Despair can be treated and you can feel better!

Sometimes the negative thinking in Despair can make you feel like you’re a lost cause, but Despair can be treated and you can feel better!
Feeling better can take time, but try comparing how you feel on days when you make lots of ticks on the checklist to those when you make few or none.
Similarly, the cure for daytime fatigue and sleep difficulties can often be found in your daily routine. Your sleep schedule, bedtime habits, and day-to-day lifestyle choices can make an enormous difference to the quality of your nightly rest.
Despair can drain your energy, hope and drive, making it hard to do what you need to feel better.
But while overcoming Despair isn't easy, there are plenty of little things that can help you on the way to recovery.
Many people make the fundamental mistake of presuming that Despair is sadness, but the two are entirely different things.
While sadness is a normal human emotion that comes and goes and is usually caused by certain events, Despair is a constant feeling of sadness and hopelessness.

And while the mental illness, which can last for weeks, months or even years, can't be overcome through willpower alone, there are ways to beat it.
Even if your Despair is severe and persistent, small steps like avoiding isolation, exercising and learning relaxation techniques can help ease the symptoms.
Top tips for dealing with Despair:
1. Break down the activity in small
A common symptom of Despair is the feeling of being
overwhelmed even by ordinary day-to-day tasks.
Even getting out of bed and getting dressed can feel like a huge hurdle and people become more withdrawn and less active as Despair becomes more severe.
The best way to overcome feeling overwhelmed is to break down the activity in small, easier-to-achieve chunks.

This can either be in the form of writing a step-by-step list of everything that needs to be done or mentally visualizing all the actions that would take place to complete a task and then doing those actions in sequence, slowly but surely.

2. It is important to spend more time cultivating relationships with family
Despair evokes behaviors in people which tend to cut them off from the outside world. As a result they can become more withdrawn and less talkative or sociable.
This develops into a vicious cycle where the less time the desperate person spends with others, the less time they want to spend with others.
Connection is one of the six basic emotional needs and when Despair takes hold it is often the need that gets most neglected in favor of satisfying the need for comfort through isolation.
When the first signs of Despair appear it is important to spend more time cultivating relationships with family, loved ones and friends, for these are the very people who will be there for the individual as their support network.
Being able to talk about your problems makes dealing with them easier and therefore it is very helpful to identify the people you can trust and rely on.
3. A brisk walk for 30 minutes a day

The correlation between exercise and feeling good has long been established.

And feel-good hormones such as dopamine and endorphins which are produced during exercise can improve mood in individuals with mild to moderate Despair.
It can be difficult to stay motivated when desperate so vigorous exercise such as running or going to the gym can be tough to keep up.
However even moderate exercise like a brisk walk has been shown to improve mood.
A brisk walk for 30 minutes a day, five times a week has a significant positive influence on the symptoms of mild to moderate Despair.
Even better is walking with someone you care about, as this will increase the level of love hormone oxytocin in the brain.
4. Start to take personal responsibility for your actions and behaviors.

The power of the mind is an amazing thing, and although pharmaceutical intervention is certainly beneficial in cases of severe Despair, individuals can work towards overcoming mild or moderate Despair faster if they start to take personal responsibility for their actions and behaviors.

This advice is not about “pulling yourself together” but more about what decisions need to be made by the individual to make them feel more powerful and happy.
We have all the answers we need inside of us and the challenge is to find ways to access those answers to help improve our quality of life.
It is good to establish the fact that you are the one who can make things happen rather than have things happen to you.
5. Relaxation techniques
Deep breathing and relaxing the muscles are the basis of all relaxation techniques and these two physiological actions work very effectively to help the psychological aspects of Despair.
Breathing should be slow and rhythmic, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth.
Deep muscle relaxation is an excellent technique for everyone to master - not just those with Despair - as it can be used anywhere to help deeply relax the body.
Each part of the body is tensed for a few seconds and then relaxed moving from the toes to the head systematically.

Yoga and tai chi are also great ways to help relax the body, and can provide the individual with much needed connection if done in a class.

6. Shifting the focus of the mind is key to getting perspective on the situation and reclaiming your power.
Negative thinking and obsessing on unhelpful thoughts are two common symptoms of Despair.
When you take responsibility for your thoughts and turn such focus towards gratitude you will start to feel comforted about the more positive aspects of yourself and your environment.
It is important for the individual to identify any warped thoughts, like negative filtering and over-generalization that are not representative of reality, by getting perspective.
7. Improve your diet
Eating four to six small meals throughout the day rather than two to three large ones can help stabilize blood sugar, giving you more energy to deal with the day and avoiding sugar crashes and cravings that will sap what energy you do have.
Reducing the amount of simple carbohydrates like refined sugar and white flour in your diet can also help keep blood sugar levels stable and therefore help improve mood when desperate.

Although we head straight for the biscuit tin when we are feeling blue, eating processed carbohydrate-rich foods like sweets, biscuits, cakes and white bread will leave you feeling sluggish and heavy.

Swap these foods for healthier wholegrain or low GI alternatives which will have less impact on blood sugar and also keep you feeling fuller for longer.
Some of my clients find eating a high protein, low carbohydrate diet can also help. Seeking a nutritionist's advice can play a huge part in helping you seek the balance you need, both nutritionally and mentally.
8. Omega-3 is an Essential Fatty Acid
Omega-3 is an Essential Fatty Acid (EFA) which has a positive effect on mood when taken in high enough doses as a supplement.
It is present in fish, shellfish, flaxseed, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds so can easily be supplemented into a diet naturally should you so wish.
Alternatively, they are commonly taken as fish oil, krill oil or linseed oil supplements.
9. No smoking....No alcohol
Alcohol and caffeine in the form of coffee are used by many who are desperate to purportedly help them through the day.

