5 EFFECTIVE Things To Do When You’re Upset

Often when I’m depressed/upset and don’t know what to do, I opened my Google Chrome browser and search for ‘things to do when you’re upset’ on Google. Much to my disappointment the lists given weren’t that useful as they mostly tackled the long-term depression period, while I’m just searching for some things to do NOW, stuck at home, to cheer me up. Also, there is no particular order in these list, except that maybe some of them start with the most effective one: help someone.

Sincerely, I think it’s ridiculous to place it on top of the list. Of course, helping others enables us to think of something else except our worries, yet as I said, it’s long-term – it needs preparation, planning, thinking… Well, all the things I don’t want to do instantly when I’m depressed. I have to calm down my depression first.

But how?

Here’s my recipe:

Effective Things To Do When You’re Upset

By a moody teenage girl

What to do when you are so upset that you don’t want to do anything but stay at home and sulk?

1. Take a nap

The first thing you should try is to sleep. Usually when I’m depressed my head starts to hurt because I’m thinking too much of my problems and the only remedy I find is to sleep.

Somehow, often the moodiness comes in the morning or in the afternoon, thus I’m unable to sleep. What then?

2. Eat and drink

Stop your routine. Stop doing what you’re doing. Go take a walk to the kitchen and search for some ice cream or chocolate or your favourite snack and drink. Then sit down or pace (I like to pace at home I don’t know why) while enjoying every bit of your little meal. The good food will relax your thoughts.

3. Of course, eating and drinking is only temporary, the thoughts will come back; so CHALLENGE YOURSELF.

Some will tell you to bury yourself in your work or your hobby and concentrate solely on that. It hasn’t work for me. Even writing can’t help for me as I’m used to it. Writing out your thoughts help a lot, except when it’s always been your routine. What I mean is that don’t do what you’re used to doing. Don’t read if you’re an avid reader, don’t write if you are a regular writer.

Please don’t kill me; let me explain:

When you’re depressed, your thoughts wander around what makes you depressed and won’t leave you at peace at all. Now, let’s say that you love to read and you’re thinking that maybe a good story might help you forget your worries for a while.

It will. But only for a while.

The moment you decide to let your book down, the thoughts will come back. It won’t changed anything.

When I’m upset, I want to overcome these dark feelings. Not hide from them or vainly attempt to escape. I want to exterminate them!

That’s why I’m telling you: don’t do what you’re used to doing. Don’t work or do your favourite hobby.

Do something different.

For example, when I was upset recently, I decided to cook. I never ever cook. I’ve never been interested in cooking, although I love to eat lol, and thus I don’t really enjoy doing it.

But I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to see whether I could do something I don’t like/I’m not used to alone. And thus I grilled potatoes 🙂

Grilled potatoes!
With tomatoes, onions and garlic added 🙂

I was so proud of myself then that my depressive state totally disappeared. And the satisfaction I felt when I tasted it… 😉

4. Watch an epic movie

A movie that never gets out of date or which has won many awards or is so spectacular…

Any movie that you personally would find epic – you might have already watched it or not, it doesn’t matter.

I remember once when I was in my moody state again, I watched John Carter. And when the movie ended, the movie was still playing in my head. It had touched me so much (and I guess that’s because I was depressed, so I’m very sensible!) that my worries were swept away by images and flashes of the movie.

5. Finally, help others!

Now that you’ve done all/most of the steps above, you are now in a calmer state of depression – if you’re still ever upset – and it’s easier for you to push aside your dark thoughts and start thinking about what you could do to help those who are in worse situations than you. Yes, I often come to this conclusion when I’m done being depressed.

Then I start making plans in my head – like I’ll join an organisation fighting for LGBT rights or helping orphans or battered women… and I picture myself on a stage talking to sensitize the audience about these… lol! So I start subscribing to channels of such organisations, follow them on Twitter, read about it… Just getting concerned you know… And I guess many of you can already start donating to help these people/groups through the internet.

In fact there are people that have much more serious problems than us. That live in greater misery. And most can’t do anything about it.

Then my mind simply shifts to one of my previous posts: The Power To Help Is In Our Hands.

And I’m no longer upset. At all. 

After some weeks when my mood swings come back again, I just repeated the same steps 🙂

Cheers!!

 

An Evil Nymph.