Apr 27, 2010
19 tips if you’re depressed
Advice from Sydney Smith (And why wouldn’t you want the advice of a man most famous for his poetic salad dressing recipe?):
1. Live as well as you dare.
2. Go into the shower bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold, 75 or 80 degrees.
3. Amusing books.
4. Short views of human life—not further than dinner or tea.
5. Be as busy as you can.
6. See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you.
7. See as much as you can of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8. Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely—they are always worse for dignified concealment.
9. Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you.
10. Compare your lot with that of other people.
11. Don’t expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best.
12. Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy, sentimental people, and everything likely to excite feeling or emotion, not ending in active benevolence.
13. Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree.
14. Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15. Make the room where you commonly sit gay and pleasant.
16. Struggle by little and little against idleness.
17. Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18. Keep good blazing fires.
19. Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
(via Alan Jacobs and The American Journal of Nursing, Vol 9)
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Gosh I love number eleven. haha
Thanks for posting this… that’s good stuff for life in general, not just for avoiding depression.
Also loved #11 and #12 – add do not read newspapers cover to cover toooooo much these days.
You forgot Prozac. Better living through pharmaceuticals.
Absolutely. I imagine that would be #19 if he’d written this several decades later.
Smith died in 1845, so given that fluoxetine (Prozac) wasn’t discovered until 1970… I don’t think it was on his radar.
Then again, radio detection and ranging was first used in 1904, also after Smith’s death — so I guess it’s fair to say that nothing was on his radar.
Ha!
Well played, sir. Well played, indeed.
12. Avoid…everything likely to excite feeling or emotion, **not ending in active benevolence.**
That last part is wise. I know that I–in general, and especially when struggling with depression–need to put more emphasis on *embodiment*.
Flags should go up when I’m all detached brain/emotion. And when I’m not connected to others in practical ways.
4. Short views of human life—-not further than dinner or tea.
Refreshing, crucial, challenging for me to do.
This is awesome!! I love it!
#8 is my favorite.
Yes and being that this was before the Prozac days, people were still using other sorts of plant medicinals to relieve their mental anguish. Now it just comes conveniently packaged and in pill form, but the purpose is the same.
So Looney Tunes will help…ok. But define “rational religion”? See
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 ; )
19! lol also, blazing fires are the best :)
wondered about the comparing your lot to others one… depends on which others you’re using, doesn’t it?
“be firm & constant… rational religion” being invloved and sure of your beliefs but probably not going too extreme in legalism considering the times it was written in – at least that’s what I get out of #19
Follow the instructions given in the book of Proverbs with frequent and fervent prayer.
If anyone is struggling in their life, look to God. Jesus Christ is real! He lives and He Saves and He can turn your life around for the better!