I have been experiencing fleeting moments of depression whenever negative thoughts come into my mind. Like when I am stressed while doing something difficult; or when bad memories appear, and worst still even when there is no reason to or triggers at all. This can happen as many as three or four times a day. My way of dealing with it is to stop them right at the beginning and not allowing them to develop and aggregate any further. By switching my thoughts immediately to something more pleasant, or do some of my favourite activities. Sometimes even a simple distraction of making a drink can work. Usually the depression is gone within a very short period of time. This works for me because I have been practicing these remedies for years. I am not expecting somebody else can do it as fast as me. But through constant and persistent learning, experimenting, making improvements and adjustment, one can surely quicken this "divert and calm down" time significantly. I remember way back during my fourth relapse. I was in a really bad way with my family for quite a while. The worst thing was that I did absolutely nothing to help. I was like a puddle of mud, no thoughts, no action, no nothing. But once I was determined to get myself out of it by my own effort, and despite heaps of failures and disappointments, I did my very best to stand up and tried again. And after each time I fell, and there were many many times,it took less and less time for me to pick myself up, stand tall and try again.
This crisis we are facing can bring a lot of stress, restlessness, anxiety to people like us but this will be over so we should try to keep well and find ways to cope and be patient. Once this is over you will, I’m sure, feel even better, stronger than before as you have overcome something so difficult and devastating.
每次當我感受到負面消極的思維時,都會有那一瞬間飛逝的情緒低落和沮喪的感受。例如在遇上困難時的壓力,再想起那不愉快的回憶,甚至乎無緣無故地也會發生。有時一日會多到三,四次會這樣。我的解決方法是這事剛剛開始時就立即想辨法去停止它,讓它不能再去延續下去而演变成嚴重的事態。例如立即轉移我的注意力到一些比較開心的事情或者做一些自己喜歡的活動,有時甚至乎做一些非常簡單的活動去轉移注意力,例如去冲杯茶也會成為有效的行動對策。 通常這些抑鬱的感受就會極快地消失。這些方法對我來說是很有效的,因為我已有很多年的經驗和長期的鍛練。我不會想象每個人都可以像我一樣,能夠極快的消除抑鬱和沮喪。但是經過不斷的學習,試驗和改良,我很肯定每個人都可以有效地改這個“轉移注意冷靜下來”的速度。我記得很久以前在我第四次疾病復發時,有一段頗長的時間裡,我和家人之間的關係,變得非常惡劣。最壞和最不幸的,是我自己並沒有做任何事去改善這情況。我好像一灘爛泥,不想也不動,甚麼也沒有做！但當我一旦決心去自助自救後,無論我失敗多少次,老實說,數不清那麼多次！但每次失敗後,我都盡力重新站起來再試,反覆地努力自新。每次失敗跌下到再次站起來所需要的時間也逐漸地變得越來越短了！
我們正面對一個危機，可能會令我們不安、焦慮，大家應找辦法去應付。當危機過後，我相信我們一定比前堅強，因已學習了應付的辦法。