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How To Improve Your

Depression Treatment Plan

Brought to you by:

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Support Not Stigma Store

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© Copyright 2019 The Depression Project

Reproduction of this book or any portion thereof is not allowed without the express

permission of The Depression Project.

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Hey there,

My name’s Mathew Baker – along with my brother Danny I’m the co-founder of The

Depression Project, and through interacting with literally tens of thousands of people who

struggle with depression, one thing that’s very clear is that those who end up overcoming

depression follow a treatment plan that adheres to four key ingredients in particular. So, in this

e-book, I’m going to detail what each of those four ingredients are, so that by the time you’ve

finished reading it, you’ll know exactly what you need to do in order to improve your

depression treatment plan

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KEY INGREDIENT #1: Your Treatment

Plan Must Involve Fighting Back Against

Depression At Each Of The Five

“Battlegrounds” Where It Attacks You

As you can see, depression attacks you in a multitude of ways – through difficult situations,

negative thoughts, painful emotions, by negatively impacting your behaviours and by affecting

you physically.

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Therefore, in order to take control of your life back from depression, you need to retaliate

in multiple ways as well – for example, by taking actions to change your circumstances,

challenge negative thoughts, ward off painful emotions, and actions that positively impact your

behaviours and how you feel physically.

This is a key area where your current depression treatment plan almost certainly needs

some improvement, because based on your answers to the Depression Treatment Plan

Quiz, instead of fighting back against depression at each of the five “battlegrounds”,

you’re in all likelihood only fighting back against at most two or three of them.

For example, you may currently be fighting back against depression by:

Taking medication (which combats depression at the “Physical Reactions Battleground”

by positively altering your brain chemistry); and

Exercising (which, because exercising is a healthy behaviour, combats depression at the

“Behaviours Battleground”).

However, even though taking medication and exercising can both be very helpful, they’re

only significantly helping you in two out of the five battlegrounds, and do very little to defend

you from depression at any of the other three battlegrounds. Put another way:

❌ Taking medication and exercising does not help you resolve toxic situations.

❌ Neither medication nor exercise helps you overcome negative thoughts, nor do either of

them all of a sudden make you have high self-esteem, or be able to re-frame past negative

situations to be able to serve you rather than squash you.

❌ Neither medication nor exercising can teach you how to regulate your emotions so that

you feel less pain and more pleasure, nor do either of them help you process any guilt, shame

or grief you may have grounded in past negative and/or heart-breaking experiences.

In this way, if taking medication and exercising are your only defences against depression’s

continuous attacks, then it’s almost impossible to ever beat depression – because you’ll be

losing the war against it in at least 3 out of the 5 battlegrounds.

The good news, however, is that if you retaliate against depression at each of the FIVE

BATTLEGROUND POINTS, then with the right techniques, you can win the war against

it!

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The Five Areas To Retaliate Against Depression

SITUATIONS: Learn and implement strategies that help you cope with-, resolve-, or

remove yourself from toxic situations.

THOUGHTS: Learn and implement the best cognitive strategies to help challenge and

dispel negative thoughts, and stop overthinking.

EMOTIONS: Learn and practice the best mindfulness strategies to help make you feel

grounded when things go spiralling out of control, and that help you regulate difficult and

overpowering emotions (such as anger).

BEHAVIOURS: Adopt deliberate strategies to help you cease behaviours that worsen

depression, and instead help you engage in behaviours that make you feel stronger and

healthier.

PHYSICAL REACTIONS: Learn practices that collectively increase serotonin, release

endorphins, and increase your energy levels. This may include taking medication (consult with

your doctor or psychiatrist about this).

KEY TAKEAWAY:

It's essential that your Depression Treatment Plan involves you retaliating against depression

at each of the five "battlegrounds" where it attacks you. It is not enough to retaliate against

depression at only two or three (e.g. by relying solely on medication and exercising). In order

to beat depression, you MUST fight back at all five battlegrounds.

