Depression Recovery: The Importance of Being Positive

Something threw me off a few weeks back; a friend commented about how positive I always seem to be. I thought there is no way this is true, me? Positive? That couldn’t be. Is it possible to be someone who struggles with depression and still be positive? 

What threw me off was not the comment itself, but the fact I am not naturally a positive person.

Some people are naturally geared to be positive, others are naturally geared towards being negative. I prefer to call myself a ‘realist’ meaning I see things as they actually are (so negative). This is not always a bad thing, but it becomes a difficult thing when I start to become ‘realistic’ about myself.

I start to look at my life, at my day and everything going on, and view it negatively.

I begin to overanalyze every mistake I’ve made and about how I’ve screwed up yet again. To me it seems that everything is falling apart again, I’ve screwed up again. And again. And again.

This is where I believe being positive is a choice and an important one at that.

I find it 100x easier to look at whatever situation I am in and see all the negative aspects of it. To see how things did not work out the way I wanted to or how everything seems to be falling apart. When depression was extremely dominant this was one of the hardest things for me to grasp – that maybe my life is not as horrible as it seems. Now I understand some situations are absolutely frustrating and there seems to be no end in sight. But this is what I did to cope, and to help myself recover.

What is one positive thing about today? Or about my situation?

It sounds so basic to do but it was something that helped change me around was getting my mind off the negative and onto the positive. This simple transition made a big difference, being able to focus on what is positive in my life compared to negative.

So why is it so important to be positive?

Because without being positive we enter into a spiral of negativity before hitting rock bottom.

I believe we lose the joy we have for life and will continue down this path over and over and over.

This spiral I am talking about is when one bad thing happens, then every bad thing seems to happen, and we become more and more negative and critical of everything. If there is one thing I can tell you it is to STOP!

Stop being critical, and choose to be positive; choose to be uplifting of yourself and the people around you.

I know for my life this was a turning point when I stopped looking at everything falling apart and saw what good was going on. The importance is life changing, for me it meant starting to take ground against my depression, it meant seeing the good in life once again.

If there are three simple things I can leave you with to try, these are them:

First, stop and write down 3 things you are thankful for and that are going good in your life.

Stopping in the middle of the chaos and getting outside the negativity in your head is one of the most positive things to do.

Second, be positive with yourself – ask yourself what are one or two things that I do like about myself?

I know this is a tough thing to do sometimes especially when depression is a reality in your life, but training yourself to see the positives within yourself is a tough but necessary practice.

Finally, surround yourself with positive people!

I am a firm believer that the people around you shape who you are and the way you think. Having people around you who are uplifting and encouraging goes a long way.

Christian

Christian struggled through and recovered from depression. He likes to write so others can hear his story and know there is hope. His goal is that through sharing, people will be able to see their story within his own.