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Birthday Depression: Why Birthdays Are So Hard
Birthday Blues
Birthday depression can be described as a general sadness on or around your birthday. Birthday blues are very common. Reasons for feeling down around your birthday include:
- Aging. Birthdays can remind us that we are one year older.
- High expectations. We may be disappointed by not having our expectations met for a birthday party or gifts.
- Lack of accomplishments. You are feeling dissatisfied with your achievements since the previous year.
- Social pressure. When we compare our birthdays with our friends' parties, we might feel our celebration is just not good enough.
- Less excitement. Adult birthdays aren't as exciting as our birthdays as kids, and that mismatch can cause the birthday blues.
- Milestone birthdays, such as 16, 21, 30, 40, 50, 60. Some people may feel sad if they don't have a huge party to celebrate their milestone birthday.
- Less love. Turning 18, you're congratulated as an adult. At 45, it is just another birthday.
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Key Ideas
Reach out and stay connected
You may feel too exhausted to talk, ashamed at your situation, or guilty for neglecting certain relationships. But this is just the depression talking.
Staying connected to ot...
How to reach out for support
- Look for support from people who make you feel safe and cared for. They just need to be a good listener.
- Make face-time a priority. Talking to someone face to face about how you feel can play a big role in relieving depression.
- Try to keep up with social activities even if you don’t feel like it.
- Find ways to support others.
- Caring for a pet can get you outside of yourself and give you a sense of being needed.
- Join a support group for depression.
Do things that make you feel good
Do things that relax and energize you. This includes following a healthy lifestyle, learning how to better manage stress, setting limits on what you’re able to do, and scheduling fun activities into your day.
Even if your depression doesn’t lift immediately, you’ll gradually feel more upbeat and energetic as you make time for fun activities.
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Key Ideas
The Invisible Illness Called Depression
Depression is a serious mental illness and can be overlooked by friends and family because the depressed person expends precious energy just to camouflage the problem.
Depression is like a...
The Manifestations Of Depression
- Women under depression usually exhibit sadness, guilt, hormonal changes, among other seemingly unrelated symptoms.
- Men can get irritable, exhausted and start having sleep issues. They then get into drugs and alcohol, or start to overwork in order to distract themselves.
- Kids under depression usually start to sulk, feel lonely and misunderstood, or have long periods of irritability.
Mindfulness As Part Of Treatment
The common treatments of depression are antidepressant medications and therapy, which has a large relapse rate.
However, if mindfulness is part of the treatment, the relapse rate declines. What is being pointed out is that mindfulness is effective when it is part of a treatment, and not so much on its own.