World Health Organization estimates that there are about 300 million people with depression worldwide (see [1]). There are many types of depression and many ways to cope with it (see [1-2]).
In this post we consider a simple way to cope with depression caused by a negative event.
Majority of negative events may lead to stress, anxiety, fear, etc., which may lead to depression. If a person will be in such state for a prolonged time then some chronic disorders, including some types of cancers, may be developed.
A simple way to deal with such type of depression is to use the 5-steps method below.
Step 1: Understand the problem (formulate it in an abstract and generalized way and narrow it down to the key important issues).
Step 2: Lists all possible solutions/options.
Step 3: Analyze, prioritize, and select the suitable options/solutions.
Step 4: Develop a plan for a practical implementation of the solutions.
Step 5: Implement the plan, efficiently.
Let us consider an example. John was laid off, recently. Due to lost income he was not able to pay his mortgage and car loan. As a consequence of this, his house and car were given to the bank, where John’s mortgage and loan were originated. John started to drink, took drugs and as a result of this become chronically depressed. One day, when his mind was clear, he called to his friend Peter and asked him for help. Peter carefully listened to John’s story and pointed out that all problems have different solutions. Peter recommended to John stop drinking, taking drugs and instead use the method above to address this situation.
Step 1. John’s problems were caused by lost income. To solve the problems John need to find new ways to generate income.
Step 2. John, now, knows 6 legal ways to get income (pointed out to him by Peter):
1) from selling your time (employment, jobs, freelancing, playing some games, etc);
2) from selling your products/services (business, side hustle, etc.);
3) from monetizing your social networks, audiences, traffic to websites, etc.;
4) from owning income generating assets (real estate, businesses, bonds/stocks, licensed intellectual property, etc.);
5) from a gambling ability which has a positive ROI (lotteries, casinos, prediction markets, cryptos, betting shops, gambling sites, racetracks, etc.);
6) from investing into income generating assets.
Step 3: Before starting to analyze and prioritize, Peter trains his working memory using the method described in [4]. After analyzing and prioritizing all the ways to get income, John selects the third and six options.
Step 4: Peter decides to refresh his contacts in social networks using the method described in [3] and to monetize the social networks. Also, Peter decides to move money from his retirement accounts into gold and gold mining stocks to generate income from dividends and appreciation of gold and gold based assets in inflationary economic environments.
Step 5: After developing the plan, Peter feels that stress, fear and depression disappear, because he has a clear vision on how to move forward and implement the plan, efficiently.
References:
1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression
2. https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/how-to-fight-depression