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KEY INGREDIENT #2: Your Treatment

Plan Must Include Strategies That Help

You COPE With Depression - And Those

Strategies Must Be HEALTHY AND

NON-DESTRUCTIVE

Strategies that help you COPE with depression is another key ingredient that your Depression

Treatment Plan really needs to encompass – and by that, I mean strategies that help you deal

with the immediate symptoms of your depression to prevent them from crippling you.

For example, if you find yourself feeling really stressed out and overwhelmed, what are

some of the things you can do immediately that will help you calm down?

If you find yourself feeling so miserable that you’re unable to function, what are some of

the things you can do immediately in order to give yourself a boost and feel a bit better?

If you’ve just been triggered by an unpleasant experience at work or a painful interaction

with a toxic person, then what can you do immediately to distract yourself from the incident –

so that it doesn’t go on to ruin the rest of your day (or week … or month)?

If you find yourself feeling really scared and vulnerable, what is something you can

do immediately to make yourself feel a little bit safer?

The “answers” for how to “cope” in these situations – and for how to deal with all of

the other immediate symptoms of depression – will be different for different people. For

example:

When they’re feeling overwhelmed, their heads are spinning and they can’t make any

sense of their thoughts, some people find that journalling gives them immediate relief – by

helping them to organise their thoughts and be able to make sense of them.

When their depression’s suffocating them and they feel desperate for a break, some

people get immediate relief from going for a run or playing their favourite sport – because it

gets them out of their head and releases endorphins. Others get a much-needed boost from

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listening to classical music, watching a couple of episodes of their favourite television show,

reading a book, calling up a friend or having a bubble bath with incense.

When they’re having trouble sleeping at night, some people get immediate relief from

meditating, or from doing another mindfulness exercise to help them calm down and eventually

drift off to sleep.

When they’re struggling with worrying thoughts, some people find it really helpful to

continuously repeat positive mantras, such as: “In one year, this won’t matter as much as I

think it does now … in one year, this won’t matter as much as I think it does now … in one

year, this won’t matter as much as I think it does now …”

When they’re struggling with feeling scared and overwhelmed, some people find it

really helpful to continuously repeat other positive affirmations, such as: “depression is strong

but I am stronger …depression is strong but I am stronger …” and then, “I have the strength

and resources I need to get through this … I have the strength and resources I need to get

through this …” and then, “my negative past is the fuel that will catapult me to a positive future

… my negative past is the fuel that will catapult me to a positive future …”

When they’re experiencing “depression fog” or having an anxiety attack, some people

get immediate relief from doing a “grounding exercise” – like the one we posted on our

Facebook page below (that has since been shared over 1,500,000 times and reached over 100

million people ):

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Whether you employ the above examples or other equally positive, helpful strategies, it’s

essential that your Depression Treatment Plan includes a handful of ways to cope with

depression’s immediate symptoms. If it doesn’t, then you’re likely to find yourself feeling

continuously overwhelmed, continuously hopeless, extremely burned out, and constantly

suffocated by depression day-in and day-out.

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Your Coping Strategies Also Need To Be Healthy

And Non-Destructive

Now, not only is it essential that your depression treatment plan incorporates a variety of

strategies to help you cope with depression, it’s also essential that those coping strategies

are healthy – as opposed to being unhealthy and destructive.

To be perfectly clear, unhealthy and destructive behaviours are ones that, while they may

be effective in providing short-term relief from depression, in the long-run, ultimately lead to

adverse consequences. For example:

❌ Taking drugs or drinking alcohol may help to numb your misery in the short-term, but

beyond that, it leads to lowered energy levels; lowered motivation; damaged physical and

mental health; and quite possibly addiction and all of the problems associated with that.

❌ Watching too much pornography, while providing short-term relief, can also lead to an

unhealthy addiction that causes a slew of intimacy- and other relationship problems.

