Depression is a word common to many. At times, you may hear some people casually say “I’m depressed,” without giving much attention to what message can be passed across. It can be really detrimental; in most cases result in suicide, if not attended to.

Here, we share with you some of the ways through which depression can be kept far off.

Before we get into that, let’s know a bit about depression.

Depression

It is a common and serious medical illness (when it gets to advanced levels) that affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act in a negative way. Fortunately, depression doesn’t last forever.

Depression brings about feelings of sadness and/or an apathy towards activities once enjoyed. It can lead to different emotional and physical anomalies. Also, it can reduce a person’s ability to function at work and at home.

Its symptoms can vary from mild to severe, and can include:

• Feeling sad unnecessarily
• Apathy towards activities once enjoyed
• Little or no sleep or sleeping too much
• Loss of energy or fatigue in escalated levels
• Increase in purposeless physical activity (hand-wringing or pacing) or slowed movements and speech (actions observable by others)
• Feeling guilty or worthless
• Difficulty in concentrating, thinking, or making decisions
• Thoughts of suicide
• Thoughts of living life anew or amnesia

Symptoms must last at least two weeks for it to be called depression.

Depression affects an estimated one in fifteen adults (6.7%) yearly. And one in six people (16.6%) will experience depression at some time in their lifetime.

It can strike at any time, but on average, depression first appears during the late teens to mid-20s. Women experience depression more than men.

Either way, most people are likely to experience depression at one point in their lives.

Interestingly, we have some ways through which you could keep yourself off the radar of depression.

Keeping Depression Away

There are certain things you can do to keep depression away. Here are some, and the most effective ways of staying off its radar:

1. Laugh

Too many see laughter as something tied to a particular person, place, personality or whatsoever, but hardly see it as something they’re capable of generating or making happen.

Well, if you are in the category of people who are incapable of producing laughter-causing moments, ensure you have someone who has that ability around.

Laughter plays a tremendous role in keeping depression away. It does not only play roles in handling depression, but also for general health and well-being. 

But for the sake of this article, we will talk about laughter as regarding depression only.

The human brain is wired to give a positive response to laughter and smiles, generating ‘feel-good’ chemicals that help for depression. When we smile, for instance, the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that creates feelings of happiness.

Interestingly, this effect works both ways. The release of dopamine when we feel happy causes us to smile, and also the mere act of smiling causes the brain to release dopamine. This, in turn, makes us feel happy.

Find reasons to laugh every day, and keep depression far off.

2. Regular Exercise

Exercising regularly is one of the best things anyone can do for good mental health.  Exercise can help in the prevention and treatment of depression in several key ways:

• Increases your body temperature, which can have a calming effect on the central nervous system.
• Releases chemicals like endorphins, which can boost mood.
• Reduces immune system chemicals that may worsen depression.