How to Get Out of a Mental Health Slump – Sometimes it’s predictable, and sometimes it hits suddenly. Either way, being in a mental health slump is both draining and damaging to your overall well-being. Notably, mental health slumps can affect all aspects of your life, including relationships, productivity, and even your own health and wellness. As such, it’s best to try to pull yourself out of a mental slump at the first sign of a dip and to maintain healthy habits to minimize depressive episodes moving forward.
Today, we’ll outline nine tips on how to get out of a mental health slump but first, let’s discuss how to tell if you’re in a slump, to begin with.
How to Know You’re in a Mental Health Slump
Many of us are prone to feeling down during these colder, darker days in part due to reduced vitamin D access and perhaps stress from the holidays or burdened social situations. Regardless of the cause, symptoms of a mental health slump include persistent feelings of lethargy or a lack of enthusiasm, difficulty focusing and completing tasks, or just an overall blue mood. When this happens, everything else becomes more difficult, too. It’s almost like trudging through muddy water without seeing the shore.
How to Get Out of a Mental Health Slump
If the above scenario sounds familiar, you might have a mental health slump. If that’s the case, then use these nine tips on how to get out of a mental health slump before your symptoms become worse or the damage expands. But before you do, remember that this is a valid part of the human experience, and there is no shame in prioritizing mental health. Having said that, let’s discuss some tips to improve depression fast.
Identify Your Emotions
Emotions are often the root cause of a mental health slump, particularly uncomfortable emotions like fear, anger, sadness, and hopelessness. Once you identify the root emotion causing the slump, you can begin developing a plan to pull yourself out. For example, if financial insecurity contributes to your mental discomfort, you can make plans to improve your situation and empower your psyche.
Make a Plan
Once you’ve identified the source of your slump, you can develop a plan to help. Importantly, this step needn’t be the ultimate solution, just something you can do to improve your current situation. Are you feeling lonely? Plan a dinner date or video hangout with friends. Stressed about money? Pick up gig work while you look for more consistent income. The idea here is simply to empower yourself to make a change and then reap positive rewards for doing so.
Count to Five…
…Then do something – anything. The idea behind this tip is that the first step is always the hardest, so if you take only five seconds to psych yourself up, you won’t have the time to talk yourself out of it again. Do you want to go for a walk? Count to five and then go. Do you need to email your boss? Count to five and then open your email server and get to typing. Don’t wait; just do it.
Take a Cold Shower
Research suggests that cold showers and ice baths can quickly alleviate depression, uplift mood, and boost energy and focus. Essentially, the cold water “shocks” the system, causing it to send electrical pulses from the brain to the nervous system, similar to how antidepressants work. Moreover, cold water therapy also seems to lower cortisol levels, the stress hormone responsible for our fight-or-flight response to stressful situations.
Call a Friend
One of the first things many of us do when we get into a mental health slump is withdraw from friends. Unfortunately, this can actually make depressive symptoms worse because that connection with our peers reminds us that we are important and loved. Plus, when we seclude ourselves, we often neglect basic self-care activities, too. So, pull out that contacts list and call someone. They’re probably dying to hear from you anyway.
Stay Off Social
Marketers and media sites have learned to collect clicks by sharing content that triggers emotions – for the better or worse. True, some media outlets will share cute cat videos or inspiring quotes, but most lean into doom and gloom – even if there isn’t much doom and gloom. As such, the best way how to get out of a mental health slump is to simply avoid news and social media sites until your heart is strong enough again.
Meditate
Meditation helps you learn to focus on the now – not the future or the past, but what is right in front of you right now. It teaches you to experience life through each of your five senses, which can help ground you in reality if depression or anxiety gets too heavy. Additionally, meditation allows you to envision the life you want, which can help you adjust your trajectory and stay on track even during difficult or emotionally heavy times.
Organize Your Space
Clutter can contribute to stress, ironically making it more difficult to clean. However, by taking a few minutes to declutter your space, you can bring yourself back into a more tranquil state of mind, allowing you to focus on more productive or rewarding activities.
Ask for Help
Lastly, ask for help when you need it. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with cleaning, ask a friend to come help organize your space. If you need help unpacking uncomfortable emotions, ask a friend or therapist to lend an ear. Regardless of your needs or emotional capacity, remember that your friends and family love you and want to help you find a way out of this slump. You just have to ask.
How to Get Out of a Mental Health Slump, Final Thoughts
Wellness includes both physical and mental health. When one suffers, other areas of wellness suffer, as well. That’s why it’s important to know how to get out of a mental health slump. Remember to practice these tricks whenever necessary to pick yourself back up.
If these tips don’t work (or if you need a little boost to keep your spirits up), then try Doc’s Oils CBD products. Our premium hemp-based products include the best ingredients to lift your spirits and ease your pain.
Contact us to learn more, or join our community for more wellness tips from the Doc.
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