The term 'depression' is used to describe everyday feelings of gloom and inadequacy. Whilst feeling low or sad or down is a normal reaction to experiences that are upsetting, it is the level of intensity of these feelings that defines depression. Although depression may be triggered by feelings of anxiety, stress or fear it is treated using a different set of techniques.

A note on these techniques

Obviously these techniques are not designed to treat the root cause of depression. Their purpose is to improve your emotional state to a point where you can start to deal with the root cause.

Calibrate the changes

Start by noticing how you feel right now and score it on a scale of one (blissfully happy) to ten (totally depressed). This will provide you with a benchmark so that you know how much it has changed having used one or more of the techniques below.

After using the techniques, notice that you feel different to before and rescore how you feel on a scale of one to ten. If necessary, repeat or interchange these techniques to further reduce your score to a point where you are in control of your emotions, not the other way round.

The structure of depression

Depression has a psychological structure. The type and quality of questions that you ask yourself have a direct effect on your mood and stress levels. What you choose to focus on will dictate your emotional state, because your unconscious mind is programmed to provide answers to the questions that you ask. For example, if you have lunch with a friend and afterwards you ask yourself the following "What was the best thing about lunch?", you'll recall all of the good things. However if you ask "What was the worst thing about lunch?" you will recall all of the bad things. Even though the event was exactly the same. In effect, your memories of the event are directed by the quality of the questions you ask about it. Studies have shown that people with the symptoms of depression are more likely to be asking negative questions on a regular basis.

Depression also has a physical structure, because your thoughts are reflected by your body language. However, most people do not realise that the thought-physiology link works both ways, so if you change your body posture it changes your thoughts. To experience this, do the following test. Think of something that makes you feel depressed. Notice your body posture. You will possibly find that your head and eyes are down, your shoulders are slumped, your back bent downward. Now stand upright, with your shoulders back, look up towards the ceiling or sky, put a big silly grin on your face and tense all of your muscles. Staying exactly in that posture try to recall the thing that caused you to feel depressed and notice how it feels different. For most people, it is now harder to access the depressed state, so the emotional intensity is reduced.

Change the type and quantity of your questions

Like many skills, the more you work at this the more automatic it becomes. Start by being aware of the questions you ask yourself. If they are of a negative nature then change them. Ask yourself "What can I learn from this" or if that is difficult ask yourself "What could be positive in this situation?" or if that proves difficult ask "What would someone else take out of this situation?". The important point is to keep asking one or all of these questions until you get a useful answer.

Control your internal voice

The other skill that is useful in eliminating depression is to control your internal voice. The key here is to have only thoughts about yourself that you wish to be true. This is because your unconscious mind will take any suggestion that you give it. So if you repeated over and over "Every day I'm feeling a little better" your unconscious mind will begin to act in accordance with your wish and you will notice an improvement in your emotional state.

If you have trouble controlling the content of your internal voice, consider changing its tonality. This technique alone will make a dramatic difference to the way you feel. To experience how this works think of the phrase you say to yourself when you are feeling down. For example you will have specific phrases that you use to beat yourself up. Next time you say those things, change your internal voice to the voice of Donald Duck (or any cartoon character) and say it again. Now notice the difference!

Change your physiology

As stated earlier, depression has a specific body posture. So another way to change how you feel is to change your posture. Here is a list of the typical features of depressive posture;

Head down
Eyes down
Hunched shoulders
Bent spine
Slow movements
Shuffling walk
Silent

Changing all or any of these postures to their opposite will make the depression harder to connect with thus reducing its effect. A good way to do this is to find a physical activity that you can use to challenge and alter your physiology. Any form of exercise works well, or sporting activities the important thing is to be aware of your posture and change it. You could put some loud, fast or energetic music on the hi-fi, dance around the room and sing along. You'll soon find its hard to try to be depressed. Whatever techniques works for you is fine.

Feel Better Now

Should you require to use techniques that are more powerful that the ones mentioned then consider the Feel Better Now therapy. Developed by the virtual therapist Feel Better Now is a 30 minute therapy designed to help you feel better right now. Based on a successful theraputic structure, it uses relaxation, visualisation and time-line therapy to naturally reprogramme your existing thinking style. By eliminating the causes of depression, the therapy reduces the effect of depression once and for all.

Web www.virtual-therapist.com