❌ Binge-eating, while also feeling pleasurable in the short-term, also has long-term health

ramifications such as weight gain and diabetes.

Not only that, but as we’ve hinted at, unhealthy and destructive coping strategies such as

these can easily become highly addictive, because the more you rely on them, the more

desensitized you become – and so, to get the same relief you did the first time around, you need

to up the intensity (e.g. consume more alcohol or drugs; watch more “extreme” porn and/or

watch it more often; or eat more and more comfort food). This of course accelerates the long-

term negative effects these unhealthy behaviours have on you, which can make you turn to

them even more, which causes even more negative long-term ramifications, which makes you

turn to them even more … and so the cycle goes and goes, and the worse your depression

ultimately becomes.

For this reason, it’s essential that your coping strategies are healthy and non-destructive like

we said.

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If You Already Have A Few Healthy, Non-

Destructive Coping Strategies, Then …

Based on your answers to the Depression Treatment Plan Quiz, you in all likelihood have at

least a couple of healthy strategies to help you cope with depression – and if that’s the case,

then congratulations However, you could still improve your treatment plan by

adding a few more coping strategies to your repertoire, because different coping

strategies suit different purposes.

For example:

❌ Journalling can be great for helping you to reduce overwhelm and to gain some

clarity over your thoughts – however, it’s not going to help prevent you from having an anxiety

meltdown five minutes before an important meeting with your boss. In this case, a quick

“grounding exercise” you can do on the spot would be much more beneficial.

❌ Repeating positive affirmations such as: “In one year, this won’t matter as much as

I think it does now … in one year, this won’t matter as much as I think it does now …” can

really help to calm you down. But, if what you need is to just forget about your worries and get

out of your head for a while, then going for a run while listening to your favourite music at

maximum volume will be much more effective.

So, even if you already know and implement a few different healthy, non-destructive

strategies to help you cope with depression, I really encourage you to try to learn a few more

– so that no matter what depressive symptom strikes you and no matter how difficult or

challenging any future situation you find yourself in happens to be, you know how to handle it

and prevent depression from crippling you

KEY TAKEAWAY:

It's essential that your Depression Treatment Plan includes strategies to help you cope with the

immediate symptoms of your depression – so that you can get some short-term relief from

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them, and to prevent those symptoms from completely overwhelming and suffocating you. Not

only that, but it's essential that those coping strategies are healthy and non-destructive - so that

despite giving you short-term relief, they don't have adverse consequences in the long-run.

Lastly, it's important to keep learning healthy coping strategies - so that you can be prepared

for whatever depression may throw at you.

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KEY INGREDIENT #3: In Addition To

Helping You Cope With Depression, Your

Treatment Plan Must Involve

Implementing Strategies That Help You

RECOVER From Depression

This is an extremely, extremely important area where, based on the answers

you gave in the quiz, your current depression treatment plan needs

improvement

Now, you may be wondering – what is the difference between coping with depression

and recovering from depression? Well, while strategies that help you cope with depression are

focused on dealing with the immediate symptoms of your depression to stop them from

crippling you, strategies focused on recovering from depression are all about dealing with

the underlying causes of your depression so that over time, the symptoms of your

depression become less and less intense, and ultimately, are no longer part of your life.

For example, if one of the underlying causes of your depression is low self-esteem, then a

“recovery strategy” would focus on building up your self-esteem.

If one of the underlying causes of your depression is thinking negatively, then a “recovery

strategy” would be geared towards training your brain to re-frame negative situations to see

them more positively, and to remove negativity from your life.

If one of the underlying causes of your depression is being in a toxic relationship, then a

“recovery strategy” would involve making the relationship healthier – or if that’s not possible,

distancing or extracting yourself from that relationship.

If one of the underlying causes of your depression is a traumatic event that happened in your

childhood, then a “recovery strategy” would involve helping you come to terms with this

traumatic event so that it doesn’t hold you back from living the life you deserve.

