Lifestyle interventions can help reduce effects of depression
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
If you’ve been diagnosed with depression, it’s important to follow your provider’s guidance, including taking any prescribed medication. But a few lifestyle interventions can also help reduce symptoms of depression.
Of course, professional therapy can improve depression, but just talking “with a friend or safe person who won’t judge or criticize you” also helps, said Julienne Capria, psychiatrist with Oswego Health.
Venting a bit can help you feel understood and build necessary camaraderie.
A sense of accomplishment can also help improve mood, such as cleaning a room or, Capria suggested, even an area in a room.
Tidying up can also dispel the monotony of sameness that lends to depressive moods.
“In addition to taking medication for depression, staying active, at a bare minimum going outside,” Capria said.
Especially during the darker months of the year, light therapy may help, as this mimics the effect of sunlight. Exercise outside such as walking combines both the benefits of sun exposure and physical activity. The body generates vitamin D, a pre-hormone, with sun exposure. A study from the National Institute of Health indicates that low vitamin D levels correlate with higher levels of depression and anxiety. It’s also part of why people experience seasonal affective disorder.
“A lot of people are affected by SAD,” said Kimberly Fortin, licensed clinical social worker in private practice in Weedsport. “I’d encourage talking with the doctor about getting their vitamin D levels checked. Lack of sunshine impacts depression a lot.”
She added that a solar light or sunshine exposure for 20 to 30 minutes helps with any type of depression, not just SAD.
In addition to light therapy, Fortin encourages clients to engage in exercise. Although it can be tough to start or return to an exercise regimen while depressed, she said that starting gradually can make it easier.
“Put on your shoes and walk to the mailbox,” she said. “Or walk to the end of the block and come back. Studies are showing that for some, exercise is more effective than medication. It boosts serotonin so much. A High intensity interval training workout will give the biggest bang for the buck for getting serotonin levels up as fast as possible, but long-term walking is going to give you a sustained sense of feeling better. Are you trying to get a quick get those levels up ASAP to feel better for a few hours or to feel better all day?”
What you eat can make a difference in how you feel. Slowly digested carbohydrates from whole foods such as whole grains like brown rice and whole produce like an apple or green beans, can offer a boost to serotonin levels.
“But refined carbs and sugars make depression symptoms worse,” Fortin said. “You might get temporary relief but it’s not going to be long-term. ‘Slower’ carbs and pairing it with protein helps slow down the carbohydrates in the digestive system. It balances out the carbs.”
Adding healthful fats such as from nuts, seeds and fatty fish can also help improve mental health. Fortin said that the Mediterranean diet has been touted as one of the best for mental and physical health, as it includes these foods, plenty of produce, fewer refined foods and lean meats.
Poor sleep contributes to a host of physical and mental health conditions, including depression.
“Everyone needs to get more sleep. Almost everyone,” said Rich O’Neill, Ph.D., a fellow of the Academy of Clinical Psychology, psychologist and professor at Upstate Medical University.
He said that chronic sleep deprivation “makes us depressed, irritable and anxious. We’re not much fun to be around.”
Improving sleep hygiene can help, such as a regular sleep schedule; sleeping in a dark, comfortable, quiet environment; avoiding caffeine and screens before bedtime and engaging in soothing bedtime routines to settle down before resting.
O’Neill also recommends to patients that they need to stay engaged and active in pursuits that they enjoy.
“Get together with other people,” he said. “We are social beings and need to connect with other people in a positive way. One way is to connect around something you have in common rather than splitting people over your differences. Don’t get together and argue about politics and religion. Instead do something that both of you like and you’re in agreement on.”
It’s also vital to cultivate hobbies and interests. When pursuing these, people can reach peak experience — when they’re really into it. O’Neill said that research on “flow” or intense enjoyment shows that when people reach peak experience, they’re happiest than at any other point of the day with the exception of eating or having sex.
“Other than that, when they were engaged in a task they valued, took a lot of resources to engage in, and in which they got feedback about their progress towards their goal, they were having the best experiences,” O’Neill said. “Athletes often refer to it as flow, being ‘in the zone.’ To have a happier life with less depression, find something that fits those criteria.”
He added that volunteering your time to help someone less fortunate than you can also help alleviate depression symptoms.