Physicians Depression – Overview
As a medical practitioner, you are more prone to depression mostly because of your work environment.
It cannot be easy to see people ailing and sometimes even losing their lives and having no power over them.
Add long working hours and an almost non-existent social life, and you will have a recipe for disaster.
Even with that, you cannot afford to lose it because your patients depend on you.
Here are some of the things physicians can do to prevent depression and improve the quality of their lives.
1. Create a Support Network
Aside from therapy and medication, another thing you can do to avoid or manage depression as a healthcare worker is to build a solid support system. This could mean strengthening your ties with family and friends so that they are in a better position to be there for you when you need it.
If you don’t have that, you can join a support group of people who are going through the same predicament as you.
2. Avoid Stressful Situations
While reducing stress is beneficial, avoiding stressful situations entirely is impossible, especially in the medical profession. Strategies for stress management and resilience building are more practical approaches.
However, if that continues to happen, you may have a problem at hand and that includes depression.
As such, you want to avoid any stressful situations that could potentially lead to depression.
3. Try to Improve your Sleep Cycle
Did you know that mood and sleep go hand in hand? Sleep disturbances are common in people with depressive disorders.
That said, you might find it hard to get out of bed or to fall asleep. Good sleep hygiene can improve the quantity and quality of your sleep.
You can start by switching off all your electronics before getting into bed or using a dim light to read.
4. Adopt Healthy Eating Habits
While research suggests a link between diet and mental health, stating that improved nutrition can treat mental illness may oversimplify the relationship and the effectiveness of dietary changes.
In that regard, you want to eat healthy foods, drink water, and take supplements.
Doing this could be just what you need to pick yourself up or prevent you from mentally going downward.
5. Avoid Negative Thoughts
While positive thinking can be helpful, it’s important to note that depression is a complex mental health condition that often requires professional treatment beyond self-managed thought control.
You can opt to have cognitive behavioral therapy, install apps for it on your phone, or read self-help books. All these can help transform your unhealthy thinking habits for the better.
6. Avoid Procrastination
Depression comes with symptoms such as difficulty concentrating and fatigue. Of course, this can then make it easy for you to procrastinate.
What you don’t know is that putting things off for later can fuel depression because you will be stressed, worried, and guilty when you do it.
It is therefore necessary to manage your time and set deadlines for yourself. Have short-term goals and try to get the most important things handled first.
7. Develop a Well-being Toolbox
This set of tools will come in handy when you are feeling down and need to soothe yourself. Now, the thing here is that the tools that somebody else uses to manage their depression may not necessarily work for you.
As such, you want to determine what makes you happy and implement it especially when feeling down.
It could be reading a good book, swimming, listening to music, or doing yoga. To be on the safe side, you may want to make a list of what you may like to do whenever you are feeling down.
That way, picking an activity when you start feeling down will be easy.
Final Thoughts
Being in the medical field is not easy and it could take a toll on your mental state. However, it doesn’t have to be that way seeing as you can avoid depression or manage it by following the tips in this article.
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