So you know how you’ve tried everything to “cure” your depression? Yet all of the Mongolian throat singing, Alpaca farming, and math puzzles just haven’t seemed to work? And you’re getting more stressed and depressed in your hectic search for the perfect solution?

Feel free to quit looking for a bit. Remember that “taking a break” thing can be pretty important when you’re getting to that point where you want to give up all hope of ever figuring your depression out. If trying out everything in the world hasn’t helped, how about trying some tactical not trying?

Now, tactical not trying is not the same thing as regular not trying where you let the depression run amok and get its misery blah all over everything. The “tactical” part means that you intentionally take some time off to examine your depression, not that you give up entirely. It’s the difference between sitting on your couch because you couldn’t get yourself to do anything else, and sitting on your couch because you just really feel like sitting on the couch.

Sometimes the process of trying to deal with your depression can be so frenetic and intense that you kick up a storm of emotional tumult which obscures your progress. It’s good to take active steps to work on your depression, and it’s also good to give yourself some time to assess the results of your efforts. That way you can determine what’s been successful, what’s been less successul, and what you want to try next.

And it may be the case that you don’t really notice much change. Or that things have actually gotten worse. That’s okay. In fact, that’s really valuable to know. Getting a self-status update is worthwhile even if the results are negative, because it’s still information about your depression.

So take some time to sit back and get some perspective in between your cure searching efforts. It takes time and energy to determine the best ways to manage your depression, so give yourself time to rest as well.