Treating Depression and Anxiety...with Re Organizing

       It's known that depression and anxiety are often linked due to low levels of serotonin, one of the five important neurotransmitters in our brains that helps us feel happy and full of life. There are many ways of promoting serotonin health, especially watching what we eat, as 95% of serotonin is produced in the gut.

       So if serotonin is produced in the gut, and changing our eating habits will help our mood, where does re organizing come in? An interesting study from the Virginia Institute of Psychiatry found that feelings of loss and humiliation were closely related to depression and anxiety. Though I am not a certified grief counselor, much of my work in estate cleanings is supporting clients through their parental or grandparental losses, which frequently brings up memories of humiliation...making the whole experience doubly depressing and anxious.

       Depression can cause feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, and weakness. Anxiety can cause feelings of overwhelm, confusion, panic, and the inability to make decisions. Re organizing can, on a very basic level, help address both of these:

1. Beginning with the first thing you see, put it where it goes. If you do not know, create and "I don't know" pile.

2. Take the next item and do the same thing.

3. Do this for FIVE items. Are they all in the "I don't know" pile? If yes, that's okay.

4. Look around for one thing that you do know where it goes/what needs to be done, and put it there/do it.

5. Breathe deeply. You have begun.

       So what does all of this have to do with depression? Taking action makes you feel different feelings:

Accomplishment

Empowerment

Satisfaction

Self-control/self-determination

Hope

       It took us a long time to get where we are. Little by little, with simple and free actions, we can make our way back to the top, to the ideal people we know we are.

Comments

[Carissa Morris]

Amazing article Leah!! Thank you so much!