Getting out of a slump

Getting out of a slump

There is absolutely no one who hasn’t gone through a tough time sometime in their life. In fact, an argument can be made that most people are constantly going through something in their life. Even in moments when everything feels excellent, there is a bit of grief lingering around. I’d say that’s just a product of the world we find ourselves in.

What I want to talk about today is a little different, though. I don’t want to talk about dealing with the monotony and indifference of everyday life. Instead, I want to talk about the more intense slumps. You know, the ones that keep you in bed all day. The slumps that make it hard to complete daily tasks.

That’s the type of grief you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, but the truth is that everyone has to go through periods of intense grief sometime during their life. Crucially, a lot of people go through grief like this in their formative years and it shapes how they think. These slumps can be about anything, be it money or certain relationships. No matter what the immediate reason is, getting out of the slump requires certain actions which are very general in nature.

1. Acknowledging your predicament

The first thing that you must do if you want to get through a slump is to acknowledge that you are in one. This might sound very simple and frankly, quite unproductive. The truth, however, is that so many people going through a depressive slump never acknowledge that they are in it. Their mental health deteriorates but they never sit down and recognize their mind’s needs.

Oftentimes what they do is distract themselves with a ton of work. If you want to fix your mental health for good, you have to acknowledge that it is not right. Only then can you take that next step of fixing it.

1.  Talking helps

If we put aside the irony of a podcast encouraging you to talk more, conversation is genuinely the biggest step you can take towards improving your mental health. If it's an issue of finance that is getting you down, talk to someone whose advice you trust. Talk to a friend who understands you if it's a relationship problem.

But what if you don’t have people like those? Well, that’s the great thing about talking, you don’t have to speak to an expert. In fact, you don’t even have to do speak to a friend. Just the act of talking is transcendental in helping you get over your slump. As you get stuff off your chest, you get to recontextualize and find ways to understand situations better.

1. Acceptance

And lastly, acceptance of all negative feelings is crucial. The last thing you want is another judgmental eye. Often, we are the ones being the most critical about ourselves. Dismantling this critical eye can go a long way in helping you out of your slump.

To conclude, it is very much possible to get over a depressive slump. In fact, I think that if you believe a slump to be insurmountable, you're already reducing your chances of recovery manifold.