For those of us who have fallen into the cycle of anxiety and depression, life begins to seem hopeless… meaningless. We fear the consequences of every possible step, so choose not to take any steps. Unfortunately, a lack of effort guarantees the very failure that has been so feared…the unnecessary fate of those who suffer from anxiety and depression. Whether the cause is a physical condition or psychological problems, you don’t have to live this way. You can flip the same loop that got you there and use it as a ladder to get out of the pit.

Physical causes and treatments: Anxiety and depression are often, but not always, due to physical conditions in your body. Mental illness is really a disease of the physical part of your body called the brain. Anxiety and depression are often diagnosed together, and often from the same underlying physical causes…chemical imbalances that make it difficult for your brain to process emotions (like fear) correctly. Like all mental illnesses, this seems like a behavioral problem, but it is related to physical conditions. Some of the causes can be diet, allergies, diabetes, candidiasis, hypoglycemia, smoking, lack of physical exercise, thyroid problems, addictions, and many others. These conditions, when properly treated, can often reduce or eliminate anxiety and depression. Sometimes the physical causes cannot be isolated and may be due to unresolved psychological issues. This “chicken or egg” scenario between physical and psychological causes is pointless to debate. Symptoms of anxiety and depression can be treated with medication, while related psychological problems can be treated through counselling. Once the causes are resolved, treatments will become unnecessary over time.

Physical self-help: Because some of the causes of anxiety and depression are physical, there are things you can do physically to help alleviate these mental illnesses. While you should definitely see a professional if you feel you may be suffering from mental illness, professional treatment can be a big help if you do these easy things: Quit smoking. Get regular aerobic exercise. Eliminate any addiction. Eat a balanced diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables. Get tested for diabetes, hypoglycemia, allergies (especially food allergies), thyroid, and yeast infections. Drink a lot of water. It may sound strange, but all of these things affect the chemicals in your brain. Exercise is probably one of the most important, because it causes your body to produce powerful chemicals called endorphins, which naturally relax you and give you a sense of well-being.

Falling into the pit of anxiety and depression: This pit often begins with non-specific feelings of fear (anxiety) that cause us to lose confidence, make mistakes, or make bad decisions, confirming what we feared. Then, incident after incident, the lack of trust escalates until we are not willing to even try. It continues to build on itself until we are doing less and less. We find it difficult to make the decisions necessary to do our job. So it seems like we can’t even get to our jobs on time. We start getting “sick” more often and eventually quit or get fired. As the “failures” and fears mount, we can eventually reach a point where we just don’t feel like it’s worth trying…depression has set in. We are convinced that we will fail and, by not trying, we confirm those convictions. Some people go through years of half-hearted efforts to guarantee enough failure to justify giving up in their minds. While drugs can correct some of the chemical imbalances and symptoms associated with anxiety and depression, until we deal with the irrational thoughts that got us here, nothing will cure us. Sad news and very good news are the same… the very real circumstances of anxiety and depression were brought about by irrational imagination. Why is it good news?

Using the BAR loop to escape the pit: The fact that we imagine our way into this pit means that we can use that same imagination to get out… that’s very good news! The above paragraph shows us how we created a BAR Cycle in our minds that bit by bit dug the hole we found ourselves in. We experienced a fear (Belief) that produced doubts/errors (Action) that generated emotions of lower self-esteem and greater fear (Results), further strengthening negative beliefs and motivating even less effective effort in the face of life’s opportunities. As we continue in this cycle, we can reach the point where we become frozen in fear and self-loathing, because every action confirms our belief that we will fail. It’s good news that’s how it started because that same BAR Cycle can be used to turn everything around.

We can gradually get out of the hole the same way we got in. As the referenced BAR Cycle shows, the only place to cause change is in belief. James Allen said: “All that a man achieves…does not achieve is the direct result of thought.” What occupies your mind? What do you believe about yourself? No matter how futile the effort seems to be to us now, if we focus our thoughts on one thing that we think we can do…a short stretch from where we are, we can do it. Maybe it’s re-reading this article, then adding more positive articles, and then refusing to accept negative and limiting thoughts about ourselves. Start pouring positive information into your brain as the BAR Cycle article suggests, then reinforce those thoughts with action.

If you’re so depressed that you can’t get out of bed, your first action may be to get out of bed. When that is no longer a struggle, force yourself to brush your teeth, get dressed every day, prepare and eat meals, clean the house, call a friend, etc. Gradually build success on the success of things that you feel will stretch you a little further. Celebrate each success to strengthen your resolve. Go for a walk, walk every day. If a job is too scary, try volunteering, then full-time volunteering, then a job using the same skills you learned as a volunteer. As you continue to feed your mind with the positive and continue to take baby steps to climb out of the pit, one day you will look back in amazement at how far you have come. I have not suffered from depression, but I know anxiety well, and it has led me to take a long and serious look at depression.

Suffering from performance anxiety, fear of people, and fear of success, I made what I would call a stupid decision that made all the difference in my life. I chose to leave a civil service career to build a sales business. The first week alone she had me in bed all day, crying myself back to sleep. I was too terrified to even try it in my business for long. Finally one day I started taking the small steps I described above. First smile at people, then meet them, then call, then sell, then recruit. I finally made a small profit one year, but, after gaining all the trust I needed with people, I realized that business was not where I should be helping people. In the 18 years since I became a minister, I have spoken to groups of over 1,000, sang solo, earned two college degrees, built two profitable businesses, founded two non-profit corporations, oversaw a $2.5 million construction project, I built 3 successful websites and published over 2,000 pages on the internet. I mention this, not to brag, but to help you understand how much you can change your own life.

If you find yourself in a fetal position, crying yourself to sleep all day for fear of life… there is hope. You don’t have to stay there! Simply turn the BAR bike over and use it as a ladder to climb out of the pit. This is something you can do to help whatever therapy you are receiving and will most likely, over time, eliminate the need for therapy. All you have to do is change one belief at a time and everything in your life will change. Now the only question to ask yourself is, “Do I want my life to change, or have I gotten too comfortable in my pit?”