It really is difficult... and there isn't a reference that I've found. A lot of it came from my own therapist (an LCSW), and a lot came from my own experiences.
By 'things', I mean 'things which you can appreciate, things that you enjoy spending the time to experience, things which you enjoy creating, things that you enjoy working with, things which make you feel better about the world'. I intentionally left it open to interpretation -- but not simply 'doing', but 'feel better about the world because thing exists within it'.
What makes your world brighter? What makes your world darker? What makes you proud? What makes you feel shame? What takes your world and throws it upside-down? What is the magic in your snow-globe? What do you enjoy creating? What do you enjoy doing well? What do you wish you never had to do again?
'joy' is a hard one to pin down... when was the last time you became so enraptured with something that you lost track of time? When was the last time you did so, and actively enjoyed doing what you were doing? What did you enjoy about it? What did you wish you never had to do again?
These are just suggestions to get started -- they're meant to lead to more questions, not be the end of the process. (Realistically, identifying the things that you like, and arranging things so that you do more of them, is part of the process of becoming less depressed.)
Eventually (give it 3 to 24 months), you'll ask yourself something like "why am I making these lists instead of doing something else that I enjoy more?"... and that won't necessarily be the day you find that you're not depressed anymore, but that will (hopefully) be the day that you'll have determined that you've changed enough habits to find yourself at a happier point in your life.
Another name for the non-chemical aspect of "mental health" is "behavioral health" -- develop healthy behaviors, and you develop a healthy mental state. Sometimes maintaining those behaviors requires an ongoing adjustment to your neurotransmitter levels; sometimes it only requires a temporary adjustment to get the rest of the system tuned enough that it's no longer necessary.
I also worry a bit... many antidepressants have warning labels that say "use caution in teens and young adults, as they may become more actively suicidal in the first few weeks after starting with them". In my (non-clinical, since I'm neither a therapist nor a doctor nor really any health professional) opinion, this warning shouldn't be limited only to teens and young adults. (I've seen other (older) people starting on them and becoming more actively self-harmful, either through more-frivolous spending or running themselves into the ground. Older people seem to have collectively learned that "if you kill yourself, you can't ever make it better", though, so this should also be taken with several shakers-full of salt.)
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Date: 2009-02-08 06:51 am (UTC)By 'things', I mean 'things which you can appreciate, things that you enjoy spending the time to experience, things which you enjoy creating, things that you enjoy working with, things which make you feel better about the world'. I intentionally left it open to interpretation -- but not simply 'doing', but 'feel better about the world because thing exists within it'.
What makes your world brighter? What makes your world darker? What makes you proud? What makes you feel shame? What takes your world and throws it upside-down? What is the magic in your snow-globe? What do you enjoy creating? What do you enjoy doing well? What do you wish you never had to do again?
'joy' is a hard one to pin down... when was the last time you became so enraptured with something that you lost track of time? When was the last time you did so, and actively enjoyed doing what you were doing? What did you enjoy about it? What did you wish you never had to do again?
These are just suggestions to get started -- they're meant to lead to more questions, not be the end of the process. (Realistically, identifying the things that you like, and arranging things so that you do more of them, is part of the process of becoming less depressed.)
Eventually (give it 3 to 24 months), you'll ask yourself something like "why am I making these lists instead of doing something else that I enjoy more?"... and that won't necessarily be the day you find that you're not depressed anymore, but that will (hopefully) be the day that you'll have determined that you've changed enough habits to find yourself at a happier point in your life.
Another name for the non-chemical aspect of "mental health" is "behavioral health" -- develop healthy behaviors, and you develop a healthy mental state. Sometimes maintaining those behaviors requires an ongoing adjustment to your neurotransmitter levels; sometimes it only requires a temporary adjustment to get the rest of the system tuned enough that it's no longer necessary.
I also worry a bit... many antidepressants have warning labels that say "use caution in teens and young adults, as they may become more actively suicidal in the first few weeks after starting with them". In my (non-clinical, since I'm neither a therapist nor a doctor nor really any health professional) opinion, this warning shouldn't be limited only to teens and young adults. (I've seen other (older) people starting on them and becoming more actively self-harmful, either through more-frivolous spending or running themselves into the ground. Older people seem to have collectively learned that "if you kill yourself, you can't ever make it better", though, so this should also be taken with several shakers-full of salt.)