Having been through a few difficult times I can tell you that from my experience there are a number of things that you can do. For myself, I can tell you that the times in my life that I have had the most difficulty have brought me a lot of pain and worry, but I have been able to look at what I do have at those times.
When I came to live here in Ohio I came after a bad relationship where I literally lost almost everything that I had worked hard to get for many years...my job, my house in Houston, my savings, my credit, flat screen tv, all of my physical possessions in the world except for a few things: my car, 2 shirts, 1 pair of pants, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pair underwear, 3 pair socks; Literally, everything else I owned was gone, and I only had about $5 to my name. When I got here having come from making 90K last year and having that all taken away from me along with the shit I was put through in the relationship I was pretty much at rock bottom.
I am not ashamed to admit that I have cried a lot this year, more than any other in my life, even when my father died. But, a lot of those tears have been of joy after coming to Columbus. Some people I know from this site, along with others were so kind to me when I got here; helping me start over, giving me a bed to sleep in, and letting me eat with them when I literally had nothing to give back. The kindness of these people and what it means to me is too much to express with words, and having lost everything it made it so much easier to see how lucky I really was to have these people around me. So I guess my first piece of advice is to ask for and accept help from people around you that you can trust (don't take advantage of course). Before this year I hated to ask for help from anybody for anything, but I have learned that even having someone that can just listen to you or give you a hug when you need it can make a huge difference. The people that care about you want to help you, so let them.
Another thing I can say that helps when things are overwhelming is meditative prayer (or whatever you want to call it if you aren't religious). For me the nights are the most difficult times. Durring the day it is easier to distract yourself from your problems with work, friends, etc....But at night when you are by yourself is when negative thoughts can eat away at you, and for me it is like a black hole that can just suck you lower and lower. Meditative prayer or ceaseless prayer is just picking a short, positive phrase that you can say to yourself over and over without stopping. When you do this your brain almost doesn't have time for the negative thoughts, lol. Sometimes this helps for me, sometimes it doesn't.
I won't write all night, but the last thing that has helped me is faith. NOT TRYING TO SELL GOD TO ANYBODY HERE, SO DON'T THINK I AM!! With all the negatives in my life some are literally overwhelming, these are the ones I give to God. I think about the problems, I do everything I can to solve them, and after I have done what I can I let it go (much easier said than done). Faith maybe something for fools, but it can also be a light at the end of the tunnel when everything seems dark and overwhelming. Is the light real? I don't know, that's why it's called faith. What I can tell you for sure is that real or not it helps to have it there.
I don't know if I'm ignorant, stupid, or lucky but for me, the darkness helps me to appreciate the light even more. Thank you to the people who have been lights for me, you know who you are.