The scientific evidence is clear: The best way to treat depressive or anxious symptoms and improve your overall mental health is to combine medication with your own lifestyle behavior changes.
Stress is a common factor in depressive and anxious symptoms, and for many of us, it can impact our day-to-day lives tremendously. Did you know that a stress response is wired into us biologically as a way to protect us? While we’re not running away from lions, tigers, and bears in the wild anymore like our ancestors did, a moderate amount of stress motivates us and makes us more productive.
When we think about ways to address stress in our lives, it’s important to remember that we’re not trying to eliminate it entirely. Rather, we want to set a realistic target for ourselves, and introduce simple, yet powerful behaviors to help us achieve that target.
We can actually put stress to work for us! Stress that feels manageable and is beneficial looks like the top of the curve below. At that point, we are neither under-motivated by too little stress nor stuck and unable to function by overwhelming stress. Maybe you experienced this kind of motivating stress the last time you were incredibly efficient going grocery shopping or writing a set of emails because you didn’t want to be late to your next activity.