Alleviating Depression - Focus on What You Enjoy & True Friends

For those who are in a down mood or struggle from depression, I found it more helpful to learn about how to be happier rather that to learn more about depression. I have read quite a bit of literature on depression, suffering from ongoing moderate depression (dysthymia) myself. There are some days that no self talk makes me better, and I try to get through it by doing things that I enjoy (the brilliant advice of my husband), such as reading some literature, writing a poem or story, sewing or seeing a friend.  What you enjoy may vary, of course. On days that I am not at my lowest, if I feel a little drained, I try to focus on things that make me less sad. While, I will never be as  happy as the average person and while I know that many with major depression need both medication and therapy from a professional, there are things we can do on a regular basis to ease the dark feelings. I have accomplished some of my best creative projects in those dark moods, so I do not hate them and I embrace the dark and light sides of life in so many ways, so I have accepted that depression is something I may struggle with my whole life as I have struggled with it for over 10 years now. However, I am slowly coming to a place of power, where I deal with it, and do not let it debilitate me.

On this note, here is a great video by Nobel laureate, Daniel Kahneman, on the subject of happiness that you may find useful.  

One thing that is very important in my own experience if you have depression is to surround yourself with people who are positive and caring. I used to have a good number of friends, but some of them were very critical, competitive and negative. I now have just a few close friends and I am much happier after seeing them once a month, than when I saw my many friends a few times a week.

Kahneman also found that based on a survey of 600,000 Americans that happiness corresponds to if you  "spend time with people you like". He said: “Below 60,000 dollars a year, people are unhappy, and they get progressively unhappier the poorer they get. Above that, we get an absolutely flat line. I mean I’ve rarely seen lines so flat."