This form of self medication may seem like a useful coping strategy to some, however it is far from helpful as both alcohol and caffeine are psychoactive drugs which cross the blood-brain barrier and affect brain function resulting in changes in mood, thinking, behaviour, perception and consciousness.

Alcohol is a commonly abused substance within the general population and in cases of Despair sufferers often use alcohol for its depressant effects.
Caffeine is known to be a stimulant used to keep awake and more alert.
Such seeking of comfort or stimuli to just make it through the day shows that a fundamental human emotional need is not being met by other means and so we look for a short-term fix which is not only temporary but hollow.
The short-term effects of these psychoactive drugs may appear beneficial but in the long term brain chemistry is in fact being altered and mood ultimately becomes more unstable which can make the symptoms of Despair worse.
10. Getting a good night’s sleep
Getting a good night’s sleep is important for everyone but especially for those suffering from Despair. Conversely too much sleep (over eight hours) can exacerbate Despair.
As with most things it is about balance and everything in moderation.

Regular sleeping hours are essential in managing mood and having a regular bedtime and rise time is important too.

The desperate individual should be going to bed and waking up at the same time every day of the week including weekends.
Go back to basics, set alarms, create a routine and introduce calming rituals before bed.
Regular sleep routines have a positive effect on mood and actually reduce depressive symptoms over time.

Darkness and light are also very important in this. Other tricks that work for my clients include avoiding bright lights of TV, computers and overhead lights after 9pm as this allows you to get a better night’s sleep.

To beat Despair
1. Exercise

Swimming for example is particularly effective at shrinking panic and sadness because of the combination of stroke mechanics, breathing, and repetitiveness. It’s basically a form of whole-body, moving meditation.
2. Concentrate on the little joys that happen throughout your day.
Allow those unsuspecting moments of delight carry you over the ones fraught with anxiety and sadness. Have more appreciation for what is right in front of you.
3. Build strength and confidence and list your accomplishments.
Read books by positive psychologists and happiness experts. Start with small accomplishments, and build strength and confidence from there.

Record work feats. 

4. Take your pain and play with it
There is an unspoken message hidden within a giggle that says this: “I promise, you’ll get through this.” Studies indicate that human beings can heal (at least partially) from a host of different illnesses if they learn how to laugh. Simply anticipating laughter boosted health-protecting hormones and chemicals.
5. Meditation can help relieve Despair and anxiety
Formal practices of meditation can halve the risk of future clinical Despair in people who have already been desperate several times, its effects comparable to antidepressant medications.
Meditation, alone, doesn’t take away all of your symptoms of Despair as some studies suggest it can, but I think it’s lengthening the time span between negative intrusive thoughts, or at least making your brain a less healthy environment for them to thrive.
6. A brain armed with all the right nutrients is going minimize your struggle with Despair by at least 50 percent.
DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) is an important building block for the membranes surrounding brain cells, particularly the synapses, which lie at the heart of efficient brain function.

Second, DHA is an important regulator of inflammation. It naturally reduces the activity of the COX-2 enzyme, which turns on the production of damaging inflammatory chemicals ... [And] DHA helps orchestrate the production, connectivity, and viability of brain cells while at the same time enhancing function.
Also take liquid vitamin D and vitamin B 12 (because they are more easily absorbed that way), as well as iron, vitamin K2, vitamin C, calcium, and magnesium. Vitamin D and B Complex vitamins are especially important for optimal mental health.
7. Drink a power smoothie.
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so start off with a smoothie of kale, chard, spinach, or collard greens mixed with pineapple or strawberries. Then add a potent probiotic, a powdery mix containing bacteria (yep, you read that right) that helps keep the intestines healthy and supports digestion.
Why?
Your brain is only as healthy as your gut. In fact, the nervous system of your intestines is so complex, including an estimated 500 million neurons that neuroscientists often refer to the gut as the second brain.
The nerve cells in our gut manufacture 80 to 90 percent

of our body’s serotonin, the neurotransmitter we need to stay sane. That’s more than our brain makes.

The gut is in constant communication with the brain, sending it information that most definitely affects your mood, even as the messages never come to consciousness. If you have struggled with stomach and digestion issues like I have, you might be surprised to learn that some Despair and anxiety symptoms can be relieved by attending to the gut and feeding it organisms that keep it happy.
8. Avoid sugar and grains.
Despair, anxiety, and bipolar disorder — is inflammation, and the most prominent stimulators of inflammation in our diet are gluten and sugar.
We get into trouble because we can’t feel the
inflammation in our brain like we can in other parts of the body, so we rarely link a kind of food we eat with our mood.
People who suffer from mood disorders also tend to be gluten-sensitive and vice versa: Despair is found in as many as 52 percent of gluten-sensitive individuals. Studies have shown that a diet that is low in carbohydrates and high in fat can improve symptoms of Despair and schizophrenia.
9. Use your sun lamp.

The fluctuation of natural light can cause mood-related chemicals to shift, causing Despair in sensitive folks. So if nature isn’t giving you what you need, give it to yourself.

10. Pray.
Meditation is a mental health exercise of being aware of your breath and staying in the present moment as much as possible. Prayer is your chat session with God.
Say to God, “Help me to see with eyes of faith, hope, and love, and to always err on the side of compassion.”

Say in your secret all the time, "He is the All-Merciful. In Him we have believed and in Him have we put our trust.39 Soon you will know who is involved in grave error."