“Just” Do It
It’s easier to act yourself into right thinking than to think yourself into right acting. – John S. White
My Dr. once told me, “John, you can’t think your way out of depression.” Those words have really stuck with me because, for me, they touch on what I find to be a fascinating part of how we talk about mental health.
When I’m depressed, I find myself wanting to think of a solution, something singular that I can instigate to solve the problem. In reality, though, there’s growth found in doing things repeatedly, in doing multiple things, and in chipping away at the issue.
The “just do it” mantra is a frustrating one for those of us who suffer from these sorts of issues. “Why don’t you just work out? Why don’t you eat better,” etc. all of these are things we might hear from family members trying to help. The issue is that what might be “just” for them may take a significantly more amount of effort for you. Also, what makes it more challenging is that it isn’t about doing anything once. It’s about doing things repeatedly to make a difference. When you’re depressed, it can be a battle to “just” get out of bed.
Realistically, it is always a matter of doing or not doing something to change the path we’re on, though. If we’re depressed, that might be as simple as taking a vitamin D pill in the winter, which may change our minds enough to make it feasible to instigate healthier lifestyle choices.
Sometimes it can be a matter of doing something without having much motivation to do it, and doing the activity changes our mind and makes it easier to do the activity next time. However, we don’t know how hard or easy, how possible or impossible it is for people to do things. We need to be compassionate with people who are depressed, it’s a real battle. There’s also such a thing as treatment-resistant depression, where a lot of things are tried, but the person is still depressed. Still, things are tried, and we can push ourselves to do things we don’t have the motivation to do.
What’s feasible and what’s not is for you to decide. Be honest with yourself, and perhaps more importantly, be kind to yourself and know that you are worthy of making progress.
