Help Your Loved One Conquer and Learn to Manage Their Depression.
The first step in being able to help your loved one overcome and learn to manage their depression is to know about depression yourself. There is a lot to learn and many of the resources available aren’t that helpful. This one is.
This infographic and three video mini-course is designed for those unfamiliar with Depression Zone (DZ for short) — and for those worn veterans of their own depression war who want someone to finally show them how to overcome their depression ONCE AND FOR ALL and get to a place in their life where the can feel better and manage any bouts of depression that come up in the future.
This is a road map of sorts.
You see — all depression sufferers are at various levels of STUCK. Some have a physical issue that’s causing them an inability to be happy. Some are dealing with major regular stress in their life. Some are having trouble overcoming past traumas. Some have a combination of all of the above.
The problem is, no case is the same. Which means, getting unstuck – getting healthy and feeling happy again – once you become depressed is a personal journey. It take active participation from the person suffering and a lot of help from the people who love them.
As a family member or friend with a loved one who is suffering, you can’t get very far if you don’t learn A LOT. Because depression is such a complex illness and each case is unique, it requires you to learn as much as you can so you can decide what is best for you.
Since you’re here now, it’s likely you want to learn more. And it is great that you found this site specifically, because you may have noticed that many of the top resource sites with depression information are of little help. They don’t contain tactics and techniques to help you get through and manage the disorder today, or in the future.
Let’s try a little exercise…
Read this definition on antidepressants:
"Antidepressants work by balancing chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters that affect mood and emotions." -Webmd.com.
While many sites have info like this, they still don’t explain the impacts of taking these types of medication.
You’ll read this definition, then maybe ask yourself:
- What do antidepressants do?
- How do you confront and deal with the emotional aspects of taking a medication?
- Are there long term impacts?
- Does your loved one really need them?
- What about side effects?
The resources here give you the truth about the illness in a way that’s easy to understand. And it doesn’t matter if you are undiagnosed. Or if you have suffered over almost a lifetime.
Bottom line is: Everyone is looking to get better, and is seeking a new way to slay the depression dragon. If you are here reading this, this is you. You are a seeker. It’s your defining characteristic.
So put aside what you’ve learned this far and start here with the Depression Recovery Map.
The Map
Your body is a very complex machine. It’s parts aren’t made of metal. They are naturally derived. But that doesn’t mean your body is not similar to that of, say, a car. Both are systems of interrelated parts that depend on each other to function as a whole.
When you lose function in some parts of a car, the entire vehicle shuts down. Yet, when a car loses function in other parts, the machine can compensate.
So it is with your body. Your heart stops, you’re dead. But if you get the flu, you don’t go to work, but you rest.
And then of course there is wear and tear from your environment. A car goes through it, and so do you. Too much stress overtime, leads to malfunction and breakdown.
Depression becomes much more simple to understand when you look at it as a disorder that occurs when a system gets out of balance and malfunctions. There are many ways that can happen but it can all be consolidated to a malfunction in one or more of three variables. That’s what you learn from this map.
This map works for anyone who wants to conquer their depression. It works for teens who are facing their first battles with roller coaster moods. It works for you regardless of your experience with depression. Long time sufferer. Chronically depressed. Life challenged depressed person. And the famous: “I don’t know why I am depressed and no one can tell me why.”
This map works because it exploits each and every aspect of the irrefutable law of recovery:
There are only three ways to defeat depression:
- Assess and fix any physical issues that may be causing a chemical brain imbalance.
- Assess and fix any circumstances in your life that are causing you severe stress.
- Assess and fix any habits or behaviors you’ve learned that are negatively impacting your life.
This is the basis for the Depression Recovery Map.
Read this page carefully. Read it multiple times and commit it to memory. Watch the three-part video that explains it in detail.
The Depression Recovery Map explains depression much more effectively than your doctor or your therapist, or what you’ve found in your Internet searches.
