The melancholic personality: How do we discover it and deal with it?

So, in the coming lines, we will discuss the melancholic personality, what are its characteristics, causes, and how to deal with it.

What is the melancholic personality?

The melancholic personality is considered a form of advanced depression disorder. It is a psychological disease in which who suffers from it is dominated by pessimism. Their outlook on life is gloomy, as they see life as meaningless and a place of only pain, and they suffer from constant feelings of sadness, despair, and lack of happiness, no matter how good the circumstances around them and often conveys their pessimism and negativity to those who sit with them.

Melancholy may affect all aspects of a person's family, emotional, social and professional life, and make them withdraw into themselves, and their life gradually becomes completely paralyzed.

Melancholic personality traits

The dark personality is characterized by a set of characteristics and behaviors that make us discover them, namely:

1. The dark personality is dominated by feelings of sadness, depression, despair, and a lack of desire to live all the time, without any fundamental reasons for that.
2. The dark personality loses its interest and desire to engage in activities that previously interested it.
3. Pessimism, and always expecting the worst, even in happy events, the melancholic personality expects that there are disasters behind it.
4. Oversleeping or suffering from sleep disorders and insomnia.
5. Not wanting to leave the house or even the room.
6. The inability to transcend the past, and the loss of hope in the future.
7. Frequent thoughts of death, and the situation may worsen to thoughts of suicide
8. Self-flagellation, and the constant feeling of guilt about things that the person is often not responsible for.
9. Distraction and not concentrating or remembering things.
10. Not feeling excited or enjoying anything, no matter how positive.
11. Introversion, loneliness, and unwillingness to communicate with anyone, even family members.
12. The constant feeling that they are a victim of life and unjust fate, excessive sensitivity to any remark or criticism, and the feeling of humiliation.
13. Indecisiveness and inability to make decisions.
14. Signs of sadness, gloom, and frowning appear on the melancholy person's face.
15. Constant complaining, and boredom about everything in life.
16. Lethargy, lack of activity, and a feeling of exhaustion.
17. Loss of ambition and apathy towards performing duties or work.
18. Craving for food or losing desire for it.
19. Excess nervousness, especially when giving advice to them.
20. Tendency to wear dark colors, especially black.

Reasons for a melancholic personality

The melancholic personality does not arise out of thin air. There is a group of reasons and factors that affect a person and make them melancholic, and among these reasons:

1. Family upbringing

Family upbringing is the first reason for a person to have a melancholic personality. An upbringing based on violence and scolding generates negative feelings in the child and makes them lose a sense of happiness and pleasure.

It gets worse if one of the parents is a pessimist and complains about life all the time. their thinking and dark view of life are often transmitted to the child without them realizing it, as it is known that the child imitates his family.

2. Genetic factors

Genetic factors may affect a person's melancholia if there are disorders of this kind in the family.

3. Biological factors

A person may suffer from problems with important neurotransmitters for the psychological state, such as the “dopamine” hormone responsible for mood, sleep, rest and concentration, the “serotonin” hormone responsible for happiness, and “adrenaline” responsible for enthusiasm, and this negatively affects their mental health.

4. Loss of a loved one

The loss of a dear person is one of the most common causes of melancholia. We often find people who have turned into melancholic personalities who have lost any desire for life after they lost a dear person, especially in cases of losing a parent or a brother. This situation requires a lot of will and recognition of fate and destiny to avoid pessimism and melancholy in life.

5. Disappointment

A person develops melancholy disorder if they are subjected to disappointment or a major shock, whether from someone they relied on a lot, a goal or a dream they aspired to that was not achieved, or a great loss they suffered.

6. disease

Unfortunately, there are those whose will and determination are not strong in the face of disease, so they turn into a melancholic and pessimistic person if they suffer from any disease.

How do we deal with a melancholic personality?

