Anecdotally, I've heard people have had success with Nootropics/supplements like L-Theanine, Ashwagandha root powder, or even products like Procera Mood blend. Check out /r/nootropics for some ideas in that realm.
Also on reddit, there are again, anecdotes saying that a LHCF (Low-carb, high-fat aka ketogenic) diet has been huge in improving people's moods. (/r/keto).
Usually that also leads to working out, which of course can have a huge impact not only on your health but also on your mood. I know some people don't feel the endorphins like others, but it's worth a shot at least.
Of course, also ensuring time set aside for yourself (reading, "getting out", etc.) is also key. You need to rest and recharge. Unplug everything one day a month (minimally, or every weekend!) and work on resetting things internally.
And I know some people may disagree but I think even pharmaceuticals can be helpful for a period of time when used wisely. Don't be afraid to talk about it with people. We are born to be relational people—work on building some relationships better.
Many nootropics will greatly amplify the feelings of depression (by personal experience and anecdotal experience of others). This may be because many of these substances interact with neurotransmitters like choline. Excess choline can lead to depressive-like symptoms.
That said, many non-nootropic supplements can be highly effective for depressive symptoms. I love 5-htp for a temporary serotonin boost. I use it for 2-3 days at a time until my mood improves.
I think a lot of the first line remedies for depression (such as exercise, increase social contact, sleep better, etc) highlights the issue with empirical methodologies used to describe experience. Correlation really becomes causation at a certain point.
People who sleep well, have strong social lives, and exercise frequently are rarely depressed. This isn't because of some biochemical reaction, but simply doing the above doesn't fit the definition of depression.
I've tried pretty much everything for fighting depression - drugs, meditation, the lot. The only thing that consistently works is running nearly every day. I assume any intense cardio will do, though something outside is obviously better.
Medication does work. I had depression for about a year, and they gave me Paroxetine. It is very effective. It was a bit complicated to get off the med, as I got some side effects when I stopped (sensations of falling down, that kind of thing).
Anyway, probably best to talk to a doctor about it.
Hypericum extract is supposed to help in episodes of mild depression and is much less problematic that strong meds.
These medications carry black box warnings from the FDA, which means they should be used as a last resort due to significant side effects. It's great that they worked for you, but they are objectively very dangerous and should not be used unless absolutely necessary.
Currently have some friends and family members pursuing help.
Exercise is key. Probably a hard one to implement, but makes the largest difference in all.
Speak to a counsellor. Pragmatic, impartial perspective seems to be a good addition to other methods.
Eat well. A crap diet will put a lot of drain on your body and its part of a terrible cycle.
I've heard mixed impressions on things like SSRI's, but they can help over the short term to tear you away from burying yourself in negativity. I've heard over the longer term they become rather insufferable due to emotionally suppressive nature of them.
If anxiety is a part of it, other pharms like Citalopram can be a great help to manage attacks and help you see the 'other side' as it were.
I'm not a doctor, and you might want to talk to one. Have said that...
One overall health trick I wish I had started doing when I was younger is fasting. Over the last 10 years, I've done maybe 2 dozen fasts of 3 days or longer. I've done 3 fasts of 7 days or more. It helps to clarify things mentally, not so much during the fast, as afterwards.
Whether exercise is an answer really depends on what kind of depression you have. If you suffer mostly from lethargy, then you probably aren't able to exercise. In that case it's probably best to see a doctor, and perhaps take anti-depressants.
If your depression mostly consists of bleakness/sadness, exercise might help, or it can make things more intense. Therapy can help, if you can find the right therapist.
I've taken up fasting recently as well. I can't speak to effectiveness wrt depression, but as someone who's been overweight for years, it's really helped with my relationship to food and how I eat. The realization that just because your brain is telling you you're hungry doesn't mean you need to eat was really important for me and it's given me such a feeling of control that no other dieting or calorie-restricting scheme I've ever tried has.
