Depression, anxiety and paranoia are all related mental illnesses which can be extremely daunting. People who have never suffered with any of these illnesses often fail to realize how serious they really are and what a powerful effect they can have upon the sufferer. Over time I have learnt and developed a few techniques, which have helped me in my quest to beat my own depression.

Automatic Negative Thinking / Interior Dialogue

Sufferers of depression will usually find themselves think bad thoughts or thinking about things that get them down. It may seem like these thoughts are just coming to you of their own accord and they tend to just bring you down more and lead you into thinking about other bad things. This is because before you go into depression, it's these thoughts that take you there in the first place, basically from your experiences. It may seem like a simple technique, but being consciously aware of these thoughts and responding to them is a great way to deal with them. As Richard Bandler, co-founder of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) once said replying to your own interior dialogue with 'Shut the f*ck up' is adequate enough. You may also believe that you are thinking too much or your mind is doing overtime. Don't worry, it isn't. It's just that you are more aware of your interior dialogue and are therefore taking more notice of it.

The Bigger Picture

At times when your feel that you are reaching a low point, take some timeout. Sit back, relax and try to look at things from outside of your own perspective. Take a look from the outside, from a third person perspective, at your life and everything in it. You may be able to see things a little clearer. When looking at things from this angle they become much easier to understand and it can also help you find potential solutions to problems and notice things that were right in front of you all along.

Enthusiastic Communication

To help you feel better emotionally it's good to talk. By talking about a particular topic that you feel passionate about, with someone who also has genuine interest in it, causes you to respond emotionally to it. If you enjoy the particular subject it will make you both feel happier and cause an enthusiastic desire in you both.

Positive / Negative

Your mind needs balance. Everything absorbed by your conscious mind (your thinking mind that you are aware of) is fed into your subconscious mind (the mind that controls natural functions automatically). In turn, the information that has been fed into your subconscious mind is fed back into your conscious mind which is basically where your naturally occurring thoughts come from. When depressed, these thoughts have generally become negative ones from thinking about things that get you down. You need to reverse the process, aswell as responding to them and becoming aware of them.

Put these techniques together, look at your life from a third person perspective and look at all the positives in your life. Come to the realization that there are so many things in your life which you may have been taking for granted. Think about anything at all that makes you feel at all positive and keep feeding back those thoughts to yourself. Try to talk to whoever you can who will take genuine interest in those thoughts that make you feel positive. By doing so regularly you will be feeding positive thoughts into your subconscious. You need to do this regularly and for a good few weeks before you notice a change, but eventually you will find that the automatic thoughts have become more positive than negative and they will not bother you anywhere near as much. You will also find your mind throwing positive thoughts at you which make you feel happier. Try to remain consciously aware of your surroundings and be confident. If you feel you are not confident enough, then fake it.