<p style="text-align: justify;">According to Dr. Peter Ventre of Ventre Medical Associates, depression is &#8220;<i>when feelings of intense sadness &#8212; including feeling helpless, hopeless, and worthless &#8212; last for days to weeks and keep you from functioning normally, your depression may be something more than sadness.</i>&#8220;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, when you feel sad for a day due to something bad that happened to you, there&#8217;s nothing wrong with that but when time doesn&#8217;t seem to be healing your emotional wounds and you find yourself constantly feeling helpless, hopeless, and worthless, sometimes for days or weeks, then you&#8217;re experiencing a depressive episode and you need to do something about it.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-8045" title="8 Ways To Defeat Depression In Your Life" alt="8 Ways To Defeat Depression In Your Life" src="https://medusamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Health-depression.jpg" width="529" height="318" /></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Signs You&#8217;re Experiencing a Depression according to Dr. Peter Ventre</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">According to Dr. Peter Ventre, a Psychiatrist, President of Ventre Medical Associates and resident of Research Centers of America, here are some of the signs you&#8217;ll see that reveals that you have depressive symptoms:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>It needs to cause clinically significant distress or impairment.</li>
<li>It cannot be due to the direct effects of a substance, for example, a drug or medication.</li>
<li>It can&#8217;t be the result of a medical condition such as hypothyroidism.</li>
<li>You can&#8217;t be diagnosed to have depression if depressive symptoms occur within two months of the loss of a loved one.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes, seeing a Psychiatrist like Dr. Peter Ventre will be of immense help when it comes to defeating depression but what do you do when you can&#8217;t see a psychiatrist for one reason or another?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Here are 8 ways to defeat depression in your life:</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><b>1. Don&#8217;t Drink or Drug Your Way Out of It</b></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">You can&#8217;t drink your way out of depression and using drugs won&#8217;t help either; these will only appear to help momentarily but they&#8217;ll make the problem worse over time.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If you&#8217;re experiencing depression, you need to need to know what is causing your depression and address the root cause instead of drinking or drugging your way out of it.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-8046 aligncenter" title="8 Ways To Defeat Depression In Your Life" alt="8 Ways To Defeat Depression In Your Life" src="https://medusamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/depression.jpg" width="500" height="333" /></p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><b>2. Take Vitamins and other Supplements</b></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Taking vitamins and supplements can also help you overcome depression; vitamin D, magnesium and fish oil supplements can be helpful when trying to overcome depression.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It&#8217;s important to only take these if you don&#8217;t have contraindications to taking them and you might want to see your doctor for suggestions about using vitamins and supplements.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><b>3. Watch How You Eat</b></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">You can probably relate to eating more than necessary when you&#8217;re depressed; sometimes, you&#8217;ll even find yourself eating crap you wouldn&#8217;t otherwise eat.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Often, when we&#8217;re depressed, this will reflect in our eating habits and we can find it difficult to control what we eat and how we eat it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This won&#8217;t help the problem but it&#8217;ll instead alleviate it since you&#8217;ll only feel bad and more depressed once you&#8217;ve finished eating.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Avoid eating crap when you&#8217;re depressed and also try to control how you eat; it can be difficult to defeat the cravings but you&#8217;ll be able to prevent the guilt and shame that often comes with loading your stomach with junk you didn&#8217;t really want to eat.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><b>4. Take a Walk</b></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Exercise can also help overcome depression and you will often be amazed at how effective going out and taking some fresh air can be.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Try taking a walk whenever you feel depressed; try to feel the things around you and appreciate them.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><b>5. Surround Yourself with Positive People</b></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes, your depression could have to do with the people you&#8217;re moving with; if you&#8217;re with people who constantly talk down at you, reject you and demotivate you, you&#8217;ll often start to absorb their negativity and will constantly find yourself depressed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If they&#8217;re people very close to you, let them know the impact their actions is causing to you and work with them to make things better. If this doesn&#8217;t work, you might need to start moving with positive people who are going to support you and fill you with their positivity.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><b>6. Change Your Environment</b></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Your environment can also contribute to your depression; perhaps you&#8217;re living in an environment associated with some sad memory or where you&#8217;ve lived the worst periods of your life.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Unless you change to a better environment, there&#8217;s probably nothing you can do to overcome the kind of depression that is triggered by an environment you&#8217;ve had a bad experience with.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><b>7. Reduce Your Use of Sugar</b></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Sugar increases your insulin resistance and high levels of insulin resistance have been linked to severe depression symptoms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">By reducing your sugar intake, you&#8217;ll also be lowering your risk of insulin resistance and as a result will be able to minimize your chances of being depressed.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><b>8. Get Some More Sun Exposure</b></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Low levels of vitamin D will increase your chances of experiencing depression and mood disorders. By regularly exposing yourself to the sun, you can improve your vitamin D levels and as a result reduce your chances of being depressed.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;"><b>Conclusion</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Data from the CDC has revealed that 1 out of 10 Americans older than 12 are taking antidepressants, most of them without consulting a doctor.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If you can&#8217;t see a doctor or a psychiatrist like Dr. Peter Ventre, the above are some interesting things you can do to help yourself feel less depressed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Also, feel free to let us know in the comments section how you&#8217;re dealing with depression.</p>

8 Ways To Defeat Depression In Your Life