When it comes to each of these underlying causes of depression – as well as many others

like heartbreak or perfectionism – if they are never dealt with through one or more “recovery

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strategies”, then they will always be present, and therefore, they will always lead to depression.

It’s like if you have a broken leg: if you never get surgery to fix it, your leg will always be

broken – or at best, it will heal a little bit over time, but never close to completely, and never

in a way that that broken leg won’t trouble you. You might be able to “cope” with that broken

leg by using crutches, or by limping on your good leg to limit the pressure you put on your bad

leg – but without a clear strategy to recover (i.e. surgery), your broken leg will never, ever get

better. Well, the same goes for when you struggle with depression: this can be thought of as

having a “broken mind”, and while it’s essential to know how to cope with the immediate

symptoms of a broken mind so that those immediate symptoms don’t cripple you, it’s also

essential to address the underlying reasons why it’s broken – otherwise, it will not heal.

This is one of the most important things that the Depression Treatment Plan Quiz

tested – whether you were learning enough recovery strategies to help you address the

underlying causes of your depression. Based on your answers, I don’t believe you are, so

you really, really, REALLY need to address this in your revamped treatment plan.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

To improve your depression treatment plan, it's essential that you start to learn strategies that

not only help you COPE with depression, but that also help you RECOVER from depression.

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KEY INGREDIENT #4: An Effective

Treatment Plan Involves Implementing

The RIGHT Strategies At The RIGHT

Time

Since founding The Depression Project and interacting with thousands of its members, I’ve

realized that without knowing it, a lot of people sadly are not implementing the right strategies

at the right times. In particular, it’s been my observation that:

❌ Many people focus on recovering from depression when they should be focused

on coping with depression – which often leads to them feeling very burnt out, being completely

crippled by their immediate symptoms, and consequently concluding that recovery strategies

like cognitive behavioural therapy or acceptance and commitment therapy don’t work at all.

❌ Even more unfortunately, when people focus on coping at times when it’s in their best

interests to focus on recovering, then like we’ve said, by virtue of not dealing with the

underlying causes of their depression, their broken mind won’t heal – which leads them to

conclude that no matter what they do, that they are destined to be plagued by depression for

the rest of their life.

Based on your responses to the Depression Treatment Quiz, I’m concerned that at some

point, you’ve either thought, experienced or done something similar – even if not to such a

strong degree. If that’s the case, then I don’t blame you – not because coping strategies (or in

particular recovery strategies) “don’t work”, but rather, because there’s very little guidance on

how to apply them at the right times. Consequently, through no fault of your own, you’ve in

all likelihood applied them at some of the wrong times, and when they inevitably haven’t

worked, you may’ve concluded that the strategies themselves don’t work – or that you’re a

failure for not being able to make them work – and either way, that you’re condemned to having

to battle depression for the rest of your life.

But NONE of this is true. Here’s what is:

1. You are not a failure, and coping and recovering strategies do work – they just may not

have for you yet because in all likelihood, no one has ever shown you when to apply

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them, based on your current capacity for action and the current intensity of your

symptoms.

2. Once recovery strategies like cognitive behavioural therapy and others are applied

based on your current capacity for action and the current intensity of your symptoms,

they will work, and you can then take back control of your life from depression.

To help you instantly know how to use the exact right strategy at the exact right time, I’ve

created The Depression Traffic Lights Framework.

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Red Zone

This is when the symptoms of your depression are very intense, and metaphorically speaking,

you feel like you’re drowning. When this is how you feel, your capacity to do things like

exercise or learn new “recovery strategies” like how to challenge negative thoughts is low, so

your objective should be healthy, non-destructive “coping strategies” that make you feel safe

and comfortable. Like we’ve previously talked about, these may include:

Doing something that brings you pleasure – such as watching your favourite television

show, playing with your cat, or listening to classical music.

Journalling.

Positive affirmations.

