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Now that you have 50 strategies to choose from, you’re ready to end the hold depression has on your productivity. How do you feel? Hopefully, you can implement a few strategies today. You can then open the book each time you get stuck and try something new. Give yourself time to use them all. I consistently use the 50 strategies to make it through my days. They work! I’ve also added a few thoughts to ponder below as you start the process.
—Julie
It’s important to know what type of depression you experience, as treatments can vary. Depression comes in many forms. Within the genetic realm of depression, there is unipolar depression and bipolar depression. Others experience situational depression because of a major change in life, including giving birth, divorce, or the death of a loved one. All depression has the same symptoms, but the cause of the depression determines how the depression is treated. Here are some important facts about depression to help you know what treatment works best for the type of depression you have:
Unipolar depression symptoms that you can’t manage with lifestyle changes respond well to medications. It’s not situational. It’s a hormonal brain illness that runs in families. Cognitive behavioral therapy is an excellent tool as well.
Like unipolar depression, bipolar depression is a genetic brain imbalance, but it can’t be treated in the same way as unipolar. Bipolar depression is always tinged with mania. Because of the lurking presence of this mania, treatment for bipolar depression must prevent mania at the same time it works on depression symptoms. This is complicated. Anti-depressants are not indicated for bipolar depression, nor are ADD medications, as both can cause mania. Steroids, hormone replacement, and over the counter energy supplements are also a problem for bipolar depression. If you have bipolar disorder, a psychiatric professional who is familiar with bipolar disorder depression can help you choose the best treatment path.
Situational depression responds very well to therapy, exercise, and possibly medications for a short period of time. If you experience postpartum depression, look for a reproductive psychiatric processional who specializes in helping women treat this type of depression.
Think about the type of depression you have, and while using the ideas in this book, look for treatment that will give you the best outcome.
A Final Question for Dr. Preston
Question
What advice do you have for people who have trouble getting things done when they’re depressed?
Answer
It helps to stop struggling against the painful realities of depression and work on accepting your life circumstances as a very difficult yet human experience. Thinking, “This shouldn’t happen; it’s not fair! or What the hell is wrong with me?!” is a common and understandable reaction to the thoughts that occur in the wake of very distressing events. The turning point often occurs when you stop the harsh self-statements and the shoulds and simply say, “I hurt, and I’m sad at what depression does to my life.”
This isn’t pop psychology, although it has been supported in psychological research. Reframing the negative to something more heartfelt and productive can change the way you view depression in the moment. This is also a part of many spiritual practices. Stopping the struggle against understandable human feelings, combined with developing an attitude of compassion for yourself, is often the key to living with and overcoming depression.
Once you’ve done that, you can have more energy and enthusiasm to get things done, because you’re more able to see that depression does affect your life but it doesn’t have to define your life anymore.
From the First Edition: Two months into writing the book, I woke up depressed. Before I even got out of bed I had the thought, What’s the point of getting up? It’s hard to feel good about the day and the things you have to get done when your brain is against you from the beginning.
But I knew what I had to do. I said to myself, “I have things to look forward to today, and I’m going to do them. I will not let this thought ruin my day.” (Strategy 16)
I then felt my typical lack of motivation for getting to work, but I reminded myself that motivation is not what gets me to work—I get myself to work. I know I’ll feel more motivated once I’m working. In fact, just writing this is already making me feel better. (Strategy 1)
I also knew that driving to my office space would give me a way out if work seemed overwhelming, so I asked my mom to drop me off and pick me up to be sure I’d stay at the office. (Strategy 37)
One problem with working as a writer is the lack of structure. Yes, I have deadlines, but the rest is up to me. No boss looks over my shoulder making sure I get things done. I actually wish I did have someone who could be my taskmaster all day long! When I got to my office, I felt scattered and sad. I had the feeling that I couldn’t work today, so I just called up my inner drill sergeant. (Strategy 6)
I also turned off my phone. (Strategy 9)
It’s so much easier to look at e-mail and chat with friends than do what I have to do. By the time I got to work, I could feel that today was going to be an anxious day if I didn’t do something about it immediately. So I reminded myself to breathe and just let my body relax a bit. When I could tell I was going to need more help than my normal treatments, I took a small amount of my anti-anxiety medication. (Strategies 41 and 45)
I then made out a list of what I had to do and wrote down the times next to each project so I could stay on track. I got out my calendar and made a writing plan for the next two months in order to meet my deadlines. (Strategy 24)
I reminded myself that depression doesn’t want me to work, but I want and have to work. (Strategy 14)
It’s so hard to stay focused when my mind is all over the place like this, but I remind myself over and over that if I just sit down and work, I will feel so much better by the time my mother picks me up and I am able to truly enjoy my evening. (Strategy 19)
And yes, I do have something to look forward to tonight. I want to be able to enjoy it. Being depressed is hard. It takes a lot of energy to get things done when my brain is not functioning the way I would like it to. When I get to the final chapter edits and feel like I can’t continue, I know that this really is a time to think like an athlete. What would a professional athlete do if they had a game to play? The professional athlete would get out there and do it! (Strategy 10)
So, as of this minute, I’m going to work as efficiently as possible and not focus on what I can’t do. I have a deadline, and I always meet my deadlines. The work might not feel good now, and I might think it’s poor writing (Strategy 3), but I know that when the book comes out, I won’t be able to tell what I wrote when I was depressed. It will all look good. I won’t give up, and I know tomorrow can truly be a better day.
Present day: You’re holding the book in your hand that was so difficult to write on so many days. There were days when depression did get the better of me and I couldn’t and didn’t work, but I still got the project done on time to the best of my ability. There were many days when the strategies looked ridiculous, and I wanted to change everything. But I didn’t, because I remembered that depression loves to lie to me about these things (Strategy 20) and that I have to keep going. Doing my best is all that I can do when I’m depressed. (Strategy 33)
I’m proud of myself and can honestly say, “Good for you, Julie!” (Strategy 50)
Update for Second Edition: I said “yes” to an update for this book right before a world pandemic changed life as we know it. All my writing plans flew out the window, and I had to immediately contend with the mood changes brought on by a world crisis. Just like the first time I worked on this manuscript, the strategies in the book got me through this new edition. On the days that depression crept into my life, I had the great luck to be working on a strategy that helped me continue to write in the moment.
When my obsessive online searching about world events, cancellations, money worries, and work in general detrimentally affected my ability to work, I turned to this manuscript for answers and used the new technology strategies I was writing to get myself out of the screen obsessing loop. Believe me, they work, as I had to use them daily!
Getting it Done is dynamic—it seems to have an answer for what ails me when my brain is not my friend. I created the ideas in this book over 20 years ago. I’ve used them every day since. They bend and don’t break. I hope the strategies help you as much as they helped me during an incredibly difficult time in my life and in the world in general. Edits that would have taken a few weeks under normal circumstances took over three months because of my brain’s reaction to the crisis. Getting it Done teaches people with depression that this is okay. It’s not only about time. It’s about outcome. You are holding a second edition book that my brain said would never get done. I did the work anyway. Oh, it was painful, but I kept going. Never forget—we can get things done!