Anxiety and depression are two major mental illnesses that can affect a person, separately.

Sometimes, both of them can affect a person at the same time.

So what are some of the ways to deal with these two mental diseases when they attack you at the same time?

1. Do Exercises Every Day

According to the Harvard Medical School, exercising regularly can cause changes to the metabolism in your body and that can help you to calm down. Doing exercises often can also help you to feel relaxed because exercising stimulates the brain to release certain chemicals known as endorphins, which give one a feeling that all is well.

The endorphins your body releases when you exercise often can boost your mood and lift your spirits so that you will find it easier to ignore negative thoughts that come to your mind, and that can make it easier for you to think constructively and logically so that you can deal with your problems.

Furthermore, exercising will teach you how to discipline yourself and that will help you to discipline your mind so that you will find it easier to get rid of negative thoughts when they come to your mind.

Therefore, try to exercise every blessed day. Get an exercise partner who will remind you every day to exercise, and who will encourage you to continue exercising when you feel lazy or when you feel like giving up.

You may choose to exercise with your boyfriend, girlfriend, siblings, husband, or wife. After you choose your partner, remind yourself often that doing this activity together with the person will help both of you to bond better and improve your relationship: view the exercise time as spending quality time with someone you love and it will give you extra motivation to hit the road or go to the gym every day.

As both of you exercise, share your fears, worries, anxieties about life, frustrations you face in the home, at school, or in the workplace which is making you feel depressed, with your partner so that your partner can advise you and encourage you to make you feel better.

2. Read Books Often

Another healthy way you can deal with anxiety and depression is to read about the stories of fictional characters who experience anxiety and depression and who overcome these two mental disorders, as well as to read anxiety and depression books about real life people who face these two disorders and overcome them. It will remind you that you are not the only person in life who is battling with anxiety and depression and that can make you change the way you view what you are going through— it will make you see that if others are also going through the same challenges you are going through and surviving, then you can also deal with it without getting overwhelmed.

Additionally, as you enjoy the book, you will identify with, and relate to, the characters in the fictional stories who suffer from anxiety and depression, or to people in other parts of your country or the world who suffer from these two diseases. Therefore, you will feel an emotional connection and you will grow as the plot develops: as you learn about how they allow the lessons they learn to transform them into more mature people who can manage their emotions effectively, as you learn about how they adapt to their situation and the challenges of dealing with anxiety and depression, you will learn some tricks and strategies you can use to develop your emotional intelligence. Consequently, you will find it easier to change your mindset and to see your situation in a more positive light, and that will help to lift your spirit, as well as help you to feel calm.

So, grab an interesting fiction story book and absorb yourself in it so that you can forget about your worries and your bad mood, or read a literary fiction story, which one Stanford professor says can help you to become a person with a quieter mind.

3. Practice Yoga Often

According to the Harvard Medical School, practicing yoga can help you to combat stress so that you can feel relaxed. Additionally, practicing yoga can help your heart rate to reduce, as well as help your blood pressure to drop, and these two effects can make you feel relaxed.

Furthermore, doing yoga will teach you how to endure pain, which will make you more resilient, and that can strengthen your emotional intelligence so that you will not be overwhelmed by negative situations.

Additionally, yoga will teach you how to breathe calmly, how to relax under pressure, and how to calm yourself even in stressful situations and that can make it easier for you to control negative emotions when you are under pressure.

4. Get Enough Sleep Every Evening

Research suggests that when a person does not get enough sleep, it enhances negative mood. When one does not sleep well, he or she gets up feeling irritable. Additionally, lack of good sleep can make you feel disorganized and enervated, which can make you feel miserable, and that may worsen your depression.

Moreover, lack of proper, restful sleep can make you wake up feeling confused and that can increase the likelihood that you will think negatively, which may increase the probability that you will fret and be anxious about things you do not need to worry about.

So, organize your life in such a way that you will be done with your activities for the day by 10.00 pm so that you can get at least 7 hours of restful sleep, which doctors recommend as the number of hours that every person should sleep every day.

How do you organize yourself?

Brainstorm with your husband, wife, partner, siblings, or other family members in your house, solicit ideas, and create a daily activity schedule in which you will all agree that you will be given the space to sleep at a certain time in the day.
Additionally, set a reminder on your cell phone so that it’s alarm will blow at the time you agree to sleep to remind you to go to sleep at the appointed time.
If you do not get 7 hours of sleep in the night, try to sleep for at least one hour during the day time, preferably around lunch time.
Furthermore, learn to say no to people: avoid taking on so much work that you will have to sacrifice your sleep to continue working throughout the night. Take on just enough responsibilities that you can handle from morning to about 10.00pm in the night so that you can deal with the work effectively without doing overtime.

And if you take on so much because you want to make extra money, learn to be content with what you have and learn to trust God to give you some of the things you need to survive, for God told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6 v 10 that “…to give you houses full of all good things, which you did not fill... and vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant....” to show us that it is not everything you need to survive which you will work for: God will give you some of the things you need freely because of His great love, mercy, and grace, just as He gives us free air to breath every day, free water (rain) in its season, and free energy (sunlight).

5. Pray Every Day

If you are religious, one strategy that can help you in dealing with anxiety and depression biblically is to pray often.

Praying can have positive effects on our psychology so that you can become more hopeful about life and about the future: it will remind you that even if you cannot handle your problems alone, there is a Powerful Being who can come to your aid to help you deal with your challenges, and that can give you peace of mind.

I suffer from anxiety and depression and I am able to calm down when I pray and give my burdens to the LORD. Additionally, praying makes me feel that once I have communicated with God and placed my cares and worries in His hands, and knowing that just as He has helped me in the past to solve problems He will help me today too to solve the problems of today, I no longer feel miserable and I become more positive for the rest of the day.

So, you may say a prayer such as this one every day, “Dear God, please be merciful to me a sinner and hear my cry. LORD, I give You the glory for Your kindness, mercies, and grace which sustain me every day. God, You are the King of kings and the LORD of lords, the Alpha and the Omega who gives me food to eat, who helps me to clothe myself, who protects me from harm and danger, and I worship You and praise You this day for Your blessings. LORD, I thank You for the gifts of sight and hearing. I thank You that I have a place to lay my head. I thank You for all the help that my friends, family, and co-workers give to me every day. LORD, I struggle with anxiety and depression. I get worried about the electricity bills I have to pay, the school fees, the rent, world conditions, crime in our neighborhood, the deterioration of the economy of the country… And LORD, I get sad sometimes because I don’t feel happy about the way my spouse treats me, this disease that is bothering me, and the sickness of my mother. But I know that You have got the power to help me and to save me. Please comfort me and strengthen me. Please give me peace of mind and remind me often that there is hope for my future so that I will not get worried. Please inspire joy in my heart so that I can look beyond the negative circumstances all around me and feel happy that at least I have life. Amen.”

Conclusion

To deal with anxiety and depression, try to exercise every day. Additionally, read motivational fiction books often and read the stories of people who are also going through what you are going through, practice yoga, make sure you get at least 7 hours of sleep every day, and pray for God to give you peace of mind and peace of soul.