Some people go through brief periods of "the blues" or "anxiety" and others live with either or both for a lifetime.
For those in the second category, there are a number of solutions.
No, it won't go away, most likely, but you will get a reprieve for a number of hours and sometimes days.
Obviously traditional therapy with a trained professional should take precedence over all other modicums of treatment.
However, in my experience, and many others whom have been afflicted with the lifetime experience of GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and (TRD) Treatment Resistant Depression, there are some activities that can lift both, at least for awhile.
And if done often enough, the severity of bouts of either is lessened.
Walk.
That's right.
Something as simple as walking.
I realize some persons reading this article are wheelchair-bound or have some other disability in which they are unable to walk, but there are plenty of aerobic exercises that "clue" the nervous system that it can "calm down" and a trained professional in that area can be most helpful.
But for those who can walk, but don't want to, still, walk.
Don't try to conquer the world with a marathon on the first walk.
A few blocks is fine to start if you've not been walking much in the past.
Build your way up.
I started that way after a major heart attack eight years ago.
I'm now up to five miles, sometimes more per day.
I have both treatment resistant depression and GAD.
For the depression, I was fortunate enough to be a candidate for the VNS (Vagus Nerve Stimulator) made by Cyberonics in Houston.
Not everyone qualifies, but if you do have TRD and are willing to put up a fight, sometimes against your own doctor's orders, you'll win the fight and beat the depression.
I found Cyberonics to have very aggressive and effective case workers.
They found a doctor in my area trained in this procedure There are not many who are, and that has put a bit of a riff in the psychiatric community.
Many are calling it "junk science".
That's okay with me.
They can call it what they want.
It works just fine for me thank you and I was thrown a cocktail of every medicine imaginable for thirty years which didn't do a thing.
GAD is another story.
Yes, the VNS implant helps it somewhat but not totally like it does the depression.
Sometimes I have to take medicines for it too.
But whether I take them or not, on days I walk, I feel much less anxiety the rest of the day and night, and sleep better.
On days I don't walk, even if I take the medicines for anxiety, I feel anxiety to a certain degree.
Of course stress and anxiety is a part of life, but that does not mean GAD (anxiety magnified) has to be so.
I take a long walk every day that the weather permits now.
To stay in shape, I used to go to the gym, but found I could do crunches and push-ups, etc at home, and it didn't cost me a thing and I stayed in just as good of shape.
There is not a lot of empathy or sympathy for those who suffer from depression and/or anxiety; the two often go together.
It is not a disease that is totally socially-acceptable.
Due to school-shootings, insanity pleas after violent crimes, etc.
many still stereotype everyone who suffers from either disease to have such violent tendencies (I have never been violent in my life nor wanted to hurt myself).
It is more aggravating than painful; though clinical studies have proven that both anxiety and depression can and often does cause physical pain that is inexplainable.
Sometimes the person with the disease is not sure which is more painful, the disease itself, or the social isolation.
My colleagues have often told me to "stay quiet" and "mum's the word" etc.
about this ailment, that persons can and will use it against me, and I have much to lose.
I say, "So what? I also have much to gain.
If just one person can win the battle against this awful ailment, if someone "uses it against me" it was all worth it.
As I said, in 2001, I suffered a major heart attack.
It did not feel very good.
But I can promise one thing.
If I had a choice of a heart attack a day, or major depression and anxiety, I would choose the heart attack in a heartbeat (no pun intended).
And I am certain others struggling with the same ailment feel the same way.
There is no way to explain it.
Fortunately today, modern medicine has a much better handle on it than they did even a decade ago.
If you've not explored therapy, exercise and other ways to help yourself, please do.
Life is worth it and the chance to be a productive and contributing member of society (I never really was until a decade ago, is well worth the battle).
It beats laying in bed until 3pm, that's for sure.