For many people, holidays are not joy-filled or fun. They don’t feel like laughing, and they don’t even want to be around others. Instead, they fight depression, on a seasonal or even daily basis.

I’ve struggled with cyclical depression for years and have learned some tips that I use now whenever I feel a bout of depression coming on.

• Give yourself a limited time to rest/run away from others. I allow myself one day to lay in bed and hate everything about my life. Sometimes this is enough to help me start feeling better because I was overtired to begin with.

• Make sure you’re drinking enough WATER. It is easy to drink sodas, and coffee, and tea, and energy drinks, and that is fine. But your body also needs water, and if you don’t get enough fluids it can make you tired and help you to feel drained.

• Eat three meals a day. When I’m depressed, the last thing I want to do is eat, and I will often forget to eat. I have to force myself to eat three good meals and not just snack on sweets or salty items.

• Get outside for at least 10 minutes per day. There is something about the fresh air (and hopefully sunshine) that helps to pick me up.

• Listen to music that is upbeat and you enjoy. I like to put on something with a beat and try to make myself do a bit of oldies. Other times, when I need to rest, I like to listen to instrumental hymns and praise music, because they help me to calm down. Find something that works for you, whether it be music or movies or tv shows.

• Start a gratitude journal and list at least three things every day that you’re thankful for. Sometimes I’m just thankful that the day didn’t go worse than it did! But I find that having an “attitude of gratitude” really helps me to get my mind off myself, and it helps the depression to lift at least a little bit.

• Don’t pull away from others. This is probably the hardest thing for me to do – to reach out to people and say, “I need help”. I have friends who will contact me if we haven’t talked every week or two, because they know I have cyclical depression, and they want to make sure I’m ok. By being honest with them and sharing that I have this, they sometimes recognize the signs of an “attack of depression” and will reach out to me before I’m ready to work towards overcoming it.

Living with depression isn’t easy and you can’t always get over it with a few simple steps. Sometimes you need to add medication to your life, or receive help from a counselor.

I’ve learned that I can work my way through a depressive episode somewhat faster if I follow these steps.