How to fix ~90% of mood issues

Depression and anxiety: how to fix ~90% of cases

1. Have a social life.

Humans are social monkeys. Have fun with friends and family socially at least once a day.

If you are socially deprived, you will have emotional issues, guaranteed.

The 80/20 of having a social life is making it the default.

Set 👏 up 👏regular 👏 repeating 👏calls/hangouts 👏with👏loved👏ones.

Go ahead. Do it now.

You probably already have friends and family who you know would love to have a regular hangout with you who also have unmet social needs.

If you don’t already have a regular call or dinner with your family, set one up.

Set up a family group chat too while you’re at it. It’s a great way to maintain a soft sense of connection throughout the week.

Do the same with old friends who you love. Remember, you can have calls with them if you’re not in the same town. Regular voice calls and video calls can be a lifesaver nowadays when everybody’s so inclined to move.

2. Get your blood tested for common deficiencies (iron, b12, vitamin D, etc).

Deficiencies usually affect mood and they’re super common.

And so easy to fix!

If you turn out to be deficient, it’s literally a pill that costs pennies a day and you’re fixed. And in most countries, it’s free or incredibly cheap to get your blood tested.

Why wait?

3. Actually do the things you know you should be doing. Get a coach to help you if you can't do it yourself.

Fix your sleep if it’s broken.

Exercise enough (30 minutes of moderate exercise per day).

Eat healthy (find healthy food you actually like and will actually eat.

If you can't fix these things on your own, get a coach to help. Coaches basically specialize in getting you to do the things you want to be doing but can't for whatever reason.

4. Stop watching the news

If you want to be informed, read books.

They're much better quality information and they're not solely focused on making you stressed out or angry.

Consistently consuming information literally designed to make you scared and/or angry is a recipe for poor mental health.

5. CBT or other therapies

Almost all therapies show similar effectiveness to CBT when they're actually studied. Shop around till you find a therapeutic modality that clicks with you.

You don't have to actually go to talk therapy if you don't want to or can't afford it.

There's decent evidence that workbooks and apps are similarly effective and they're much cheaper and available every day of the week.

Remember, most therapies aren't actually complicated to learn. You just have to actually practice them.

I recommend:

• WoeBot (app - DM with a CBT bot for depression and anxiety)

• The Upward Spiral (book, multi-modality)

• Joy on Demand (book, meditation)

• The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Depression (workbook, depression)

• The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Anxiety (workbook, anxiety)

• Unlocking the Emotional Brain (more advanced book, but so good I couldn't not recommend it)

In conclusion, you're an adult. Actually do the basics.

If you're reading this, you're probably sad and/or anxious, so I don't want to be mean. But I think part of the reason so many people are sad is because people are not pushing people to do the basics.

If you are sleeping poorly, not exercising, eating shit, deficient, endlessly doomscrolling, and/or have no social life, of course you're gonna be emotionally messed up.

Fix it.

You can. You are not helpless. You can do things to make your life better and you should, and somebody telling you it's alright to suck at any of those things is not helping you. They're keeping you where you're at, and you don't like where you're at!

It's not OK to be bad at those things. You're suffering the consequences of those things and you know it's not OK.

Use that discomfort as fuel.

People only change when the discomfort of change is smaller than the discomfort of staying the same.