It’s getting lighter in the morning, the evenings are drawing out too, and as the season progresses, so also brings the Philosopher-In-Residence winter mental health series to a close with this edition.

Feeling blue is common parlance, but I wanted to use today’s blog to probe a little deeper  about what that actually means. I’ll talk a little about the emotions and thoughts that might be occupying your mind if you’re feeling blue, and as ever, share some MMAP-curated ideas to deploy as coping strategies.

Joylessness

This is one of the most frequently experienced attributes of feeling blue. So you’re not alone, although you’re probably feeling very much alone. Joylessness is when you wake up each morning, feeling pretty “meh” about the day (it’s a technical term). Joylessness is having little or zero interest in what the day might hold. Joylessness is when you find it really hard, or nigh impossible, to forge a positive emotional reaction to things that happen.

Countering Joylessness

When you are fully in the grips of bluesy joylessness, focusing on yourself is often the last thing you want to dedicate time to. So trick that unhappy brain of yours and focus on other people. This will take your mind off feeling blue and reactivate the part of your brain that usually thrives on being creative and engaging with life.

Choose one person you know, and one method of communication that you don’t use that often these days (for most people that’s going to be a letter or a postcard, or perhaps speaking on the phone rather than messaging). Use that method of communication to let them know something nice – this could be what they mean to you, a reflection on  a shared memory, that knowing hey are in your life helps you, even if they don’t realise it. You can continue to use this technique with as many others as you like.

Helplessness

This unwelcome construct regularly goes hand-in-hand with joylessness. Helplessness is when you don’t feel able to access things you normally have little or no problem doing. This could be tackling a project at work, making a phone call, going out in public with your head held up. Helplessness is when you observe a fundamental change to your desire, or perceived ability to cope with things, but don’t feel able to do anything about this at the moment.

Countering Helplessness

This particular uninvited guest tends to be one of the last to leave the party. It will take a while for helplessness to fade, when you are feeling really blue. There’s no point pretending that there is a magic wand (although, if you’re feeling blue, you probably don’t conceive this could ever change right now, so the good news is, this IS definitely temporary).

To counter helplessness, it will really help to start accumulating evidence against said intruder. Start a list – if you feel able to add a few things each time you come back to the list, that’s great, if not, just one thing still assists. This list should include clear, specific accounts of things you’ve done, where you didn’t feel helpless and actually, did a damn fine job of handling what life had chucked at you. This could be anything from having a baby, to standing up to an unpleasant manager at work, to recovering from an illness. You don’t have to put yourself under any pressure to feel like this again, but you should read and re-read your evidence list regularly. The concept of capability will slowly sink back in as you escape the clutches of feeling blue.

When you’re taken prisoner by the blues, life can seem very muted and gloomy. I sincerely hope that the above techniques will be of help, if you are feeling bluesy this winter.

Make Me A Plan shares as many useful links as possible to other organisations that can help, if you are suffering from adverse mental health. Please do always have a conversation with a medical professional, if you start to think about harming yourself.

One day, it will be as okay to  mention in passing conversation that your mental health is suffering a bit at the moment, as it is currently to tell other people that you have a cold.

We will keep working towards that aim and we hope you feel able to look forward to that time too.

Next fortnight, I’ll be musing On Strength. Please get in touch with any particular aspects of this topic you’d like me to write about.

In the meantime,

Happy Planning