Rising from the ashes, First steps to recovering from depression

Sadness is a feeling that is manifested by all human beings at some point in their lives, but depression is a mental disease, that enables our hability to enjoy life, filling our minds with a deep sense of sorrow, decay and frustration. This illness its not to be taken lightly... I went through depression myself, those were dark, hard, almost unbarearable years, no matter how much I wanted to do things better, no matter how much I tryed to do good, I kept feeling that I wasnt good enough. It took three years, two suicide attempts, and quite a few visits to the psycologist office to fully overcome that sense of rejection and self hate, that awfull feeling of uselessness and emptyness that I felt so deep within me.

At some point I saw myself in the mirror and just couldnt recognize the girl standing in front of me, she looked so miserable, so lifeless, the light in her eyes was beggining to fade, and I just couldnt leave her like that. Making the decision to get better is work for only one person, YOU. It can not be forced, imposed or anything of the sort. Im not gonna lie , its an up hill battle, one where the enemy knows your weak spots and exploits them ruthlessly, but you know what? There IS a way out, and I assure you, you have all the tools, just need to put them in order, and step by step youll find that grass can be grenner on the other side.

This are a few tips to begging recovering your smile :)

Step 1 GET ACTIVE
One of the best antidotes for depression is action. When we maintain a certain level of activity we feel useful and we acquire a certain sense of control over our life. That is why it is vitally important that everyone, regardless of our life circumstances, to reserve a space every day to do those things that we enjoy.

Step 2 QUESTION IRRATIONAL THOUGHTS
The way we think is a habit that develops in the same way as any other and therefore can be changed. So in the same way that you have made it a habit to think in a negative way, you can replace it by thinking in a more rational/positive way and that will makes you feel better. this is really important, from now on its necessary to pass our thoughts across these filters: Evidence, Severity and Utility,

Lets picture we are thinking "Im so ugly " now lets pass it through the filters

First filter Evidence, Is this true? What are your bases to think this? Do you have evidence of this? and so on until you determine how true is this thought.

lets say it was true, its time to usethe second filter Severity, How bad is it? Is it really as bad as I think? surely after analyzing it a bit you will come to the conclusion that what disturbs your peace of mind is not as serious as you thought.

Well, the thought is true and also has a certain level of seriousness, now lets move on to Utility, Whats the use of thinking like that? Thinking about it solves something, or on the contrary all you get is feeling bad? If you have a real problem and in addition to some seriousness, do everything in your power to solve it, but thinking about it unproductively will only help you feel worse.

Im not a psycologist, Im still working on my degree, and with God as my witness I dont mean to tell you how to live your life, but I will tell you this, no matter how lonely you might feel, you are NOT alone, and it does get better.