Written by: Laryssa Levesque, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
If you struggle with depression, you might be far too familiar with the symptoms of low motivation, decreased energy and fatigue, and lack of interest or enjoyment in activities you once loved. These symptoms can cause someone with depression to neglect their responsibilities or cut back on their activities, which ultimately reinforces their depressive symptoms. In this article, we will help you learn to manage your depression through increasing your activity levels.
Why am I Feeling Depressed?
There are many potential causes of depression, ranging from genetics, medical illnesses, major life stressors, grief/loss, trauma and other personal experiences such as a person’s upbringing. But regardless of why someone is depressed, many share common symptoms that can actually make their depression worse! In other words, your depression can feed into itself and create more symptoms.
This phenomenon is what we call the vicious cycle of depression, whereby depression leads to low motivation, lack of interest in hobbies or activities, and decreased energy, which logically (and understandably) make a person reduce their activity levels and possibly neglect important responsibilities. After some time, this can not only further reduce energy levels and motivation, but also fuel negative self-talk about a person’s self-worth, value, and competency and foster feelings of guilt, hopelessness, helplessness, defeat, and sadness.
In addition to this internal battle of low motivation and negative self-talk, others in a depressed person’s life might start to become critical and negative towards them which can also reinforce these negative self-beliefs and depressing feelings.
How to Overcome Depression Through Behavioural Activation
One of the best ways to cope with depression is through a CBT technique called Behavioural Activation, which is a fancy term for saying- take action! This concept is quite simple and has proven to be an effective treatment method for depression.
The main idea is to engage in activities that give you a sense of enjoyment and/or a sense of accomplishment. The hardest part of implementing this technique is getting over the initial hurdle of feeling unmotivated, fatigued, and disinterested. It is important to bring a lot of self-compassion to this struggle; we are not trying to imply a “suck it up buttercup” kind of attitude (as that is very dismissing and invalidating!) but rather a gentle nudge towards helping yourself out of this depressive funk. Validate for yourself how difficult it is to get motivated and remind yourself why you are making an effort to beat your depression.
When we start intentionally engaging in these types of activities, we feel better about ourselves, more productive (and therefore less guilty for neglecting responsibilities), and more energetic and in higher spirits, which helps us to stay motivated to continue to engage in more activities ‒ the cycle is broken and reversed!
Tips for Practicing Behavioural Activation
Start small - Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do too many things at once. Chances are, this will either overwhelm you to the point of procrastination, or you won’t be able to complete everything you set out to do, which will only lead to negative feelings/thoughts about yourself (e.g., feeling disappointed or thoughts like “I can’t do anything right”) and contribute to your depression. Pick 1 thing a day that is either for a sense of enjoyment or accomplishment that is feasible and realistic to complete.
Create a schedule - Plan out activities you might want to do each day and add them to your schedule. Again, you want to make sure it is realistic in order to set yourself up for success rather than failure in your goals.
Brainstorm activities - Think about things you actually might enjoy doing. What brings you joy in life? If you could be doing anything right now, what would that be? Similarly, think about activities or responsibilities you have been neglecting that might feel good to accomplish. Do you need to make intentions to start brushing your teeth daily, put away your laundry, or cook dinner? For both pleasure and mastery, write down a list of things you could do and incorporate 1 thing a day (or week if that is more feasible to begin with) into your schedule.
Monitor progress - Log how you feel before and after each activity. Did going out for ice cream with friends make you feel happier? Or did working out today make you feel more productive? Whatever the activity, reflect on how it impacted your mood. You might start to notice that certain activities produce more positive effects than others; as you work through these strategies, you can adjust your approach as needed.
Be gentle - Recognize that recovering from depression is a journey that will have many hiccups along the way. You might have something unexpected happen in the day that prevents you from completing your planned activity, or you might just have a particularly down day that really sucks the energy from you and makes you not want to do anything. That is ok ‒ this will happen. Be patient with yourself in how quickly you are making progress, be kind to yourself if you don’t reach your goals one day and give yourself a pat on the back for taking these steps to improve your mental health!
The Bottom Line
Depression is a serious mental health issue that can affect a person in many ways. Most people with depression struggle with a lack of motivation, reduced energy, and diminished interest in activities that ultimately lead them to reduce their activity levels and neglect responsibilities, which only further enhance depressive symptoms. It is possible to break this cycle of depression through purposely engaging in activities that give a sense of enjoyment or accomplishment, which will create positive experiences that will combat depressive symptoms. If you struggle with depression and need support in navigating your recovery, speak to a licensed therapist who can work with you on these techniques and other proven methods to treat depression.
Laryssa Levesque, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Laryssa is a Registered Psychotherapist and entrepreneur. She is the owner and clinical director of virtual mental health practice, Inner Growth Counselling & Psychotherapy, which provides comfortable, down-to-earth, and genuine therapy services to children, teens, adults, couples, and families. Her mission is to modernize therapy by making it accessible and convenient for people to seek help and destigmatize mental health issues. She believes that everyone would benefit from therapy to help them rediscover their authentic self, find balance and control in life, and live more meaningfully, free of the burden of mental health issues.
