Working at Home on Your Computer, Your Health, and How to Fight Depression Before it Happens
My rant today is about how to fight depression with preventive measures when you are a person that works at home and work too much. Internet marketers who work at home are at risk of poor health if they have no boundaries between “work” life and “home” life.
I have always struggled with this. I could be sitting and watching TV and say to myself, “This is boring. There’s nothing on TV worth watching. I’m going to go get my laptop.” I get started writing an article. I get fired up. I end up staying up later than I should because I am not winding down. I’m letting work intrude on an evening that is supposed to be “time off.”
“What’s wrong with that?” you ask. Good question, especially since you can be really productive ( in the short term) when you work insane hours. I suppose that when a psychologist uses the words “insane hours” it could have another meaning, but I just mean working too much.
The point in all of this is that if you have an internet business and work at home, you have to impose some strict routines on yourself for exercise, rest, eating, socializing (NOT on the web), running errands, and … (drum roll, please) going to the doctor at least once a year to have an annual physical exam. Doing this is not only a good habit for good health, but it helps cope with one of the occupational hazards of the internet marketing crowd: depression. Getting regular “well” visits to your physician is how to fight depression before it becomes and issue.
Self-Care, How to Fight Depression, and Learning from History
In the 1980s I worked as a software engineer for a major computer company. At that time, it was a common joke in the office to point out the super-hero programmers who worked ridiculous hours and always came in on Saturday. Not that I knew first hand that they worked all day Saturday. By had friends who told me these things. These were the serious engineering techies that experienced a deep thrill when a new C++ compiler would be released for the Mac. Today we might call them nerds.
One of the prevalent sayings at the time was, “Real Programmers Don’t Eat Quiche.” Instead, the stereotypical image of a “real” programmer was an unshaven, brilliant, 20 or 30 something man with vending machine wrappers littered around his desk and computer terminal. He rarely went out for lunch with everyone. No, he was important. He had important tasks to finish. World peace depended on it. Besides. real programmer don’t go out to lunch and they don’t eat quiche. Quiz question for you: Do you think these real programmers went to their doctor once per year for annual physical?
So after all this long rambling I am finally getting to the point of this article: Go to your doctor for a physical exam once per year whether you think you need it or not. And when you are feeling burnt out, discouraged, or frustrated for more than a few weeks, then go see the doctor right away. You could be experiencing the signs and symptoms of depression without thinking of it in that way.
Six Questions to Ask Your Doctor
The first thing to do is to schedule an appointment with the family doctor for a complete physical. This is important because there are many possible physical conditions that can generate the signs and symptoms of depression. A strenuous learning curve for how to fight depression may not be necessary if the signs and symptoms of depression that you are experiencing are caused by a hormone deficiency, for example.
How Sad When the Computer is Down!
There are specific questions you need to ask your doctor.
QUESTION 1: During the examination, say to the physician, “I’m wondering if I have the symptoms of depression. What do you think?” This will ensure that part of the physician’s time will be spent having a simple discussion with you about what you are experiencing and discuss how to fight depression in a clear, straightforward manner.
It’s useful to understand a little about the purpose of lab work. A standard part of an annual physical examination is to send a sample of your blood to the lab for various tests. There are always scores of different tests that the doctor does NOT order the lab to do because of the added expense (for the insurance company or for you) and because many conditions represented by those added tests are relatively rare.
TIP: it’s best to ask the question about depression near the beginning of the exam, especially before the doctor orders the routine lab tests. The reason for this is simple. There are various conditions such a anemia or low thyroid that can produce depression symptoms.
Asking about depression near the beginning of the exam allows your doctor to order additional tests on the blood sample that is drawn from you. When you are thinking about how to fight depression, take one of the easier steps right away and ask for a photocopy of the actual numbers of your lab results.
Once it has been diagnosed, the challenge of how to fight depression becomes easier to map out. This naturally leads to the next question to ask your doctor during your physical examination. QUESTION 2: Ask the doctor, “Do you know of a good psychologist or therapist that I could meet with for an evaluation?” TIP: although clinical depression is a medical condition, it can be caused by non medical factors that can easily escape the notice of someone lacking specialized training.
QUESTIONS 3: Additionally, ask the doctor, “Can you explain which antidepressant medications seem to work the best for your patients?” QUESTION 4: “If medication is what your patients choose for how to fight depression, what have you found are the pros and cons of the main antidepressants?” TIP: ask this followup question, mentioning specific medications by name. For example, “Can you explain to me the benefits and side-effects of Zoloft, Lexapro, and Cymbalta?
Mentioning the medications by name is important if you are in an HMO insurance plan because doctors are sometimes restricted from telling you about the more expensive medications unless you specifically ask. Also, keep in mind that when someone starts a course of treatment with medication, it will take some time (at least a few weeks) to start feeling the positive effects of the medication.
QUESTION 5: Also ask, “Are you comfortable prescribing these medications?” This is important because not all general practitioners have as much training as they would like in order to monitor medication for depression.
TIP: Before you actually meet with your physician for the exam, make a short list of these questions and others. Depression makes concentration and memory temporarily less reliable and more frustrating. A simple list will ensure that you ask all the questions you had been thinking about beforehand.
A final question can be asked just before you leave. QUESTION 6: “Is there anything else you can tell me about how to fight depression?” If you ask these six questions you will have made a good start in learning how to fight depression and as well as acting on what you have learned. Also, additional tips on how to fight depression can be found at a more specialized website.
