How do you pull yourself out of a funk?

[damnromulans]

Be it a shitty day at work, a short period of feeling nonsocial and down, or a major depressive episode, what do you do when you're in a rut?

I tend to shut myself up and be nonsocial with IRL people, wallow in melancholic music, write a lot, and (tragically) buy tons of clothes and shoes.

 

[The Heartbreak Kid]

Drink, Drink, Drink.

Or listen to Asia.

 

[unknown]

hiking. exercise. a Miyazaki film

 

[damnromulans]

Drink, Drink, Drink.

Or listen to Asia.

How British!

I forgot to mention going for really long walks.

 

[ASD]

Listen to some Funkadelic.

No seriously, some time alone with your doom metal albums, followed by an active attempt to get out of the house should do the trick.

 

[damnromulans]

I downloaded Boney M's Greatest Hits last night

I'm not terribly worried about myself, as I have approximately one funk every 730 days. Was just wondering about everyone else.

 

[Einherjar86]

It depends. Usually one of these three things serves to salvage my spirit:

Play guitar
Read
Watch The Big Lebowski

 

[Cythraul]

a shitty day at work

I would always just come home and drink a few brews. Now my job schedule is so erratic that it doesn't really make sense to say that I had a day at work. More like a couple hours sitting in my office browsing facebook or grading exams until 6 am.

a short period of feeling nonsocial and down

I usually take those times to read a lot and do constructive things for myself. You don't always need to be out and about socializing with people, but staying in too long will drive you nuts, and not getting enough sunlight is bad for you.

a major depressive episode

Major clinical depression is probably one of the most awful feelings somebody could ever experience. It's actually physically debilitating. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. They say that if you're going through this you should exercise as that raises levels of serotonin or whatever the fuck it's called, but that's only a temporary fix. I've heard that cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the best fixes for this problem. Antidepressants are good for dealing with symptoms and for keeping you from going further down the spiral, but they don't actually solve the underlying problem, and people on antidepressants tend to relapse if I'm not mistaken. My view of clinical depression now is that something about the way the depressed person thinks has to change, rather than manipulating brain chemistry. But good therapy can be prohibitively expensive for some people.

 

[damnromulans]

My dad is manic-depressive but now mostly just depressed. He has dealt since college by reading Tolkien, he has found it tremendously helpful and an excellent way to escape the realities of life. Now he is on a few different SSRIs and a ton of pills for lots of other things, but I remember seeing him reading Tolkien when I was a kid and having my mom tell me not to bother him.

 

[Cythraul]

 

[damnromulans]

Why the frowny face? Despite his transformation from star athlete to obese slob, he still has my mom and they used to have the cat but he died...

Ah shit. I have tremendous guilt issues about my dad and moving so far away from him.

 

[Dak]

It's been proven that volunteering to help people in need helps with depression.

Edit unknown: How do Miyazaki films make you feel less depressed?

 

[cookiecutter]

I usually listen to sad music and watch TV

 

[waif]

a Miyazaki film

Regardless of my mood, these just make me want to curl up under a blanket and not interact with the real world ever again.

 

[Dak]

Regardless of my mood, these just make me want to curl up under a blanket and not interact with the real world ever again.

Seriously. My wife likes them, and I wish I had never even heard of them. Biggest steaming piles of pointless, depressive bullshit I think I have ever seen.

 

[unknown]

whatever!

 

[damnromulans]

when I'm in the early stages of a funk I don't necessarily want out immediately. I like to wallow for a while before pulling myself out. Never seen Miyazaki movies (no interest tbh, if I want to hear the Totoro song I go to the supermarket), but I love writing sad short stories about really dramatically emo things to really bring out the negative emotions.

obviously I am not clinically depressed nor recommending that to people who are

 

[Srontgorrth]

Major clinical depression is probably one of the most awful feelings somebody could ever experience. It's actually physically debilitating. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. They say that if you're going through this you should exercise as that raises levels of serotonin or whatever the fuck it's called, but that's only a temporary fix. I've heard that cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the best fixes for this problem. Antidepressants are good for dealing with symptoms and for keeping you from going further down the spiral, but they don't actually solve the underlying problem, and people on antidepressants tend to relapse if I'm not mistaken. My view of clinical depression now is that something about the way the depressed person thinks has to change, rather than manipulating brain chemistry. But good therapy can be prohibitively expensive for some people.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is definitely the way to go, based on what I've learned so far.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

tv, video games, friends, work. just depends on what kind of a funk it is.
99% of the time, im good to go.

 

[panzerfaust666]

Playing music or going biking with my buddy's. But if it's something major like a serious depression, I don't have any guaranteed way's of getting out of that. In those cases I try to just verbalize my problems; basically anything other than taking pills, which is what I've always wanted to avoid.