There are several reasons why spending time with animals helps with depression. Animal lovers and pet owners often say that their animal companions are good therapy for their mental health, but spending time with animals could have benefits beyond contact with the animals. Animals may help with depression, and it's a great idea to find out how it works. 

Do you use disablist language without realizing it? The language we use when discussing mental health matters because language can stigmatize people with mental illness. Words have the power to make someone feel included or excluded. Choice of language in a conversation about mental health can impact how accepted (or unaccepted) a person living with a mental illness feels. Let's explore disablist language and eliminate it from our vocabularies.

Depression affects decision around parenthood. Decisions about if and/or when to become a parent are already tricky. Lots of us think about issues like financial security, career, age and whether or not we feel ready for parenthood, because parenting is hard. For those of us with mental health challenges, including depression, decisions about parenthood can be fraught with complexity .

Dealing with depression is difficult enough when everything in your life is going swimmingly but what about coping with depression and adversity? How do we cope with adversity and depression at the same time?

Creating a wellness plan to prevent depression and depressive episodes is easier said than done. But having a wellness plan that can help you recognize the symptoms of depression and encourage you to use your depression coping skills can go a long way. Here's how to create a wellness plan to prevent depression.

It's not always easy to take the first steps towards seeking help for depression, or, indeed, any other mental health problem. But it's important not to cope with depression alone. Having the right medical and/or therapeutic help in place will help your chances of depression recovery. You need to understand the importance of seeking help for depression.

I use running to fight depression. When getting out of bed feels like a physical challenge, lacing up your running shoes and going for a jog is probably the last thing you want to do. I felt that way until I discovered just how powerful running can be to fight the symptoms of depression. 

I like Facebook, but, unfortunately, too much Facebook can actually worsen depression. Living with depression can make you feel lonely, and social media can be a useful tool for keeping up your interactions with others, especially when you’re not getting out much. But, there’s a downside too. A worsening of depression can come from too much Facebook.

For the longest time, I thought I was just a sensitive, moody girl who had been battered by bad luck. I didn’t think I was depressed because reasons to be sad were always around. Throughout my 20s, I experienced a handful of family tragedies, lots of death, and my fair share of broken relationships. When a psychiatrist said that I had depression and anxiety, I felt I had earned my Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnosis the way one earns a graduate degree. I had a masters in sadness. I figured I would always listen to Elliott Smith and read Virginia Woolf's novels. Depression was in my bones. Instead, not long after I began treatment for depression, I discovered that my feelings were symptoms of an illness, not personality traits. Happiness had been inside of me all along.

Perfectionism and depression are common and I know this because my name’s Liz, and I’m a perfection-a-holic. I suspect that my unrelenting standards (mostly applied to myself) might be linked more than I care to admit to my long term depression. I suspect my perfectionism comes with my depression.