Find the source of the depression and change your life style. For me it was living in a tech hub that had only other guys who were only talking about work.
Also move inside the city center close to where people to make it much easier for your social circle to visit you whenever they go out.
If there's a chemical component, well, you either address that chemically, or you try to fix everything else and live with what remains.
From a general "life circumstances" perspective, exercise, as jppope said. For myself, I like ultimate frisbee. It's social, and it has a free-flowing, read-and-react style of play that's a very healthy break from how I normally operate.
I find that light helps me (I may suffer from seasonal affective disorder).
Psychologically, one view is that anger signals a blocked goal, and depression signals an impossible goal. If that's what's going on, it might be worth figuring out what the impossible goal is. If it's truly impossible, the only thing left is to let go of it as a goal.
Some people find meditation to be helpful (or prayer, if you believe that God exists).
For me, the number one thing is GET SOME SUN. It’s amazing how quickly the back of my brain stops muttering about suicide when the sun comes out. A sun lamp can help but only so much; I have a 2’ square one I got in the depths of my second winter in Seattle that I keep on a mechanical timer during winter, so I can never forget to turn it on when I get up.
Exercise changes my mood a lot.
Also having a project you give a shit about and are makin regular, visible progress on helps.
Also, I've found that 'warm white' lighting (those with more yellow wavelengths and fewer blue wavelengths) at night generally helps your feeling of wellbeing.
These are the ways I effectively stave off my depression, for me personally hitting every point is extremely important:
* Proper diet
* Consistent sleep schedule
* Maintaining a social support network (and having a dog)
* An hour of light to moderate cardio _every_day_ (walking my dog forces me to do this, but I also bike to work and go rock climbing.) My anxiety melts away when I do cardio.
* Focus on my hobbies and individualism
* Self-guided CBT
* Medication for ADHD when I'm working on something that is too painfully boring to work on (armodafinil)
* Focusing on pragmatism and thoughtfulness in every action (or at least, aspiring to)—Check out stoicism and virtue ethics
I have struggled with major depression for years, but have finally clawed my way out of it and am trying to proactively safeguard myself from ever slipping back into my own personal hell. Life is damn good, but I have to stay vigilant. Godspeed. And remember, treating the physical symptoms comes first.
This is an excellent list and fairly close to what I do. Diet and exercise can be game changers.
I jog for exercise. When I'm dealing with a deep bout of depression, nothing works better than a fast mile. A comfortable pace for me is about 8-8.5 minutes per mile. If I want to break out of depression, I'll run the first mile around 7. The resultant runner's high almost immediately shocks me out of the depression.
I'd also add meditation/prayer to the list, plus I see a professional therapist every two weeks.
Meditation is a great addition to the list and I can't believe I glossed over it, it played a huge part in my recovery. I try to live life in a state of flow, if that makes sense—"Be thoughtful" is my mantra when I slip out of it.
Great summary, in additional to all the other great replies.
I’ll simply add two more.
Keep asking for help, trying new things. Someone somewhere has an answer for you. It also helps if you have someone in your life to serve as your “patient advocate”, keeping you honest, on track, to help calibrate your self reporting.
Anxiety and depression are wicked hard to untangle. My own recent example:
My sweetie now has some hearing sensitivity issues, magnifying the other issues. After much effort, we finally determined that age onset tinnitus has become a factor. Validation and mitigation steps helped to make progress on other fronts (eg improving sleep).
Important ADHD medication note: Armodafinil is a narcolepsy medication being used off-label for OP here. It's only FDA approved for treating narcolepsy. Usage in ADHD treatment is both novel and highly individual.
Thanks for the addendum. It's prescribed for ADHD off-label more frequently than most people realize, and I've been prescribed strattera, concerta, and adderall before settling on armodafinil.
Same here. But I've noticed that a lot of people in my same situation have a dog and make it work. I am more seriously considering it because it's something I truly want and I have a feeling money can solve some of the challenges that I keep imagining.
