How Do to Deal with Anxiety and Depression

First off – Thank you for reading! This week marks 5 years since I started it, and I’m so blessed you choose to read! Here’s to many more!

Over the years I have tried numerous things to deal with my anxiety and depression. The medical community told me that I needed medication and just kept piling it on. They said that would “fix” me.

While I don’t think taking medication if it is truly needed for a bit is bad, if I could go back, I would not take the medications that numbed me because I was unable to deal with the underlying reason – the trauma. It is not a “fix” as it just masks symptoms of underlying issues.

As I talked about in Driving on a Flat Tire post – trauma catches up with you if you don’t deal with it.

Here’s what I tried or what was recommended.

• Up to 11 different medications at one time

• TMS – Transcranial Magnetic stimulation – did this 3 times but besides expensive it didn’t deal with the underlying issue, so it only helped for a few weeks.

• One doctor kept pushing ECT – shock your brain therapy – and I knew enough to know that was not the answer and didn’t want to permanently hurt my brain and memory, so I refused – praise God for that choice.

• Overeating and comfort eating.

• Staying as busy as possibly to not deal with what I was feeling.

• Ignoring my body and what it was telling me.

• Cutting and self-harm

Here’s what actually helped:

• Only actually dealing with the trauma, acknowledging it, and processing it allowed me to get better and help my depression and anxiety.

• Thankfulness has also been a key. To list all the blessings – no matter how small – when my brain goes to dark places.

• To get out in the sun and walk and enjoy God’s creation helps too.

• Paying attention to what I put into my body – foods etc.

• Exercise  – brisk and intense at least 20 minutes several days a week is a natural anti-depressant.

• Most of all choosing to be a survivor and no longer playing victim.

There are more, but for today I will stop there. I just want to encourage you to deal with your depression and anxiety in the ways that will be helpful and not harmful to you overall.

I know from over a decade of experience what will and won’t work and what only makes things worse. It is my prayer and hope that in sharing that with you, you can work on truly healing, and avoid the pain I endured from the things that didn’t and won’t work.

© 2022 Susan M. Clabaugh. All Rights Reserved.