Biohacking Depression – Part V

So far in this series, we’ve covered a number of lifestyle improvements that you can make to help with depression. Some of these include adjusting your diet, taking more supplements, improving your sleep patterns and circadian rhythm, and making sure you exercise more. In this final part, we will focus on the importance of going out into nature, being social, and working on positive thinking.

Explore Nature

Something that’s not really considered when it comes to our current lifestyle is the stress of an urban environment. The stress, noise, frantic pace, and light pollution all contribute to reduced mental health, compared to those in more rural areas. But if you do happen to live in a city, you can try something called forest therapy. It means to go out into the natural world more, often a forest, but grasslands, mountain ranges, or a beach all qualify as well.

Forest therapy can lead to improvements in our physiological and psychological health, by lowering stress and blood pressure, improving our heart rate, and providing better regulation of emotions.  This can work even more so by making direct contact with the earth, which is known as grounding. It’s be en known to help improve sleep, making your nervous system more relaxed, as well as providing a balance for night and day rhythms.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that going out in nature is good for us as it’s essentially where we should be. Everyone could certainly use more time outside, but for those suffering from depression it’s critical. As mentioned in previous parts, 30 minutes a day is ideal, and going barefoot is also encouraged if possible. Getting outside more can help slow the hectic world down a bit as well.

Why Socialization Is So Important

One of the most obvious factors in developing depression is feeling lonely or being socially isolated. Being socially connected to others is a human need, and if we don’t have socialization, it can hurt our health significantly. Humans have always been social creatures, living in close groups until recent technology changed all that. Having social support is crucial for optimal functioning.

When we are socially isolated or lonely, there is a bigger likelihood of inflammation and drops in neuroendocrine health. The disruptions that are caused by loneliness affect the regions of our brain like the amygdala and hippocampus as well.

Being around others helps with our sense of self-esteem, while the support we get from others helps emit the positive hormones of dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, which is enabled more with physical contact with others. The connections we make with others give us hope and comfort. While a depressed person feels like they need to be alone, that is the most unhealthy thing you can be doing. Being able to talk to family or friends when life circumstances become overwhelming are vital to prevent suicidal thoughts.

Additionally, if someone needs to be weaned off antidepressants, having a group to speak to can help prevent any possible relapses. Depressed people should try and schedule nights to see others, if only one time a week. Staying away from social media is also an important step in overcoming depression. Aside for making someone feel more worthless, it tends to take the place of the necessary in-person socialization needed.

Ruminating On The Negative

Rumination is focusing excessively and dwelling on thoughts that are usually negative. Depression itself is correlated to rumination, so overcoming it is hard to do without working on correcting this as well. The consistent negative, angry, sad, or critical thoughts all make the body feel like it’s being threatened, triggering a stress response. And while the stress is not physical, it can clearly lead to a physiological issue.

One of the helpful ways to tackle the rumination issue is to do mindfulness therapy, which helps to recognize the negative thoughts and to respond in a rational, and less-emotional way. Mindfulness helps you realize that they are just thoughts, allowing you to become more present and rationally thinking about why you may be thinking a certain way. It also gives you a chance to reframe your perspectives, as well as overcome the patterns of irrational thinking such as over-exaggerating the negatives, discounting the positives, and all-or-nothing thinking.

Cognitive distortions can happen all the time and working on mindfulness can help them from getting out of control. Someone who is depressed is not working with a rational brain and needs to be rewired from seeing only the negative. The ideal way to practice mindfulness is to try it for at least 5 minutes (but ideally 20 minutes) every morning and evening. Don’t attempt to do anything, but just have the thoughts come in and recognize why they’re coming. Working on the negative thought patterns is not easy, but utilizing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can work for many to dispel the negativity.

Lastly, making a journal of what you are grateful for is also a helpful technique. Positive psychology can help with positive feelings of well-being, life satisfaction, and happiness. Having self-compassion to help you recognize what you have going good in your life is also very helpful in reducing depression.

Solutions

You can see from this multi-part series that there are many adjustments you can make to your lifestyle to work on tackling this very serious issue of depression. Even if you think about it from a biological, physiological, spiritual, or psychological point of view, something is missing in your life that is preventing you from having ideal mental health. We often don’t realize what our modern lifestyle can do to hinder us living a healthy life, but we should remember t eat natural foods, to go outside, get better sleep, see friends and family, and stay present.