Làm thế nào để vượt qua lo âu và trầm cảm? ( Phần 1)

Anxiety and depression often go together. People handle these situations at different levels in life. However, if your symptoms are so severe that it affects your ability to function normally, you need to be treated. Or if your anxiety and depression are so great that you have to change many of your daily activities, you need to seek expert help. In case your anxiety and depression are milder, you can learn how to deal with them.
STEP I: CHANGING LIFE
First, to overcome the troubles of anxiety and depression, we need to change our lifestyle. Please refer to the following small steps:

1. Exercise regularly
Regular exercise has been shown to not only reduce the risk of heart disease and other diseases, but also treat anxiety and depression. There are many explanations for this. First, exercise releases endorphins, a substance that creates a sense of euphoria in the brain that improves morale. It also reduces some of the immune system chemicals leading to depression, and hyperthermia promotes relaxation. Here are the benefits of exercise:

Regular exercise also helps your body to be tidy and improve your appearance, which for many people is enough for them to shake off their lack of confidence.
Endorphins prevent your body from responding to stress, helping to reduce the risk of anxiety or forming fear symptoms throughout the day.
Some studies show that exercise helps to eliminate symptoms of anxiety and good depression equally as medication treatment. Even just a 10 minute walk can soothe sorrow and anxiety like 45 minutes of on-site exercise.
Exercise can lower your anxiety threshold, or the level of stress or anxiety you have to go through every day. If your anxiety symptoms are high daily, exercise can reduce the number or severity of symptoms you must experience.


2. Limit alcoholic beverages
Concerned people tend to use alcoholic beverages to reduce stress and anxiety. Although alcoholic beverages temporarily help relieve symptoms, in the long term, symptoms will worsen. According to the American Dietary Guidelines, if you are a woman, you should not use alcoholic beverages for more than one cup a day. If you are a man, you should not drink more than two drinks a day. Because alcoholic drinks soothe pain, temporarily reduce anxiety or stress, but when alcohol is metabolized and removed from the body, anxiety and depression will return. 

Just as the spring is pressed down, your emotions are also suppressed by even more alcoholic drinks. When the alcohol runs out, the spring will bounce higher at the beginning. That rebound means you will worry more than the next day, or be more stressed.

3. Switch to caffeine reducing coffee
High caffeine levels in coffee can exacerbate anxiety symptoms in the short and long term. Caffeine is a stimulant that causes your body and nervous system to stretch and wake up, increasing your risk of developing anxiety and depression or making it worse during the day.

By limiting caffeine absorption, you can control your body's mechanical response and avoid anxiety symptoms during the day. Consider switching to decaffeinated coffee or drinking tea. 
Some teas, such as green tea, still contain caffeine, but do not have the same effect as coffee.
4. Reduce or abandon nicotine
Like caffeine, nicotine is a stimulant and can create effects on the body similar to other stimulants, such as feeling stressed. Nicotine is found in cigarettes and even non-tobacco products such as nicotine candy.

Although quitting smoking is a difficult task and should only be done at times without stress, however, quitting also reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression.

5. Plan for your day
Depression is a painful experience affecting your mood, both energy and motivation. If you are depressed, you can hardly concentrate or will want to lie in bed all day. You may be afraid if you don't know where your day will go. Try to continue your daily tasks as much as possible, avoiding the mood to control what you do and accomplish.

If you often don't plan, you will find it helpful to start doing it. Plan the days, make sure they are filled with work, not overloaded, and stick to the plan so you can continue to work in your daily life.

STEP II: CHANGE THE VIEW
In addition to changing lifestyles, changing your perspective of life at the same time also has a positive effect on getting rid of anxiety and depression. Let's take a look at the following small steps:

1. Learn to live in the present
If you have anxiety, it may be because you are worried and uncertain about the future. If you suffer from depression, it is possible that you are often immersed in the past, thinking about mistakes or thoughts of defeating yourself. Learning to cherish the present moment will have a significant impact on your life. However, it is not easy but will help you separate your emotions from your thoughts.

The best way to stop being immersed in the past or obsessed with the future is to know whether those kinds of thoughts arise in your daily life. When they arise, identify them, classify them as thoughts, and let them drift.
Try to focus on what's happening around you and what your activity requires. Evaluate people around you and how you feel when participating in any activity. This way will help you get out of the past and focus on the present. Keep going and you will achieve a state of calmness.
2. Practice meditation
Regular meditation is proven to reduce symptoms of anxiety and stress. Calming can also help you feel attached to people, make you feel better in your emotions and increase your ability to think about situations in a positive way. Consider joining a center or a meditation group where you live. Most centers offer free meditation instruction and open weekly.

To practice meditation and meditation, spend a few minutes each day closing your eyes, relaxing muscles and focusing your attention on your breath. If a thought arises, identify them and let them go. The more you do, the more you have the opportunity to turn this method into a part of your daily life. 

3. Terminate inner criticism
Inner criticism is thoughts that defeat themselves or exaggerate that widespread feelings of depression and anxiety. The attitude of internal criticism is expressed in statements like "I'm a loser" or "I can't do anything, I'm stuck". This attitude may also be associated with one of the concerns or thoughts lead to anxiety and create a snowball effect with more and more anxious thoughts. Such thoughts make you not realize your choices in your life, you feel helpless or stuck, or prolong anxiety, depression.

Learn how to end internal criticism to reduce its impact on your perspective of life and mood. To do this, practice capturing negative thoughts as they appear and prepare positive thoughts or mantras to focus your power.
If you think: "I'm useless, I'm deadlocked", check if that's true. List possible options. Change the inner criticism in the direction: "Although my choice is not the best, at least I chose, and I chose _________ because ...".
If you have a sudden thought in your mind that causes symptoms of anxiety, fear or other anxiety, be sure to deal with that inner criticism by asserting the opposite: "I know The probability of that happening is very low, I have nothing to worry about "or" Everything will be fine, I'm fine now and that feeling will pass ".