Relieve depression by touching several objects and smells

Plant fragrances associated with positive memories, fermented warm food aromas, and cool woody/mineral aromas. These methods are all practical branches of "sensory grounding technology". They are zero-cost and easy to operate. The effective rate of immediate intervention for dissociation and rumination during depression is 61.7%. However, they are only used as auxiliary means and cannot replace drugs and formal psychological treatment.

What impressed me the most was a sophomore girl who was treated last year. When she came here for the first time, she still had red marks on her wrists that she pinched herself. She said that when she had an attack, she always felt like she was floating in the air, and the soles of her feet were filled with cotton and she couldn't hold on to anything. I didn't explain it to her at the time, so I asked her to go back and put the quilt on the balcony to dry in the sun for three hours, and then bury her whole body in it the next time she felt uneasy. Her eyes brightened a lot when she came here for the second time. She said that that day, she squatted on the balcony wrapped in a sun-drenched quilt, and felt the fluffy cotton with her fingertips, which was also warm like roasted wheat from the sun. She actually didn't shed tears when she had the first attack. "It felt like I had finally stepped on the ground." Different schools have different opinions on the principle of this method. Consultants from the cognitive behavioral school will think that this awakens the relaxed home memory associated with "sunbathing". Neuroscience research has confirmed that warm touch at 32-34°C will directly activate the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and quickly reduce the overexcitation of the amygdala. Both logics are tenable, and no one is more advanced than the other.

Don't tell me, when I feel very depressed, my favorite thing is a ceramic mug that has been frozen in the refrigerator for more than ten minutes. The feeling of coolness slowly creeping from the palm of my hand to my elbow can instantly pull me out of the rumination of "I can't do anything well". Of course, some colleagues are opposed to this method, saying that things that are too cold may trigger self-harm associations, so I generally recommend that you don’t use subzero ice cream. The coolness of about 10℃ is just right - cool enough to wake you up, but not painful.

There was a back-end developer who came to visit me before. He carried a small unpolished Thuja handle in his pocket all year round. When he worked overtime until he collapsed or became emotional, he would hold the handle and turn it, and his fingertips would rub against the uneven wood grain. The messy codes and self-denying voices in his mind seemed to slow down. He also tried touching the bark of an old locust tree that has been planted in the community for decades, and the effect was similar. In essence, it uses a subtle touch to occupy your cognitive bandwidth, leaving you with no energy to think about those bad things. Oh, yes, there is also the gravity blanket that was very popular some time ago. It was first used in the United States for sleep intervention. Deep pressure touch will promote the secretion of serotonin and melatonin. I bought an 8-pound one during a visit and said that when I have an attack, I wrap it in it and feel like being gently held by someone. I will not be out of breath or feel empty. But some people say that wearing it makes you feel suffocated and makes you more anxious. You really don’t need to follow the trend and buy it. The effect is actually the same if you hold a cloth bag full of rice. The key is that you feel comfortable.

Compared with touch, you have to actively reach out to touch. The influence of smell is actually more subtle. Many times, before you even realize it, your tense shoulders have already loosened. The sophomore girl I just mentioned later figured out another way: every time she was in a bad mood, she would peel an orange and hold the peel under her nose to smell it. She is from the north. When she was a child, her grandma always dried orange peels on the windowsill to make pillows. As soon as the bitter and sweet smell came in, she felt like she was back in elementary school during the summer vacation. Her grandma was picking dates in the yard and she was sitting on a small bench in the afternoon eating oranges. "In those few minutes, I didn't think about anything, I just felt that it was pretty good to be alive." Many aromatherapy bloggers will recommend you to buy various expensive essential oils, saying that lavender is anti-depressant. In fact, it is not at all. I encountered an incident when I was allergic to lavender-scented mosquito coils when I was visiting, and smelling lavender made me more irritable. The core is not which smell "heals" at all, but which smell has a positive association with you. Of course, if you don't have a special memory point, you can't go wrong with universal scents such as orange peel and freshly cut grass. Studies have also confirmed that terpenes such as limonene can indeed reduce cortisol levels, and there is a clear scientific basis.

I came across a netizen’s sharing before, saying that when his depression was at its most severe, he would squat in the kitchen every day waiting for the rice to steam. The moment he opened the lid of the pot, the aroma of the rice came over him, and he felt that “I can still hold on for another day.” I have tried to smell the honey aroma of the tea leaves when making old white tea, and the wheat aroma of freshly baked bread. Indeed, this fermented warm aroma is a sense of security engraved in human genes - after all, being able to smell the food being cooked means that you will not be hungry, right? Of course, there are also patients who say they feel sick when they smell food during an attack, so don’t force it, just feel comfortable. There is also the cold-toned woody mineral fragrance, such as the earthy smell of fresh rain (the smell of geosmin produced by the metabolism of actinomycetes), as well as the smell of cedar and agarwood. Many men who visit do not like to smell the sweet fruity fragrance and prefer to go after it rains. When walking in the park, I smell the cool smell mixed with cypress leaves and earth, and I say, "My mind will be clear when I smell it, and I won't get into trouble." The advantage of this smell is that it is not intrusive and will not cause headaches like strong perfume. It is especially friendly to people with sensitive senses.

In fact, I have also encountered many examples of people who act out of common sense. A little girl said that the way she relieves her mood is to touch the cat's pads at home. The soft and slightly thorny touch is more effective than anything else.； Another uncle said that he loved to smell the eraser smell of the pencils used by his son, and as soon as he smelled it, he felt that he could overcome any obstacle. There is no standard answer. These things that can be touched and smelled are essentially "anchors", pulling you back from the world full of bad things in your mind to the present moment, telling you "you are here now, you are safe."

Finally, I have to be honest. Don’t believe those nonsense that says “depression can be cured by touching things and smelling them.” These are all small ways to help you hold on for a while longer during difficult times. If you can't get motivated for more than two weeks in a row and don't want to do anything, you must go to the psychiatry department of a regular hospital to see if you need to take medicine and get counseling. There are many ways to live a good life, and you don't have to stick to one.