Phases of Depression and the Exercises to Use to Escape them

Curtiss Phases of depression and the exercises I use to escape them:

Biochemical Phase A: Fearful stress, caused by anxious or negative thinking (of which I may or may not be aware) that has triggered the fight or flight response and dumped a pot load of stress chemicals into my brain. Exercise is good for this phase and sometimes with physical exertion I can actually stave off Phase B. I often use singing songs, counting,1, 2, 3, 4, ; and nursery rhymes if the stress is high and doesn't disappear with physical activity.

Bioelectrical: Phase B: This is the futile, “I’m not good enough,” hopeless phase which seems to be a neural syndrome activated by a sufficient amount of stress chemicals. This is the most painful phase of depression and can get worse and worse up to catatonia if you don’t take action. This phase is easy to succumb to. The exercises I use for both Phase A and B are singing songs, counting,1, 2, 3, 4, ; nursery rhymes to distract myself long enough for the symptoms to subside and then I take up the duties of the day.

Muted Depression: Phase C: This seems to be a kind of series of aftershocks from  a real bad Phase B where low-grade stress and feelings of unworthiness and discontent still lingers and re-triggers low-grade feeling s of discontent and disconnect with the world.

For Phase C counting and singing and nursery rhymes don’t seem to work. For this phase I need some kind of reconnection to nature, or my fellow man, so that I can somehow reaffirm myself as an okay person  who has meaning  and worth to others so that, thus reaffirmed, I can accept myself as a worthy part of the world and can see the world through love rather than fear. 

This phase is not quite as  compelling as phase B but it is still difficult to sustain the awareness that my discontent and disconnectedness  comes totally from my own thinking rather than the circumstances and situations I find myself in, or the conditions and circumstances of some past history. 

It is also difficult to keep remembering and taking action based on the truth that  I am totally self-responsible to get to a better place where I can be a more loving person. Sometimes in this phase I think about ancient wisdom quotes such as "do the duty which is nearest to thee, thy second duty will already have become clearer."