“My depression also took awhile to get better after I stop my medication. I decided to stop the anti-depressants was mainly because I didn’t want to keep on relying on the medicine and it really wasn’t making me less depressed, it only help me to sleep at night. Also from our sessions, you shared that you also overcame your depression so that really spurred me on. You gave me hope that depression can also be overcomed as you were a living example!

From our sessions, you also pointed out that we must take care of ourself before we can take care of others. So I try to think more positively as I was always thinking negatively and putting myself down when I was depressed. So I decided to be kind to myself and love myself more. I also followed your advice and went to exercise regularly. I joined Zumba and Pilates class with my cousin to force myself to exercise at first. But as time went by, I begin to enjoy the classes and exercising also help me to de-stress. I also still continued going for counselling once a month with my marriage counselor to talk about any problems that I have and not let it fester inside me.

My daughter, who has mild autism, also improved alot and that made it easier for me to let go and not be so overly protective of her. So I decided to make it a point to go out with my hubby once a week by ourselves. At first it was abit difficult as my son was quite sticky and jealous that we didn’t go out together and he’ll cry when I go out with my hubby. Then I decided to bribe my kids with toys just before I go out with my hubby and it worked! My son will protest at first then but when he saw the new toy, he’s more interested to play with it haha!

I guess that’s how I got out of my depression slowly over the months. I still feel down sometimes but I tell myself that I don’t need to go back to those depressed days when everything seemed so hopeless and bleak. So that thought keeps me from falling back into depression. I hope this will help your clients who have depression.” – Anonymous, 19 Jan 2015

While you are here, you may like to read this article I contributed towards ElephantJournal – The Undoing of Depression with Discipline here.

Disclaimer: This client was seeing other helping professions for her depression. It is important to seek the appropriate professional support, and not self-medicate including get off anti-depressants without medical advice.