CWD Daily

March 30, 2021

CWD Daily

Tips for Coping with Depression

If you are in a suicide crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -
1-800-273-8255.

Tip of the Day

TRIGGER WARNING: This is a particularly upsetting subject.

There is help for suicidal thoughts and urges, but when you're feeling that bleak you can't believe there is hope or see any way to go on.

The website OC87 Recovery Diaries presents “stories of mental health, empowerment and change.” Many of these are first-person accounts of climbing back from suicidal periods and suicide attempts. Reading about others who have been there may calm, reassure or inspire you.

Stories such as “Dear Mom, I Want to Kill Myself” by Tree Franklyn”: “No one understood. In a world of six billion people, I was alone."

With first person essays, short films, interviews and reviews on topics from addiction to schizophrenia, you will find stories you can relate to.

CWD Daily is written by Julie Aiken, a layperson whose only authority lies in 40 years of coping with depression. Nothing in the newsletter should be taken as medical advice. Please do no self-diagnose or self-prescribe. Above all, please get help if you need it.

Contact: witchhazel2020@gmail.com

March 29, 2021

CWD Daily

Tips for Coping with Depression

If you are in a suicide crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -
1-800-273-8255.

Tip of the Day

“When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad.”

It is simplistic, to be sure, but writing down or speaking aloud a list of your favorite things can be an effective technique to turn your mood around.

Contact: witchhazel2020@gmail.com

March 28, 2021

CWD Daily

Tips for Coping with Depression

If you are in a suicide crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -
1-800-273-8255.

Tip of the Day

Get help. Parents – there is help available.

“...approximately 2% of children and at least 4% of adolescents suffer from depression at any given time. By the end of high school, approximately one young person in five will have had at least one episode of depression.

“Children and adolescents who are under stress, who experience loss, or who have attentional, learning, conduct, or anxiety disorders are at a higher risk for depression... The good news is that depression is a treatable illness.”

CLICK HERE for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s online depression resource center.

Contact: witchhazel2020@gmail.com

March 27, 2021

CWD Daily

Tips for Coping with Depression

If you are in a suicide crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -
1-800-273-8255.

Tip of the Day

“You're gonna' be nowhere, the loneliest kind of lonely.
It may be rough going;
Just to do your thing's the hardest thing to do.

“But you've gotta' make your own kind of music,
Sing your own special song.
Make your own kind of music
Even if nobody else sings along.”

Mama Cass – Make Your Own Kind of Music

Contact: witchhazel2020@gmail.com

March 26, 2021

CWD Daily

Tips for Coping with Depression

If you are in a suicide crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -
1-800-273-8255.

Tip of the Day

Trees can bring you joy. Plant them. Decorate with photos and paintings of them. Have picture books of trees on your coffee table.

HERE are some traditional associations with trees, according to House Beautiful.

Olive – peace
Oak – power and courage
Palm – peace (the trunk bends w/out breaking)
Birch – new beginnings
Elm – intuition and inner strength
Maple – sense of balance and promise
Cedar – healing
Japanese Maple – peaceful retreat

Like most evergreens, you might think of a fir as a Christmas tree. However, it is a symbol of rebirth and springtime.

Other trees that symbolize happiness:

Cherry, wild plum, wild pear, myrtle, wild apple and fig.

Contact: witchhazel2020@gmail.com

March 25, 2021

CWD Daily

Tips for Coping with Depression

If you are in a suicide crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -
1-800-273-8255.

Tip of the Day

Depression is not about what's going on in your life, it's about how you think about what's going on in your life.

Catching self-abusing thoughts and turning them into rational assessments of a situation is key.

Try to remember to react to automatic thoughts with rational responses, and write it down: list automatic thoughts on the left half of a piece of paper and the rational response to each thought on the right side.

Even when you're so depressed you can't see the solution, try this technique, pioneered by David D. Burns, whose books are fundamentals in the field of depression.

Contact: witchhazel2020@gmail.com

March 24, 2021

CWD Daily

Tips for Coping with Depression

If you are in a suicide crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -
1-800-273-8255.

Tip of the Day

HERE is a yoga YouTube channel, Yoga with Kassandra, with truly easy stretches, breathing exercises, yoga tutorials, and more. Kassandra is down-to-earth and clear, and her exercises are super-doable.

Contact: witchhazel2020@gmail.com

March 23, 2021

CWD Daily

Tips for Coping with Depression

If you are in a suicide crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -
1-800-273-8255.

Tip of the Day

“In the eye of a hurricane
There is quiet
For just a moment.
A yellow sky.

When I was seventeen a hurricane
Destroyed my town.
I didn’t drown.
I couldn’t seem to die.

I wrote my way out”.

– from Hamilton

Journal.

Make lists of things you've accomplished.

Write automatic thoughts and then rational responses to them (David D. Burns). Write down the automatic thought depressing you right now – not what you are feeling but what you are thinking. Then write down a rational response to that automatic thought.

Write your way out.

Contact: witchhazel2020@gmail.com

March 22, 2021

CWD Daily

Tips for Coping with Depression

If you are in a suicide crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline -
1-800-273-8255.

Tip of the Day

Sit with the wind and see if you can feel its energy, its freedom and unpredictability. It brings messages. Listen for them. Hear the lessons of nature, of the eternal breath.

It is the breath of life, the wind of change. Anything is possible. You can change. You can become whatever you dream. The answer is blowing in the wind.

“It is also the intangible, the transient, the insubstantial and the elusive. Winds serve as messengers of the gods and can indicate the presence of divinity. Cirlot notes that it is held to be the primary Element (of the four elements earth, air, water and fire) by virtue of its connection with the creative breath of exhalation. Jung in Symbols of Transformation points out that in Arabic (and paralleled by the Hebrew) the word “ruh” signifies both “breath” and “spirit.””

– from Symbolism.org

Contact: witchhazel2020@gmail.com