Withdrawal Index
6. Complementary Activities To Aid Recovery from Depression
After the patient had suffered for a year from deep depression and the
psychiatry professionals had failed to provide any useful help to us,
I started to look elsewhere for information to help. I attended a seminar
in London run by Mindfields College (www.mindfields.org.uk) about recovery
from depression without the use of drugs which seemed to have much to
offer. Details of their approach is summarised in a booklet (Breaking
The Cycle Of Depression by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell) available from
them (or from Uncommon Knowledge http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk)
I was also helped by the Depression
Learning Path as there seemed to be such a dearth of good information
available on depression. This is very strongly of the view that there
are many basic things to do which help. These can be summarised as:
a. Take exercise. No one said whether it is better to lay on the bed
all day or better to get up and do things. Indeed the psychiatrist kept
saying that in the “broken leg” phase people should just
be left on the bed. We started to walk twice per day and began swimming.
b. Do small jobs. A couple of small jobs were allocated to be done by
the patient: empty the dishwasher and take out the rubbish. We gradually
added more but these had to be done no matter what.
c. Maintain contact with the circle of friends. Visits were increased
in frequency where appropriate even though the patient didn’t
want to bother.
d. Practise relaxation by slow deep breathing. This was extremely important
and so easy to do. It is covered below in more detail.
e. Work with a counsellor who is trained to focus on the things people
need to get better.
There were also other beneficial activities detailed below.
Go to Part 8...
