Yaa Amponsah is in her late teens and she suffers from depression often. “I don’t know why but I just feel sad sometimes and I wonder why I am on Earth. Sometimes too I feel as though my parents and friends don’t love me and that makes me feel like committing suicide. And when I go to school and my mates make fun of my big nose and my unfashionable clothes, it makes things worse. I want to know how I can deal with teenage depression by myself because I don’t want to tell anybody about how I'm feeling,” Yaa says, with a sad look on her face.

Depression is a major health problem around the world, and it is affecting more and more young people in the United States.

This disease can cause worse health problems, such as heart disease, if you don't deal with it effectively.

In this article, I want to show you how to deal with depression by yourself, if you do not feel comfortable asking help from others to help you manage it.

Now, what are the things you can do?

1. Do Intermittent Fasting

Some studies suggest that when a person fasts for between 12 and 18 hours, including the time spent sleeping, it can help to deal with depression.

Intermittent fasting helps to raise levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which is needed for the formation of neural networks. When new neural networks are formed, brain function improves and that can help you to feel good about yourself.

Additionally, when you fast, levels of Ghrelin, or the hunger hormone, which is known to boost mood, rises in the body and that can help you to have a sense of well-being.

So, regularly, let’s say every Saturday or every Sunday, or on days when you feel very depressed, choose to abstain from eating breakfast and lunch. Stay in your room, or go to a quiet location where you can read your Bible, meditate, and pray, and watch videos about happy things that happened to you in the past, or watch videos about Bible stories of hope and deliverance, such as Daniel’s deliverance from the lion’s den, or Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, to remind you that you can be delivered from your present bad situation and it will help you in dealing with depression alone.

Furthermore, during the fast, read Bible verses such as Jeremiah 31 v 17 which says, “There is hope for your future, says the LORD…,” and recall times when God has been good to you and it will make you see that once God is alive, all is not lost, and that can help you to renew the desire to go on living.

Here are a few precautions you can take to ensure that you have a smooth and healthy fast:

Do not overeat the day before you fast otherwise you will find it hard to resist the urge to eat.
Keep a 3.0 liter water bottle by your side and drink some of the water every 30 minutes so that you can flush out the toxins that will build up in your body.
Break your fast by eating 6 ounces (two handfuls) of cooked vegetables such as cabbage or lettuce, or eat two servings of fruits such as bananas, pawpaw, watermelons, and nuts such as tigernuts or almonds.

2. Exercise Often

Doing vigorous exercises often can help to boost your mood. Exercising helps to release “feel good” hormones known as endorphins which will make you feel as though you are on top of the world.

One exercise I do, and which I know will help you too, is to hop around our yard for 15 minutes. It is great fun, it makes me laugh and that helps me to forget my problems.

How do you do it?

Find a large space where you will not be disturbed, and where you can move about without causing any damage.
Squat, take in a deep breath, and hop forward. Keep hopping from one place to another until you feel tired.
Stand up, stretch for a minute, and continue hopping until the 15 minutes is up.
Alternatively. hop for a distance of 10 or 20 meters, get up and relax your muscles, and then continue for another 20 meters and you will feel great.
You may hold your ears when you are hopping or place your hands on your thighs.
You may choose to do the exercise once every morning and evening before you bath.

3. Sing To Yourself

Singing will make your brain release endorphins and these hormones will generate pleasurable feelings in your body which will give you a sense of well-being.

Additionally, singing will make vibrations pass through your body and that can make you feel upbeat about life.

I sing gospel songs and other spiritual songs sometimes when I feel depressed and it helps to lift my spirits: the inspirational lyrics of these songs inspire me and give me hope and I find it easier to be optimistic about my life even if all around me suggests that there is no hope for tomorrow. And the louder I sing, the happier I become.

So, practice this too. Find a spot where you will not disturb people, such as quiet woods, and sing your heart out and give God the glory for giving you a voice with which you can sing. Alternatively, sing to the accompaniment of a guitar, piano, or a xylophone in your room.

4. Express Your Gratitude

Research has shown that when one expresses gratitude, it helps to boost levels of dopamine, a hormone that makes one feel happy, in the brain. Increased levels of dopamine will help to lift your spirits.

As you search for things to be grateful about mentally, and as you remember the good things that have happened to you in the past, you may think to yourself, “Wow! Good things have happened in my life before! That means that this is not the end of my life. Just as positive things happened to me yesterday, good things can happen to me again in life. This is just a temporary phase I am passing through and I will get out of it. It will pass!”

So, at the end of every day, write down 10 good things that happened to you in that day. Ruminate on these things and keep repeating them to yourself until you go to sleep. You will wake up feeling that there is hope for that day.

5. Write Your Feelings Down

It is very difficult to control the imagination when you are going through a rough period. However, when you transfer your thoughts and feelings onto paper, and you read what you have written, it gives you a sense of control: it makes you feel that the challenges which you think are insurmountable are things you can do with just a little bit of effort, and that is empowering and can help you to fight feelings of worthlessness.

So, keep a journal with you wherever you go. When negative thoughts start bombarding your mind and you start feeling miserable, reach for your journal, assess exactly how you feel, and write those feelings down.

Additionally, transfer whatever negative thoughts come into your mind onto the paper and read what you write and it will help you to shift your perspective: you may realize that you are over-exaggerating about how bad things really are and you may begin to question negative thoughts and replace bad thoughts with more realistic, positive thoughts and it will help you in dealing with depression when alone.

Conclusion

Doing intermittent fasting, exercising often, singing upbeat songs which inspire the soul, expressing gratitude for all the blessings you have enjoyed in life so far, and writing down your feelings are some ways to deal with depression by yourself.