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Self-help: Avoid stress
Avoid stress
Stress is often a trigger or cause of depression, and continued stress is a good way to make depression worse. One of the prime causes of stress is the working environment, but there are other, less obvious ways in which stress can cause problems in your life.
The pressures of today's working environment can be immense, but a lot of them are perceived pressures rather than real ones. In many cases, people are led to believe that their entire company would crumble if they took a few days off. In practice, this is rarely, if ever, the case; it's just a perceptual distortion. So if your job is causing you serious stress problems, the best way to handle it is to be honest. First, speak to your doctor and get him/her to confirm in writing that you are suffering from depression and that stress is likely to make things worse. Then talk to your boss about taking time off. Explain that you are unable to work effectively in your current state, and that you need to rest for a while to recover, after which you'll be able to work more efficiently. You may have an understanding boss, in which case all should go fine. Or you may not, in which case you may have to go over his/her head. If that doesn't work, you may have to consider looking for another job. This may seem drastic, but bear in mind that it's your mental health that's at stake, and if your job is contributing to your problems and none of your bosses is willing to help out, it's unlikely that things are going to get any better if you stay.
Depending on your symptoms, you'll probably find it best to stay away from cinemas, crowded trains, nightclubs and so on. Places, in other words, that tend to overwhelm the physical senses in one way or another, as this too can lead to stress, which, again, will make depression worse.
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