Low mood and worry: what helps day to day

Step by step

1. 1

   Step 1: Move, because it works on mood physically

   Of everything on this list, regular gentle movement has the most reliable effect on mood, and it is not a matter of distraction or cheering up. It changes how you feel through the body. It does not need to be strenuous: a daily walk, a chair-based session, anything you will actually keep doing.

   Learn more: Movement as a community habit
2. 2

   Step 2: Protect sleep first

   Poor sleep worsens mood and worry, and low mood wrecks sleep, which is a circle that tightens quickly. Regular sleep and waking times, morning daylight, and a calm last hour without television do more than people expect. Alcohol and late caffeine both look like they help and do not.

   Learn more: Sleep & recovery
3. 3

   Step 3: Interrupt the circling

   Worry loops: the same thought comes round heavier each time without anything new being added. Stop, take four or five slow breaths with a longer breath out, name what is actually going round, then ask whether you can do something about it right now. If yes, one small thing. If no, you may set it down for the moment.

   Learn more: Worry: a four-step pause when your mind will not stop
4. 4

   Step 4: Keep company in the diary, not in intention

   Low mood tells you to cancel, and cancelling makes it worse, which is why this needs to be arranged rather than left to how you feel on the day. Something regular, with familiar faces, that does not depend on being good company. Turning up is the whole of it.

   Learn more: Meaning and belonging in healthy ageing
5. 5

   Step 5: Ask for help sooner than you think you should

   Please treat this as the most important step. Low mood that lasts more than two weeks, worry you cannot switch off, losing interest in everything, not eating or sleeping, or any thought of harming yourself or not wanting to be here, all need a doctor rather than a website. Depression and anxiety are common, treatable, and not a weakness of character. Nothing here is treatment for either. If you are in crisis, tell your doctor today, or ask someone you trust to take you to the nearest hospital. Please do not sit with it alone.

   Learn more: Stress: what it is, and why not all of it is bad

All topics in this guide

• Movement as a community habit
• Sleep & recovery
• Worry: a four-step pause when your mind will not stop
• Meaning and belonging in healthy ageing
• Stress: what it is, and why not all of it is bad

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