and stress that life brings us?

Choosing exercise to help treat depression is a great idea. Not only does it release feel-good endorphins, it allows for social interaction as well as gives structure to our days. In this post, I share how to exercise to help treat depression as well as three things to consider when you exercise to help treat depression.

How can using mindfulness for depression help you recover? Well, mindfulness is about living in the now by taking notice of what’s around us and the feelings that are inside of us. It’s about being fully present and removing the extra layer of thought that we normally attach to people, things, and events. Using mindfulness for depression changed my life because my depressed brain was anything but peaceful.

The holidays are quickly approaching, and in order to cope well with depression during the holidays, we need to have a plan in place. While this may be the most wonderful time of the year for some, winter holidays can be the most difficult for others. Those of us depression may be faced with a myriad of potential triggers during the holidays; however, there are some things we can do in order to equip ourselves to cope with them and better deal with our depression during the holidays.

My name is Michelle Sedas, and I am the Author of Coping with Depression. I’m delighted to get to blog for HealthyPlace. As the saying goes, “Write what you know,” and with my history of depression, I can’t think of a blog more suited for me to write.

Enjoying life and having fun is an important part of our existence. Incorporating it into our daily lives is an essential part of learning how to live with and manage our depression in a healthy way. While we know this is true, the challenging part can be putting enjoyment and fun into practice. I've discovered some ways to make this easier, and I've found that making time to enjoy life and have fun is beneficial to learning to cope with depression.

  I have been feeling overwhelming depression for the past couple of weeks. Living with a mental illness can make anyone exhausted, turning simple daily tasks into daunting and dreaded foes. My responsibilities loom before me like an abysmal darkness that I cannot escape. Practicing self-care feels impossible. Even thinking about housework or errands exhausts me. Welcome to the hard days of overwhelming depression.

I’m Jennifer Smith, and I’m thrilled to be writing for Coping with Depression at HealthyPlace. I was diagnosed with major depression in January 2017. This came as a result of a near suicide attempt which required inpatient psychiatric care. I had struggled with depressive episodes throughout my life, but this was a much more severe event. Up until this point, I had been adept at attributing my depression to simple moodiness or just being tired. I had adopted routines and methods of hiding my depression from others, and the result s of that nearly cost me my life. I am currently on medication and in therapy, and I am learning how to cope with my depression in healthy ways rather than ignore it.