Depression and anxious emotional responses are things all people have to deal with in times of stress or non-ideal circumstances. But when these feelings to start to take over your life, they can place you in the center of a self-destructive cycle. Don't let depressive feelings tell you how to live your own life - instead, use these six tips to fight back.

Tend Your Body to Treat Your Mind
In the internet age, it's easy to forget the many, subtle influences of the body on its owner's mental state. The medical industry has long known that semi-regular exercise has an enormous positive influence on fighting depression. There's no need to run a marathon every day, even just an occasional walk can be an enormous boost.

Organize Your Life and Abide By It
Just as plants have grown to require the cycle of the seasons as part of their life cycles, human beings respond well to environments with at least a bare minimum of organization. Give yourself tasks to do at set times each day, and hold yourself to it. These micro-goals will form a solid foundation for larger plans.

Keep It Fresh
Although a routine is part of a healthy life, your brain also craves excitement and exploration of new ideas and environments. Try to do something new every once in a while. It can be learning a little HTML tutorial or even just playing a new card game, you'll benefit from a natural dopamine increase either way.

Talk To A Professional
One secret of depression is that it's actually a condition that responds extremely well to treatment. Depression can also stem from addictions or past troubles. Counseling can help you in a variety of ways, according to the experts at The C Stone Group. Therapists have successfully researched means of treating even severe, chronic depression with success rates of eighty percent. However, it's important to find a therapeutic strategy that fits your personal needs. Cognitive therapeutic strategies, for example, may work exceedingly well on one depressive patient while failing at treating another with wholly different causes and issues.

Take Responsibilities to Be Responsible
You may feel as though you're not reliable or competent enough to take on common responsibilities, but staying away from new things only heightens anxiety over them. Force yourself to take responsibility for chores that need to be done, and you'll give yourself positive reinforcement when you succeed - making the next time go even smoother.

Nature's Depression Cure
It's tempting to look for solutions to emotional problems in a pill bottle, but trying a more 'natural' source of the chemical balance you need is both cheaper and healthier for most depression victims. Vitamin D deficiency is a common theme in people struggling with depression, and can be resolved by something as simple as snacking on tuna, eggs or even liver.

Major causes of depressive behavior can range from common social situations to changes in your body's chemical balance due to medication. Although you'll have to deal with each cause of depression and anxiety on a case-by-case basis, don't ever feel like you have to go through it alone. Your friends, family and trained professionals are all there to help you.

Author's Bio: 

Anita is a freelance writer from Denver, CO and often writes about family, health, home and lifestyle. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family when she isn't writing.