😿 I lived with dangerous suicidal depression from age 19. I had ECT in my mid 40s. I was very sick. I use all of the ideas in my books to stay alive and remain stable enough to work and have relationships. I taught the people around me to help.
✍️ 📘 Here is a bit of my story and what led to my writing Get it Done When You’re Depressed, a book that teaches you how to help a loved one or client who is depressed how to get out of bed and out of the house to get on with life… even when the depression is strong.
🌧 In 1997, I realized that if I didn’t teach myself to get out and do things when I was depressed, I would spend the rest of my life in bed. I remember standing on a street in Seattle and being so sick I didn’t even know what direction to walk. I told myself, “I’m going to walk no matter what. It’s not going to feel good. My mind will tell me I went in the wrong direction. I don’t care. Starting today. I control my brain.”
🌈 I practiced this for a few years until it became the habit I have today. Everything in my life changed. I was still depressed, but I was able to work and be social again.
A person can train the brain to get things done when depressed. Ultimately I know this helped me get better overall. I now control my suicidal depression with meds and lifestyle choices. It’s not easy, but it is possible.
✍️📘💙 Get it Done When You’re Depressed will change your life. It tells the story of what I did the first years after I made the decision to live with depression and not die from it. It teaches you how to use the ideas to help a loved one. It gives specific strategies that you use. It’s NOT based on therapy. Talk therapy doesn’t work for very well for bipolar depression. Talking about being depressed is not a treatment. Behavior change is far more effective. (Therapists who understand bipolar and focus on recognizing the signs of depression and then taking action to end the depression can be very effective.)
Get it Done is action oriented and action changes our brain.
I use the ideas in this book ever day to deal with attention and focus, anxiety, depression when it shows up and any other obstacle that gets in my way. I need more time than other people. I need to be nice to myself and I need to back off if I do too much, but I would rather regulate my behavior than be stuck in my bed with depression. I hated that life.
You can help a loved one end the hold depression has on the brains and help the person make decisions and take action.
Depression is not permanent.
😎😻