Learn the Steps to Depression Recovery
The following free Depression Recovery Map outlines the method to conquer your depression.
Print this PDF version and tack it to the wall next to your bathroom mirror. If you plan to execute this map, you’ll need to look at it often.
When you’re learning new depression fighting tactics you’ll need to constantly remind yourself of the DRM process. Otherwise, you’re wasting time and, really, wasting your life.
This is a warning: There is little advantage in understanding, for example, antidepressants or cognitive therapy in and of itself. There is enormous value in understanding how to apply these tools to your depression recovery process.
Here is a flowchart of the Depression Recovery Map system…
Step 1 – Know the three causes of depression
There are many definitions out there on the web and in books that describe depression as: “A complex disorder with a combination of biological, social, environmental aspects”.
That’s a bit vague, now isn’t it?
Here’s an easier way to understand how depression gets created: The only way a person can get depression is if one, two, or all three of the variables that make a healthy person, malfunction. Those variables are:
- Your state of physical health.
- The way your environment affects your stress levels.
- The way you cope with stress and life, in general.
If you have a major issue in one of or more of these three areas you will likely get depression.
And, it will likely get worse if you do nothing to get whatever is not working back in order. So it’s crucial you evaluate all three of these aspects of you’re life to understand what possible weaknesses could lead to breakdown.
Step 2 – Assess all the ways any of the three variables can go from normal functioning to breakdown
Depression is a complex illness because there are many ways each one of the three variables can go from healthy and in working order to a state of malfunction.
The key to reversing, solving and managing depression is to identify what’s caused the malfunction by taking an inventory of all the variables that lead to this health crisis.
It’s one thing to understand you have a physical brain chemical issue, but what’s most important (and overlooked) is what caused the it in the first place. Is it a lack of nutrition? Could it be a lack of sleep in your routine? Perhaps, you have an underlying medical issue you didn’t know about.
It’s important to look at the sources of breakdown in all of the three areas because they will dictate the most effective treatment to get you feeling better fast and allow you to eradicate that issue altogether and save you issues in future.
If you live anywhere in North America, we live in a nation that takes treatment-first approach to health. The problem is when you treat the symptoms for depression and don’t get to what caused it those behaviors continue and often you’ll get sick again.
That’s why the depression map has three pages of questions that allow you delve deeper and ask yourself a series of questions to get a better understanding of issues you may not have considered:
It’s important you do this work. It may shock you to know that 90% of people diagnosed with depression are incorrectly diagnosed and do not need medication. Many can make changes to their lifestyle or learn new behavioral skills and will start to feel better very quickly.
Sure, you could jump into some type of treatment without doing the work to understand what the real problem is. Sometimes that works. But sometimes there are major negative impacts. So, when it comes to your health, it’s not worth it.
So take a little time before treatment to try and understand what’s wrong. You’ll likely get some insights on new actions to take.
Step 3 – Identify your core issues so you know what actions to take with regards to treatment
When you know what’s caused the malfunction it will open up new actions you can take to get to feeling better and restoring your health. Taking actions after doing some discovery work will increase your ability to make smart choices and lead you closer to effective treatment and a speedy recovery.
Learning what you need to do to get better and put in place to prevent future depression can take some time but when you learn skills like – how to eat well and still indulge, how to incorporate daily fitness into your life, how to communicate during tough situations – you’ll be more mentally fit than most people.
The video that accompanies the Depression Recovery Map discusses the three treatment options all people with depression should consider.
The entire map and recovery videos are designed to get you “unstuck”, and to reveal to you the actions you need to take now to get better as quickly as possible.
Wherever you are in your journey with depression, the Depression Recovery Map is a great place to start. If you’ve been struggling for a long time you may learn something new that will completely alter your approach. If you’re experiencing symptoms for the first time it will direct on what to do about them.
Download your free Depression Recovery Map and watch the accompanying videos sent to your inbox when you sign up to access your copy for this map.