How A Muslim Should Cope With Depression

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By definition, depression is sadness, feeling down, having a loss of interest in the pleasure of doing daily activities

For me, depression always leads to some kind of bad feelings, such as irritability and anger. The brain also 'talks' a lot and people who are depressed will tend to make the wrong choice. Eventually, he or she will irritate people especially the people who are close to him or her. The women also twice as likely to experience depression compared to the men, according to statistics

During the depression cycle, even the slightest mistake or perhaps something that irritates a person with mental illness or depression will trigger great emotional despair which leads them to cry. As if all of the problems in life suddenly brought together in the person's mind, which boost the negative emotions. People who suffered from depression will then resort to retreat to their safe bubble, away from people. Perhaps one of the things that they can do is to focus on something so that all the 'talks' in the mind disappear for a while. For example, watching comedies, playing online games etc. they will try to avoid contact with another person as any conversation or question will only cause more pressure on them. 
However, being alone is not really the best solution. Some people get so distressed when they stay in a place too long, doing the same thing over and over again. If there is an event that caused them to be sad, sometimes it leads to depression. 
My first experience with depression was on early to mid-2016. At that time, I never knew I have it. What I noticed, I frequently visit the doctor for having fever 1-2 times a month. But since I didn't know what I have been feeling was actually a type of mental illness, I resorted to doing things which will hurt the people I love. But when the cycle ended, I became normal. But I can assure you that most of the time, I am having it. Things get better when I started to contemplate and acknowledge my sickness. But the best therapy I would say is the Musyaf Tajwid I bought back then.  I rarely open the Quran previously, but my sickness made me fall in love with the Quran =) Miraculously, it did help me to recover. But just so you know that the people who live with you must realize the problems you are having because if they don't understand, things will only get to worst. Trust me

After some time, this year, the illness gets it's way back to me. What I am scared the most is when I am prone to hurt the feelings of the people I love. 
But today I learnt the greatest lesson in life combatting depression. The dzikr that we Muslim recite after solah is actually the best remedy for depression. How

When we are having depression, the overwhelming sadness will resort to us blaming our creator, believe it or not. Questions like why why and why.... never stops lurking in the mind. Eventually, we will feel hopeless and thought of things such as its ok, You are the God, just punish me or whatsoever, I just follow what is destined to be in my path, since YOU are GOD (cynically)

But if you have faith in this religion, somehow there will be bad whispers as well as good whispers. If you listen carefully to the good whispers, you might end up trying something (du'a) or istighfar. What happened to me, when the calling for doing good is louder than the negative thoughts, I remembered an Ustaz advise to recite istighfar many times as He promised to lift the burden and replace it with good things. So after prayer, I focused on the du'a solely for Him to lift my bad feelings and depression, just let me think clearly just for this once. Then I continued with the zikir.

Subhanallah (Maha Suci Allah) 33x
Alhamdulillah (Syukur pada Allah) 33x Allahuakbar (Allah Maha Besar. 33x
When I did my zikir, I questioned myself, what is actually the meaning of Subhanallah. I know that it means Allah is free from any errors, or deficiency. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks by realizing that it has been my fault for blaming Him on my conditions all this while. While He is the god, free from any deficiency, how can a servant like me think badly of my creator?? Then I continued the zikir and it did relief my depression by admitting my mistakes and I should never think of that ever again. So the depression reduced by 1/3

Then it comes to the Alhamdulillah. The meaning was easier to comprehend compared to Subhanallah. As I noticed when we are thankful for His blessing that we already have, great families support, good friends who always ask for my conditions, have a home and every day I get to eat great meals. I just thought, well, thank you, Allah. Whatever I have now is what I have been asking for all this while. Then I smile, then I notice more burden was lifted, I feel more relief. So a total of 2/3 of the depression vanished from my mind. 
And the last part was Allahuakbar. This is also easy to comprehend according to my situation because, as He is the Greatest, He is capable of putting anyone into troubles or depression, and can easily remove it away from us. So by thinking that He is the greatest, only to Him I ask for help, with 100% trust. Then all of my depression (3/3) went away just like that

Alhamdulillah for His blessing by answering my du'a so fast. Probably because its the month of Ramadhan. And I also noticed that my depression starts to hit me back because I never get out of the house to look at nature like I did previously because I was so focused doing my work and looking at the laptop screen all the times. So today, instead of doing tarawikh at home alone for the past 26 days, I started to follow my family to tarawikh in the masjid, where I felt a new kind of positive energy, great energy of positivity =D

"But whosoever turns away from My Message, verily for him is a life narrowed down, and We shall raise him up blind on the Day of Judgment." (20:124)

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