Talking to a close friend or a loved one who’s really good at distracting you or giving

you a boost.

The grounding exercise I touched upon to help you deal with “depression fog” or an

anxiety attack.

Orange Zone

This zone is categorized by moderate depressive symptoms, and instead of drowning, you feel

like you’re “treading water”. When you’re in this state, you have more capacity for action and

growth than you do when you’re in the “Red Zone”, so instead of comfort eating or watching

television in bed, the best thing you can do for yourself is turn to a more proactive “coping

strategy”, such as:

Going for a run or playing your favourite sport;

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Meditation or a mindfulness exercise.

Additionally, when you’re in the “Orange Zone”, it’s also an ideal time to learn and/or

implement relatively simple “recovery strategies”, such as:

How to combat worrying thoughts by challenging their validity, searching for a more

positive/accurate way to view the situation/circumstance that you’re worrying about, or asking

yourself: “if a friend was in my position, would I be catastrophizing their situation in the same

way that I’m catastrophizing my own?”

You could learn some simple strategies to help you avoid common negative thinking

patterns like “black or white thinking” or “filter thinking”.

You could learn some simple techniques to help you cope with feeling overwhelmed –

such as how to break down big tasks into a handful of smaller, more manageable ones; and

how to accept what you can and can’t do.

Green Zone

You can be said to be in the “Green Zone” when at present, your depressive symptoms are mild

and you feel alright – or to continue our metaphor, when you feel like you’re “floating on the

water”. In such a state, you have much more capacity for action and growth than you do when

you’re in the “Red” or “Orange Zones” – and for this reason, it’s important to take advantage

of that energy by learning and implementing “recovery strategies” that help you deal with the

underlying causes of your depression. For example:

Learning how to re-train your brain to love yourself for healthy reasons – as opposed to

loving yourself for unhealthy reasons or not loving yourself at all.

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Developing a plan of action for how to effectively deal with – or extract yourself from

– a toxic situation.

Learning how to deal with a traumatic past event, so that it doesn’t continue triggering

you again and again.

KEY POINT #1: Why Therapy, Self-Help Books,

And Other “Recovery Strategies” May Not Have

Worked For You In The Past

Psychotherapuetic techniques that help you re-train your brain to love yourself for healthy

reasons, for example, are akin to learning how to ride a bike: in time they become easy,

extremely useful skills to have – but at the start they’re tricky and require a lot of focus. For

this reason, they should primarily be learned in the “Green Zone”, when your depressive

symptoms are mild and your capacity for action and growth is high. However, what a lot of

people with depression do is try to first learn psychotherapeutic techniques and other recovery

strategies while they’re in the “Red Zone”. In this case, though, it’s highly unlikely that such

techniques will work, because at that point in time, your symptoms are too crippling, and

your capacity is too low to be able to effectively comprehend and apply them.

It’s like if a cyclone hits a village: while it’s swirling through the streets and destroying

everything in its path, the best thing you can do is to find somewhere safe to hide – not start

trying to rebuild the houses that have just been knocked down.

Well, the same thing goes for depression: when you’re in the “Red Zone”, your objective

should be safety and comfort – NOT learning complex psychotherapeutic techniques for the

very first time. Like I’ve said, if you try to learn such techniques at that time, they’re not going

to work, and then you’ll conclude that the techniques themselves don’t work or that you’re a

“failure” for not being able to make them work – when really, you’ve just tried to learn them

at the incorrect time ❌❌

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KEY POINT #2: Why You May Find Yourself In