Dealing with a melancholic personality is not easy, and it requires awareness and wisdom in order to avoid its influence on you and help it get rid of its melancholy. These are the most important tips that help you do that:

1. Empathy; What a melancholic person needs most is to let them know that you are there for them, understand their condition and that you are by their side. Avoid mocking them or ridiculing their feelings, because that makes their situation worse.
2. Listen to them and let them express everything that is going on in their head. Do not try to silence them.
3. Start helping them little by little by changing their way of thinking, and highlighting the positive aspects in their life such as having their family next to them, their prestigious job, their physical health, and friends who love them. Remind them that defeats and failure are lessons we learn from, and they make us more mature and experienced.
4. Praise them and always remind them of their positives, their strengths, the situations they succeeded in, the achievements they made, and that they deserve happiness.
5. Rekindle their love of life by encouraging them to get out of their room, break their isolation, go out to new places, meet new people, or take up a new hobby.
6. Repeat to their ears that life goes on and does not stop at the loss of something or the loss of a person and that it is full of beautiful things and moments, and their sadness and melancholy deprive them of it and do not let them see it.
7. shed light on the negative effects of their melancholy and how it made them weak, hopeless people who have no desire for anything, how their work and achievement declined, and that they will most likely lose their job if they continue in this way.
8. Always remind them that this condition destroys their relationship with those around them, even the closest people to them, including their family and friends, and makes others not want to deal with them for fear of being affected by their negativity and melancholy.
9. Show them your feelings of love and care, such as surprising them with a gift they love or an invitation to dinner in a comfortable and warm place.
10. Fortify your psychological immunity and always be aware not to allow the melancholic person to influence you and leak their negative energy to you, and try to avoid them if you are a little frustrated or facing a difficult time.
11. If you do not find any improvement or response from the melancholic person and they are stubborn in their melancholy, then stay away from them if you are able to dispense with them. In case they are a person close to you as a family member, encourage them to visit a psychiatrist.

Treatment of melancholic personality disorder

The melancholy person needs psychological treatment by a specialized psychiatrist who is able to accurately understand the situation and subject them to cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions, which is one of the most successful methods in treating psychological problems because it is based on introducing the patient to his psychological disorder, its causes, and its negative effects on their life, judgments, relationships, professional and social success, training them to change their thinking, replace negative thoughts with positive ones, and change their negative outlook on life.

There is no pharmacological treatment for melancholic personality disorder, but the psychiatrist may resort to giving the patient antidepressants to relieve symptoms of stress, anxiety and nervousness associated with melancholic personality, and to stimulate the secretion of the happiness hormone "serotonin".

Tips for preventing melancholia

Any of us is prone to developing a melancholic personality. Here are some useful tips to get rid of melancholia when you feel that it has started to sneak up on you:

1. Change your daily routine

If you start to feel melancholy infiltrating you, quickly change your daily routine and practice new activities, such as going out into nature and walking in it, meeting new friends, joining voluntary associations, helping the needy, learning music or new languages, reading books and articles on mental health, self-development, and avoiding depression.

2. think positively

Always think positively; Think that you are able to overcome any matter, whatever it is because a person with will is capable of making the impossible.

Address yourself positively, such as repeating or writing on a piece of paper and hanging it in your room “I am a successful person,” “I am a capable person,” “Life holds the best for me,” and "I will get over it." If you went through difficulties or failed experiences, do not allow pessimism to control you. Look at failure as an opportunity to learn and start again with more steadfast steps.

3. Kill your void

Emptiness is the enemy of man and a door to many negative thoughts and feelings. So, kill your emptiness and practice a hobby you love, or learn a new language or skill.

4. educate yourself

Always make sure to educate yourself in the areas of self-development, mental health and strengthening psychological immunity, so that you will have the knowledge and experience about fortifying yourself from the pressures and problems that you may be exposed to.

5. Stay away from the negative

Stay away from negative people as much as possible, and blend with positive, ambitious, energetic, and life loving people with an optimistic outlook. They increase your enthusiasm, hope, and love for life, and sharpen your spirit when you face difficulties.

6. Focus on your positives

There is no person in this life who does not possess one positivity or one skill. So, whatever frustrations you are exposed to, focus on your positives and strengths, think about the skills you possess and work on developing them. There is no need for pessimism and melancholy as long as you have strengths and work to enhance and develop them.

7. Follow a healthy lifestyle

It is important to maintain your mental and physical health together and to follow a healthy lifestyle by eating healthy food, exercising, meditation and relaxation exercises that rid you of negative feelings.

In conclusion: Let us dispel blackness into whiteness with love and safety 

If you have a relationship that brings you together with a melancholic personality in your life, or you will have a later relationship with them, then do your best to be a supportive person for them, and immerse them in feelings of love and safety. Love is the panacea for all pains, and it is what illuminates our insides, and dispels its blackness into whiteness.