What To Do If Depression Causes You To Turn To Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

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This is a collaborative post.

At times when depression feels like it’s weighing heavily on you, it feels like the right choice to turn to something that offers a bit of relief, distraction, or comfort, even if you know that it won’t necessarily help you in the long run. You might drink more than usual, turn to substances, comfort eat, shut yourself away, overspend, or scroll for hours scrolling just to avoid being alone with your thoughts. In the moment, you might feel like these habits are helping you, but they can have the opposite effect afterwards, including making you feel more stressed or even guilty about it. 

Pay Attention To How You’re Feeling

One of the most useful things you can do is look at what tends to happen just before you fall into an unhealthy coping habit.Maybe it happens after you’ve had a stressful day, when you are feeling lonely, or when you are caught in a negative thinking spiral. You might be able to spot patterns, which can help you understand what you are trying to escape, soothe, or numb. 

Don’t Beat Yourself Up 

It is all too easy to turn an unhealthy habit into another reason to criticize yourself, but that can actually make things harder. Instead, ask yourself what the habit is doing for you: 

• Is it helping you switch off? 
• Giving you something to focus on? 
• Making you feel less alone?

If you can understand the need behind the behaviors you are doing, it can make it easier for you to find a healthier way to meet that same need.

Try To Deal With The Depression

Making changes to your coping mechanisms is a lot harder if your depression isn’t treated. Turning to a trusted mental health professional can help you explore your options such as therapy, medication, lifestyle changes, or other treatments. If traditional treatments have not seemed to help you enough up until now, then it might be worth talking about any alternatives available to you. For example, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive treatment that’s sometimes used for depression. Looking at TMS therapy outcomes data can give you a better understanding of how this treatment has performed and provide useful background before speaking to a healthcare provider about whether it could be suitable for you.

Find Other Coping Mechanisms 

You don’t need to find the perfect coping strategy. Sometimes you just need something healthier to reach for in a difficult moment. That could mean going for a short walk, calling someone you trust, listening to music, journaling, cooking, exercising, or doing something practical that keeps your mind occupied. Doing this won’t make your depression disappear, but they can give you something else to focus on to help you through. 

Keep In Touch With People

Depression can make isolation feel appealing, but shutting everyone out can make difficult thoughts take up even more space in your mind. This doesn’t mean you have to force yourself to attend big social gatherings either. Staying in touch with people can be as simple as sending someone a message, meeting a friend for coffee, or just telling someone you are having a rough day, and doing so can make a real difference

Give Yourself Time

Changing the way you cope isn’t straightforward. You might slip back into old habits, especially when you’re going through difficult times. It’s important to remember that doing so doesn’t get rid of the amazing progress you have made. Your goal shouldn’t be to cope perfectly. It should be to slowly build healthier ways of getting through tricky moments while getting support for the depression that is driving them in the first place.