Quote:
Originally Posted by Sans Nom
I have been suffering from an ongoing existential crisis for years. I occasionally "forget" about it, but it is always present, and it affects all my life. I think being depressed makes you look into things in a way that's not helpful for you to survive and live. Can I ask how you got out of it?
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I am by no means an expert, so take it with a big grain of salt
For me, it was mostly imbalance in my life that caused it.. I was lonely & burned out due to overworking
That probably caused the depression / existential crisis, which in turn made my thoughts biased towards negativity, something that's not practical and helpful for a good life
Instead of going out and seeking help, I actually believed what I was thinking about, and following that I spent 3 months ruminating over existentialism and what not
One day I hang out with some colleagues of mine, and I've noticed I was feeling better, way better - so I begun doing that more and more
Same thing happened with exercise, after I've resumed jogging, each time I was exercising, the depressive thoughts would almost vanish
I begun hanging out more, begun working in public places and gradually, the depressive thoughts were getting less and less annoying. That's where I am at right now
One thing that I found particularly helpful is to NOT believe thoughts that seem unusually negative or depressive. When you have a low mood, your thinking would likely be biased towards negativity. Just be aware you are in a low mood & act on a way to treat it. For me that way was exercise, relationships & generally having something to do
The most helpful thing I've discovered is that when we are in a low mood (like depression), we tend to have thoughts that are not really "representative" of ourselves. Our flow of thinking tends to be wrong & biased towards negativity
So whenever I feel like some of my thought patterns are overly negative, I go out of my way to find a cause for this low mood and treat it. I DO NOT stop and ruminate over these negative thoughts. I treat them as 100% fake, because they are generated by a temporary illness (think of it like you'd have a cold, you go treat it right?)
Do NOT try to actively block these thoughts, that will make them even stronger
Just admit they are fake, and get on with what you were doing before
For me, exercise, relationships and generally having something to do reduced by annoying thoughts to the point where it almost does not bother me at all
I've submitted this thread to "Ask a therapist", I'll give you some insight I get anything useful
