15 Things Depression Will Convince You to Do That Usually Make It Worse

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If you are in a depressive episode right now and your first instinct is to tear everything down and start over, that instinct is probably going to make things worse. The urge to overhaul your entire life during a depressive episode makes a certain kind of sense in the moment. Depression is disorienting. It feels like evidence that something has gone deeply wrong. But acting on those urges often does more damage than the episode itself.

If you have a cyclical mood disorder, episodes are going to happen. They can become less frequent, less severe, and shorter in duration with the right support. But they may not disappear entirely. That is not pessimism. That is the framework that keeps you from burning your life down every time one hits.

1. Mess With Your Values

Depression has a way of making you feel like the life you built is the problem. The first severe episode I had, I pulled away from my family because I genuinely thought being family-oriented was what was making me feel that way. It was not. It was the depression. The logic of "I feel terrible, therefore I must be living wrong" is a distortion called the just world fallacy, and it is not a reliable guide for life decisions. Do not let an episode rewrite what you stand for.

2. Quit Your Job

Stress absolutely worsens depression, and most of us carry a lot of it at work. But quitting impulsively during an episode is rarely the right move. A leave of absence, whether that is FMLA or short-term disability, gives you time to pursue treatment without closing a door that may be hard to reopen later. You may eventually decide to leave. Just do not make that call while you are in the middle of an episode.

3. Go Off Your Medications

Experiencing a depressive episode while on medication does not mean the medication is not working. Stopping it abruptly during an episode means you are now dealing with psychiatric withdrawal on top of everything else, and that combination almost always creates a new low you have never felt before. Talk to your provider. Make a plan. Do not handle it on your own.

4. Quit Therapy

The fact that you are still struggling does not mean therapy is doing nothing. You are comparing yourself today to yourself yesterday, but you do not have access to the alternate version of you who never started. If anything, the middle of an episode is the time to go more often, not less. If your current approach is not working, consider changing the therapist or the modality before walking away entirely.

8. Abandon Your Hobbies

When anhedonia sets in, doing the things you normally love stops feeling rewarding. So you stop doing them. But when you stop entirely, you extend the episode because there is no longer any moment where joy could break through, even briefly. Pick one thing. Do it for ten minutes. Not because it will feel good right away, but so that when the episode starts to lift, you will actually know.

9. Use Food as a Crutch in Either Direction

Food becomes complicated during a depressive episode in two opposite ways, and both cause damage. Some people overeat because food is the one sensory input that still works when everything else feels numb. The problem is that binge eating pulls blood flow away from the brain to manage digestion, tanks your energy, and layers guilt and shame on top of an episode that is already heavy enough.

On the other side, some people stop eating almost entirely because appetite disappears and meals feel like a thankless chore. When that happens, your brain goes into a kind of low power mode. It does not have the caloric energy it needs to regulate your emotions, produce motivation, or think clearly. Set timers for meals if you have to. Stick with safe foods. Eat anyway.

10. Only Consume Media That Matches How You Feel

There is some relief in dark, heavy media when you are depressed. It feels validating. But marinating entirely in nihilistic content just reinforces what depression is already telling you. Make room for something that reflects how you want to feel, not just how you feel right now. It does not have to be cheerful. It just needs to have some thread of strength or forward motion in it.

11. Turn to Drugs and Alcohol

The appeal is straightforward. You need a quick win and your options feel slim. But drugs and alcohol borrow against your neurotransmitter function and disrupt the sleep, appetite, and energy regulation you are already fighting to hold onto. The cost always comes back higher than what you borrowed, and it also interferes with any medication you are currently taking.

12. Shop or Gamble Impulsively

A purchase might blunt the edge for ten minutes. By the time you get home, it has worn off and you are still in the episode, just with less money. The one exception is a purchase that genuinely enables a new hobby or meaningful activity. Wandering into a store with no purpose and looking for something to want is creating a problem that only money can temporarily solve.

13. Blame Yourself

There is a difference between having agency over your mental health and being personally responsible for every episode. You can do everything right and still have a bad stretch. Your brain is wired a little differently, and sometimes it is just going to be like that for a period. Blaming yourself for the episode does not shorten it. It just adds another layer to push through.

14. Stop Moving Your Body

When your motivation drops, physical activity usually drops with it. That is understandable. But being sedentary reduces blood and oxygen flow to the brain and makes every depressive symptom harder to manage. If an hour at the gym is too much, do fifteen minutes. Just do not let it reach zero, because physical activity is one of the most reliable protective factors against future episodes, and it is far easier to maintain a reduced routine than to restart from nothing.

15. Give Up

Episodes end. That is not something depression will tell you when you are in the middle of one, because your brain is pulling up every memory of struggle and using it as evidence that this is permanent. It is not.

I spent a significant stretch of my younger years with maybe one or two weeks a year where I felt okay. The rest of the time I was in it. That ratio has shifted dramatically over time, not because I found a magic solution, but because I kept doing the unglamorous work of holding the line, even when it felt pointless. Right now, most of my year is asymptomatic. Episodes still come. They are shorter and milder than they used to be. That shift is real and it is possible for you too, but it does not happen overnight and it does not happen by waiting.

The Thread Running Through All of This

Depression will tell you to align with it. It will make quitting feel logical, isolation feel safe, and giving up feel like the only honest response to the situation. Every single one of those signals is the depression talking, and every time you do the opposite, even badly and reluctantly, you are limiting what it has to work with.

You are not going to feel motivated to do most of these things. That is the point. Motivation follows action, not the other way around. You get out of bed before you feel like it. You eat before you are hungry. You text someone back before you feel social. The feeling comes after, not before, and sometimes it does not come at all during an episode. That is okay. You are still moving in the right direction.

Hold the line on the basics. Stay in treatment. Keep your body moving. Do not let depression rewrite your life while you are in the middle of an episode. The version of you on the other side of this is worth protecting right now.

(If this post hit home, you’ll probably connect with my new book, The Light Between the Leaves. It’s a practical guide for the days when “try harder” stops working.

→ Learn more here)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDprdIvb2XU

-Scott

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FAQ

Q: Can anxiety routines be a sign of depression?Yes. Many people with high-functioning depression use anxiety routines as coping strategies. These routines often mask deeper struggles but also keep people stuck.

Q: What’s the difference between healthy preparation and an anxiety routine?Preparation helps you engage with life. Anxiety routines prevent you from living it. The difference is whether the habit expands or shrinks your world.

Q: What if I’ve tried therapy and it hasn’t helped?You’re not broken. Traditional therapy often overlooks people who need practical, science-based strategies. That’s why I share tools that most mental health providers aren’t teaching.