A few years ago my wife (a psychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy) and I (programmer) collaborated on an article about CBT: http://cbtsanfrancisco.com/cbt-is-for-hackers/
CBT matches a software developer's mindset really well (at least in my view) and should be looked into.
Yes, I agree. Thoughts affect your feelings, but often it isn't obvious because there can be a delay between thought and feeling. Also if the thought or belief is something that has been running in the background for a long time, something your dad always told you, something like that, then the thought can be hard to even see, it just blends in with the background.
Journaling therefore helped me, the disciplined kind where you write down all the thoughts you're having, at least to do with something that is bothering you. Then after each thought, you further journal by sharply analyzing the thought: basically, is it true?
Its interesting that I have developed my own model that closely resembles this (although it is not as complete). Its annoying that there is so much good information out there(like your article), but its largely inaccessible if you aren't familiar with the relevant jargon.
Something I struggle with is specifying my emotions sufficiently. Does anyone know of a complete reference? Something that includes common causes would be best (such as: stuck on a problem you can't solve -> frustration). I have seen some relevant books but they tend to be more gimmick than substance
Volunteer for a cause you care about. Serve a meal in a soup kitchen. Prepare dinner for a homeless shelter. Do overnights in a shelter. Work with animals at an animal shelter. Pick up beach trash. You will feel better.
Compassion - getting out of bed was a win some days. That's OK. This shit is serious, and you can die from it. Have some compassion for yourself.
CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) - finding my values and starting to live by them was the key take-away from this.
Meditation - mainly learning that my thoughts aren't "me" and that I can ignore them with no consequences. Especially the ones that replay every bad thing I've ever done.
Exercise - Some days I did no more than put my running gear on and get to the front door before heading back to bed. That's OK. I ran a 12km "fun run" (it wasn't) within six months of starting running. I still run regularly.
Finding something larger than myself to contribute to - giving with no expectation of reward is amazingly good for depression. Finding a community and a way of contributing to it was a life-saver. Literally.
Therapy/Counselling - ultimately, acknowledging that I was not coping, facing up to my demons, and working through my shit in therapy has got me out of it all and back to a place of mental health. I still talk to my therapist about my emotions once a week, and it still helps. I don't know why.
What didn't work for me:
Diet - I lived on 2 litre ice cream tubs. One a day, eaten with a spoon straight from the tub. Meh, I didn't commit suicide, so winning. I have just about managed to shed the weight I put on (seven years later).
Anti-depressants - I was on these for about six months, and they just dulled everything and gave me no way out. I think I'd still be depressed if I'd stayed on them.
I don't expect that what worked for me will work for you. You're going to have to walk your own path on this.
But... seven years later, my life is totally different, completely amazing, and I'm a much better person for having gone through it. It can be a positive experience. I look back and consider how many times I came close to suicide, and I'm so grateful that I managed to avoid that. I'm genuinely happy and enjoying my life now, and that seemed impossible back then. Just keep breathing, and things will change.
I like to say that when you're feeling crappy, think of the one thing you feel least like doing and then do it. When I'm feeling down the last thing I want to do is exercise but, honestly, it's the best remedy for me. I find that diet has a lot to do with it as well. I avoid heavy foods and big meals in general as the lethargy felt afterwards definitely contributes to feeling down.
Do not ask here, go to the doctor. Depression is a symptom which can have different causes (I had a depression from social anxiety at a point in my life).
A good psychiatrist will treat the cause (for example, by recommending some therapy, like CBT), not just symptoms. And will not just prescribe medications, which do work quite well though.
I disagree with this. It's still valuable to hear from people with direct experience. Good professional help is a great idea if it's available to you. In the UK for instance, mental health seems very much underfunded within the NHS.
Right, I should have said "do not just ask here". If professional help is not available in your country, I am sorry, although I do not believe it's that bad in the UK. But as with any medical advice, one shouldn't just take it from the Internet.
