Antidepressant Living: What color can help you?

Psychologists believe different colors can induce specific emotional or mental states that can change mood, the level of anxiety, or the individual’s perception of a situation.  As someone who has dealt with anxiety and depression, I decided to look into this a little closer. My own home is full of color and my children refuse to let me paint it anything bland! As I dug deeper, I found out why everyone who visits my home feels cheerful and inspired – the colors reflect an energy of creativity, happiness, calmness yet playfulness. As you read, you’ll find that these colors can make someone feeling anxious to feel calmed and centered, while other colors can make a depressed individual feel energized and creative. Let’s take a closer look into each color and maybe you will discover the perfect paint color or accent pieces needed in your home to help you or someone you love with mental illness to feel hopeful and energized, if even for the short time they are in your home. Let’s start with my FAVORITE color – BLUE!

Blue is a very calming color that can make you feel centered, relaxed and serene. It is known to help lower blood pressure, clear the mind and help steady one’s breathing. Blue is well known soothing color and can help calm a busy mind. This is great for someone having anxious thoughts or panic attacks. Blue has very few connections to taste or smell, therefore, it may act as an appetite suppressant. Blue represents both the sky and the sea, and is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, expansiveness, inspiration, and sensitivity. Blue also represents meanings of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, heaven, and intelligence. It even has positive affects on the mind and the body. As the color of the spirit, it invokes rest and can cause the body to produce chemicals that are calming and exude feelings of peacefulness.

White rooms give an automatic feel of cleanliness and purity. The color white itself stands for protection, innocence and goodness, to name a few. If you are feeling foggy in the mind or feeling blah, white affects the mind and body by aiding in mental clarity, promoting feelings of fresh beginnings and renewal, assisting in cleansing, clearing obstacles and clutter, and encouraging the purification of thoughts and actions. You might be surprised, but with this affect on the mind – it would be a great color for a home office – not just kitchens!

Green symbolizes prosperity and helps to reduce anxiety. It is one of the most restful colors for your eyes and is known to be restorative, mind-clearing and encourage composure. This is why there are “green rooms” for actors before a show! For those who love the outdoors, it also gives an outdoorsy, natural feel – much like blue speaks to those whose hearts truly lie by the water. The color green affects us physically and mentally in several different ways. Green is soothing, relaxing, and youthful. It is a color that helps alleviate anxiety, depression, and nervousness. Green also brings with it a sense of hope, health, adventure, and renewal, as well as self-control, compassion, and harmony. Too much green can cause people to become placid, lazy, slow, moody, depressed, and lethargic. Too little green can cause feelings of apathy and fear of rejection.

Orange, the blend of red and yellow, is a mixture of the energy associated with red and the happiness associated with yellow. Orange is associated with meanings of joy, warmth, heat, sunshine, enthusiasm, creativity, success, encouragement, change, determination, health, stimulation, happiness, fun, enjoyment, balance, sexuality, freedom, expression, and fascination. Orange is the color of joy and creativity. Orange promotes a sense of general wellness and emotional energy that should be shared, such as compassion, passion, and warmth.

Orange will help a person recover from disappointments, a wounded heart, or a blow to one’s pride. While made up of red and yellow, it carries less aggression and fierceness than the color red due to its combination with the calming color yellow. Studies show that the orange color can create physical effects such as increased hunger, heightened sense of activity, increased socialization, boost in aspiration, stimulated mental activity, increased oxygen supply to the brain, increased contentment, and enhanced assurance. Orange also helps aid decision making, and enhances happiness, confidence, and understanding. 

Too much orange causes self-centered and self-serving qualities, including pride, arrogance, and lack of care for others. Too little orange causes loss of motivation, lower self-esteem, and loneliness.

Did you know that there is such a thing called the Pink Effect? This is when exposure to large amounts of pink can have a calming effect on the nerves and helps relieve feelings of anger, aggression and neglect. Pink has the opposite affect to its primary color, red, whereas the longer you are around it, the calmer you will become. I know some are nervous to add pink into their home because they can fear it is too feminine, but this is not the case.  One of my favorite Instagram favorites to follow is Randi Garrett Design, she has an amazing knack for adding touches of pink, which are not overwhelming. Follow her on Instagram at randigarrettdesign.

Soft pastel pink can definitely bring an element of peace and serenity to a space. The color pink is the color of universal love of oneself and of others. Pink represents friendship, affection, harmony, inner peace, and practicality according to professionals at bourncreative.com.