Depression does not distinguish between young and old. For example, in the 1960s, the average age of onset for depression was 29. Now 14. Depression is a problem that needs to be addressed, and fortunately, there is a growing body of research suggesting that it can be done without the use of psychiatric drugs.
5 Best Ways to Prevent Depression According to Scientific Research
1. Sleep
Losing hours of sleep can lead to a downward spiral. According to the American Sleep Foundation: The relationship between sleep and depressive illness is complex. Depression can cause sleep problems, and sleep problems can cause and/or contribute to depressive disorders.
When you lose hours of sleep, you become depressed. And being more depressed makes it harder for you to fall asleep. It’s a vicious cycle that gets worse over time. The ideal amount of sleep for a person varies depending on lifestyle and age, but 7-8 hours a night is normal. If you can’t sleep during these hours, make sure you do.
Pay your debts with your sleep, your mental health will thank you.
2. Exercise
Over the past decades, there have been many studies on exercise and well-being. Psychologists have realized how important it is to think about the body when we talk about depression.
Michael Babiak and his colleagues conducted a study on the effectiveness of exercise. He took a group of 156 patients with major depression, many of whom suffered from insomnia, eating disorders, and suicidal thoughts. He randomly divided them into 3 groups and prescribed the following treatment:
- Group 1: 30 minutes of low-intensity exercise throughout the week.
- Group 2: standard psychiatric drugs.
- Group 3: exercise and medication.
The results were surprising for two reasons:
- Improvement was observed in 60% of patients, and there were no significant differences between the recovery rates in the groups.
- The exercises worked just as well as the medications.
After 6 months, Babiak monitored the recurrence rate and found that 60% of patients recovered:
- 38% of patients in the treatment group relapsed.
- 31% of the drug and exercise group relapsed.
- Only 9% of the exercise group relapsed. Not only did exercise act like medicine, it lasted longer.
Maybe the most important treatment to prevent depression is still underestimated?
3. Meditation
Meditation has been around for thousands of years, but most of that time it was practiced mostly by monks on spiritual retreats. Thanks to modern technologies such as electroencephalography or MRI scanners, scientists have been able to deeply study the brains of people who have been meditating for decades. And it was found that:
People with higher activation on the left side of the prefrontal cortex tend to be happier, while people with higher activation on the right side tend to be more melancholic and depressed.
Most of us are somewhere in between. When they tested meditators, their results were off the charts. The monks had a very high ratio between the left and right prefrontal cortex. They were extremely receptive to positive emotions and extremely resistant to negative ones.
We don’t need to meditate 8 hours a day to notice the benefits of meditation, as the monks do: 15 minutes a day for 8 weeks can produce incredible results. Meditation works. Have you already started work?
4. Find your passion
People adapt very quickly to the pleasures and hardships of life. If we make a lot of money, we feel like we’re on top, and then we get used to being on top. If we are fired, we will fall into a hole, and then, in the end, we will recover. However, there are things we don’t adapt to: passion.
I bet that many actors in the world will still play even the richest on Earth. Or that the richest executives in the world use money as a measure of their success, not as a means to a luxurious life. You must find your passion. It is a source of happiness that never dries up. Whether it’s writing, creating, helping people. If you want to live life to the fullest, you must do it with passion. To live with passion, you must first find it.
5. Regulate your blood sugar
And that’s when you ask yourself: Can blood sugar regulation help prevent depression? Well, you might be surprised to know that many murderers and robbers were acquitted of their crimes because they suffered from hyperglycemia (high blood sugar).
Sugar crash (hypoglycemia) occurs after a sugar rush. So the best way to avoid low blood sugar is to avoid high blood sugar. All you have to do is release carbs throughout the day, eat plenty of fiber, and get some protein and fat in your diet.
If you manage to follow these 5 steps, you will not only avoid depression naturally, but also feel happier.
IMPORTANT: If you think that you have a problem that you cannot solve on your own, do not hesitate to contact a psychologist or specialist.