The “Red” And The “Orange Zones”, And Have

Perhaps Falsely Convinced Yourself That

Depression Is A Part Of You And That You’ll Never

Overcome It

Like I’ve said, when you’re in the “Green Zone” with mild depressive symptoms and at your

maximum capacity for action and growth, the best thing you can do for yourself is to learn

psychotherapeutic techniques and other skills that will empower you to combat your depression

and to eventually overcome it. However, what many people primarily do instead is the same

things they were doing in the “Orange” and “Red Zones”, when they had a low capacity for

action and growth – such as binge-watching TV, and other things that give them comfort. This

is a MAJOR problem, because if you’re always prioritizing comfort and safety and you never

prioritize action and growth, then you will never develop the skills and insights you need to

overcome your depression. Instead, to continue our previous metaphor, you’ll stay “floating on

the water” until you’re inevitably confronted by one of life’s challenges – at which point, you’ll

find yourself begin to struggle (i.e. slip back into the “Orange Zone”), or even worse, begin to

drown (i.e. slip all the way back into the “Red Zone”).

In this way, you’ll find yourself continuously trapped in depression – not because

depression is impossible to overcome, but rather, because during the times when you were in

the “Green Zone”, you prioritized comfort instead of action and growth.

KEY TAKEAWAY

If you don't implement the right strategies at the right times (i.e. in alignment with your current

capacity for action and the current intensity of your symptoms), your depression will get worse

over time. On the other hand, if you instead implement strategies that are appropriate for the

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Zone you're in, they'll actually be effective - and thereby result in you winning the war against

depression and seizing control of your life back from it!

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So … What Now?

In order to overcome depression, it’s essential that moving forwards, you improve your

Depression Treatment Plan by implementing the four key ingredients that we’ve just discussed.

To quickly re-cap:

1. Your depression treatment plan must involve fighting back against depression at

each of the FIVE BATTLEGROUNDS where it attacks you (the “situations

battleground”, “thoughts battleground”, “emotions battleground”, “behaviours

battleground” and the “physical reactions battleground”).

2. It must incorporate healthy, non-destructive strategies that help you COPE with

depression – so that you can get some short-term relief from your symptoms, instead

of feeling continuously overwhelmed and suffocated by them. Even if you already

know a few, it’s helpful to add some more to your repertoire – because different ones

are preferable in different circumstances.

3. It must also include strategies that help you RECOVER from depression – or in

other words, strategies that help you combat and overcome the UNDERLYING

CAUSES of your depression, to prevent them from forever being able to trigger you.

4. For your “coping strategies” to be effective, for your “recovery strategies” to be

effective, and for your retaliation against depression at each of the “five battlegrounds”

to be effective, it’s critical that you pay heed to the Depression Traffic Lights, and

make sure that you’re implementing the right strategy for the “zone” you’re

in (“comfort strategies” for the “Red Zone”; more proactive “coping strategies” or

relatively simple “recovery strategies” for the “Orange Zone”; and more involved

“recovery strategies” for the “Green Zone”).

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The Depression Bootcamp

If after completing the Depression Treatment Quiz and reading this far, you feel confident that

you’ll be able to improve your Depression Treatment Plan by integrating each of these four

ingredients, then that’s absolutely fantastic! However, if the idea of improving your

Depression Treatment Plan in this way – let alone implementing such a treatment plan – feels

intimidating, overwhelming or confusing to you, then I’ll be able to help you through The

Depression Project’s Depression Bootcamp

For your convenience, the Depression Bootcamp is hosted completely online, and

throughout the course of its 6 week duration, you will learn:

The coping and recovery strategies you need to know in order to fight back against

depression at each of the five “battlegrounds” where it attacks you.

In line with the Depression Traffic Lights Framework, you’ll learn how to implement

the right coping/recovery strategy at the right time – which will ensure that all the strategies

you learn will actually be effective.

In this way, the Depression Bootcamp was created to help you develop and implement

an extremely effective Depression Treatment Plan – which you can then follow to seize

control of your life back from depression.

To find out more about the Depression Bootcamp, visit our website at

https://depressiontrafficlights.com/bootcamp, or click the logo below

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I’d love to see you inside the Bootcamp, so that we can work together to help you overcome

depression. Whether you choose to join or not, though, I hope you found this e-book helpful,

and I wish you the very best in your fight against depression