"Preventing depression is not like brushing your teeth"

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Pretty much everyone knows how to prevent tooth decay. But what about mental illnesses? In the interview, the psychologist Caroline Oehler from the German Depression Aid Foundation explains what you can actually do to protect yourself. And why even the best lifestyle is no guarantee of mental health.

M.Sc. Caroline Oehler

Caroline Oehler is a psychologist at the German Depression Aid Foundation. She heads the "iFightDepression" project, a program that helps people deal with the symptoms of mild depression.

Ms. Oehler, one in five people will suffer from depression in the course of their life. How can you protect yourself from the disease?

Nobody can protect themselves one hundred percent. But there are a few things that can be done. A good social network has proven to be extremely valuable. It protects you from falling into depression in the first place. And if it does hit you, it helps you get out again. You don't need a huge circle of acquaintances for this - it's about quality, not quantity. Maintaining good friendships is therefore worthwhile!

How do social contacts protect me?

If you have positive social contacts before or after a difficult situation, it has been proven that you release less stress hormones. The biological reaction to negative events is therefore less pronounced. In addition, some stressful situations can be better managed with a good social network: You get not only moral, but also very practical support.

Sport - it has been used successfully for some time to treat depression.

Especially with lighter forms, if you haven't slipped too deeply into depression, it even helps as well as a drug against depression.

But does it also have a preventive effect?

Research results so far speak for it! The preventive effectiveness of sport has been well documented for relapse prevention, i.e. preventing further depression when one has already overcome a phase of illness. But even if someone has never had depression before, exercise is most likely protective. It is not about high-performance sport, but about exercising regularly in some form.

Stress hormones, among other things, are broken down during exercise.

But happiness hormones are also released. Especially now, in the dark season, it is also worthwhile to train outside. Daylight also prevents so-called seasonal depression. Even when the sky is cloudy, the light outside is almost as strong as that of a daylight lamp.

Would you also like to do sports with friends?

Exactly. You have everything under one roof!

What about the diet? Are there any things I should specifically eat or avoid?

Unfortunately, there is no evidence that certain foods directly protect against depression. Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D have been used for a long time - but at the moment it does not look as if these or other ingredients could actually have a preventive effect. At least not if you are adequately supplied with it. In the case of malnutrition, for example a vitamin deficiency, it is of course different. So it makes sense to replace the missing vitamin. Otherwise symptoms similar to depression can actually occur.

So not even chocolate, which is supposed to make you happy, helps?

No (laughs). Unfortunately, this is not enough for prevention.

So so far we have had sports and good friends. Can you also mentally arm yourself against depression?

That's one aspect of positive psychology. It's not about how to treat mental illness, but how to give people something that makes them happier.

And what makes me happy protects me from depression?

Only to a limited extent, that cannot be equated one-to-one with depression prevention. Depression is not the opposite of happiness, even if it significantly reduces the quality of life. But in positive psychology, some exercises have emerged that are very helpful to create a positive basic feeling. These are sometimes very similar to behavioral therapy measures.

What does something like that look like in concrete terms?

A nice things diary or a thankfulness booklet is mentioned again and again. You regularly take your time and write down three nice things that you have experienced that day. The best way to do this is by hand, because it is better internalized that way.

What if my day didn't go so well?

Then that's even more true! You train yourself to pay more attention to positive things. The attention is my focus, which I can direct on different sides. In depression, he focuses heavily on negatives. The bad things seem bigger, more important, more present than positive ones. But when you get into the habit of focusing on something positive, a shift in perception occurs.

A fashionable topic in psychology right now is mindfulness - what is it all about?

With special exercises you should learn to be in the current moment and to perceive it precisely without evaluating it. Such mindfulness-based behavioral interventions are actually used successfully to prevent depression from relapse. There are still no studies on whether these exercises also have a preventive effect.

Bottom line: So there are a few things you can do to prevent depression.

That's right. But even those who follow all the advice have no guarantee of staying healthy. So I want to emphasize that if you get sick, you shouldn't feel guilty. I always compare that to dental care and tooth decay. You know exactly what you can do preventively. Still, you might get a hole in your tooth!

In contrast to tooth decay, with depression you don't even know exactly how the disease develops.

That's right. Because the causes are much more complex than with a hole in the tooth. That’s why preventing depression is not as easy as brushing your teeth. But it's worth it: Even if you are not threatened with depression, such measures can make your life better and easier.

In the event of depression, you will find your first contact person here: