How do I deal with depression?

Here are some tips from the National Mental Health Association about how to deal with… Here are some tips from the National Mental Health Association about how to deal with depression. However, the Association says that if you feel depressed for weeks and months at a time, you should seek help from a trained medical professional, or a university counseling service.

Carefully plan your day. Make time every day to prioritize your work. Prioritizing can give you a sense of control over what you must do and a sense that you can do it.

Plan your work and sleep schedules. Too many students defer doing important class work until nighttime, work through much of the night, and start every day feeling exhausted. Constant fatigue can be a critical trigger for depression. Seven or eight hours of sleep a night is important to your well-being.

Participate in an extracurricular activity. Sports, theater, fraternities and sororities, the student newspaper – whatever interests you – can bring opportunities to meet people interested in the same things your are, and these activities provide welcome change from class work.

Seek support from other people. This may be a roommate or a friend from class. Friendships can help make a strange place feel more friendly and comfortable. Sharing your emotions reduces isolations and helps you realize that you are not alone.

More tips on how to help fight depression can be found on the NMHA Web site at www.nmha.org.

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