No matter what kind of depression you have, the pain is the same-caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain. No matter what you 're depressed about, or even if you don 't know why you 're depressed, there are some simple things you can do to reduce your pain and anxiety, and get yourself feeling better. Simple cognitive behavior techniques and exercises can lessen pain and stimulate more productive thinking. Low-key physical and mental activity can also speed recovery. 1. Relax your shoulders, take a deep breath and don 't panic! Millions of perfectly normal people have struggled with all kinds of depression and learned how to get out of it. You are not alone. You have options. 2. First, why do you feel so bad? It 's not because of your problems. It 's because of your brain chemistry. There are two main parts of the brain, the thinking part (the neocortex) and the emotional part (the subcortex). When you 're depressed, your subcortex is reacting to stress chemicals, and producing excruciating pain and panic. 3. To add to your misery, your subcortex sucks up additional neural energy from the neocortex until it is practically non-functioning. So you can 't think straight, plus you 're in agony. 4. You feel helpless, but there 's a lot you can do. Your body is experiencing a perfectly normal reaction to the over-supply of stress chemicals in your brain. 5. You need to reduce the neural energy in the subcortex and re-power the neocortex. You can do this with cognitive