When You’re Depressed, Try this One Trick

I used to be depressed. Like clinically. I couldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t take care of my kids. I couldn’t even take care of myself. Going for a walk, taking a shower—the simplest of tasks—felt like Mount Everest: impossible.

In a word, I was hopeless. I could not see my way out of the darkness. I could not see truth. All I knew was that there was a blanket over me so heavy, that I could not do anything.

Or so I thought.

One day, after a desperate Google search on “depression,” I read an article where the lady talked about a simple trick she tried to test “how bad” her depression really was. This was the trick: Wiggle her finger.

Wiggle her finger?

Yup. You see, if she could wiggle her finger, then it meant she could command her body. She could command her body to “get” out of bed. She could command herself to take a shower. Brush her teeth. Take a walk. No, it wasn’t necessarily going to be easy. But she COULD do it.

When you’re depressed, you can fall into “learned helplessness,”—a perception where one has learned to be “powerless.” You may have experienced a traumatic event or a persistent circumstance you had no control over and you “learned” to be helpless.

I know I felt that way. Powerless.

But, not anymore. In fact, I don’t suffer from clinical depression any longer. Sure, once in a while, I will have a day or two where the heaviness descends again, and when that happens, I wiggle my finger.

I “feel” the depression and then I slowly start to “help” myself. By showering. Eating. Talking with a friend. Doing the very things that pull my brain away from the depressive thinking and into the present moment, where I have a fighting chance to think clearly once again.

As someone who works at UCB Canada, I also know I have the ability to do something akin to wiggling my finger: it’s pushing a button. I may feel low, but pushing the radio dial “on” to “UCB Radio” can get my mind moving towards God’s messages for me. He has something to say to me. And if I can wiggle my finger, I can also push a button, allowing the positive, uplifting music to minister to my soul.

In a few weeks, UCB will once again be celebrating God’s faithfulness through its Spring Pledge Drive. This is an amazing opportunity to provide that “Radio button” to so many hurting or depressed people who do not yet have access to Christian radio. Keep April 18-21^st in your prayers, or give early, playing an awesome part in sharing hope to the hopeless! Thank you so much!