I'm 43 years old and I've struggled with chronic depression since I was about 14 or 15. It's been a long tough journey but I'm doing quite well these days. I will share what worked for me.
1. Go see your primary care doctor. Depression can be a symptom of hypothyroid and sleep disorders such as OSA. I have both and am in treatment. Rule those out!
2. Exercise! It makes a huge difference in your general sense of well being. It also increases your energy. I never liked working out, nor was I particularly good at weightlifting. I work out twice a week with a personal trainer. It's expensive but it's work the money. Having him there with me makes it more fun and keeps me motivated.
3. See a psychologist or psychiatrist. You might need medication depending upon how bad your symptoms are and how long it's been going on. But don't just go to someone who write you a prescription and doesn't do therapy sessions. Therapy helps a lot. I have found group therapy works really well for me. When it was first suggested to me I thought "no way! Why the hell would I want to talk to a group of strangers about my problems!" However, I've found it to be much more effective that one on one therapy.
4. Eat a good diet.
5. Take care of your microbiome. There is a link between the microbes in your gut and your mood. I use probiotic supplements like Align and Culturelle.
6. Find a hobby (and no, drinking and partying are not hobbies)
7. Don't try to "self-help" your way though it. If you broke your leg would you buy a self help book and try to treat yourself? Get the help you need from a qualified medical professional.
8. Get a dog. They provide you with unconditional love and endless amounts of joy.
I'll probably be flamed into the ground for saying it, but I do get a pretty reliable mood lift from drinking alcohol. That's not a great long-term strategy, but if the alternatives are making it through another day and not, it's a useful tool to have in your bag.
Alcohol for depression is like taking Tylenol and applying a bandaid to an infected wound. The pain goes away. You can't see the wound any longer. Yet the infection will still be there to cause damage.
Don't get me wrong: I understand the appeal. Forgetting about your problems for a spell is actually quite nice. As you said, it can be easy to fall into a trap of addiction that only exacerbates the original issue while compounding others. So it's actually bad short-term, because the moment you sober up next morning, that rain cloud will still be floating overhead.
Unlike infection, depression is not curable in general. If you had an incurable infection, taking Tylenol and using band-aids might very well be a reasonable approach. Everything's a trade-off.
Everyone is different, but often after I sober up, I feel reasonably good for hours or days. Cured? No. As above, there is no cure.
A significant benefit of alcohol is that relief is more or less instant. That's good in itself. But it's also a useful lesson. Black moods suck, but they come and go, and the feeling that won't is just a feeling.
I don't care for analogies, but I'd liken booze to steroids. Harmful if taken in excess over long periods, but useful, even life-saving in some situations.
Some types of depression are curable. There is temporary depression and chronic depression (less curable). But I believe or hope that all depression is treatable.
Recommending alcohol for depression is dangerous because alcohol is a depressant, it might make you even more depressed. Not only that but it can lead to addiction and the creation of bad habits - to drink when you're depressed. Before you know it you might become a depressed alcoholic and you will have two behavioral issues to fight instead of one, and they will be compounded because if you ever take psychiatric drugs to aid your depression, alcohol will not mix well.
I've had two suicide attempts, several years apart. I thought my life was hopeless- had tons of different diagnoses from major depression to bipolar to borderline and lots of drugs (started ~13 and lasted for 10 years). I am really happy today. I think I was so depressed back then that I wasn't even capable of imagining a better future.
The thing that helped me the most was exercise. Exercise is a keystone habit that begins a gratuitous beneficial cycle. When I had enough energy after taking lots of baby steps, I decided to take ownership to improve my life and started exercising and training for a 5k using the couch to 5k program. The running tied in with my new love for stoicism helped me develop discipline. When you're able to run for 40 mins without stopping, you raise your pain threshold and increase your willpower. Plus you get the positive effects of natural dopamine, runners high. They talk about this in the book The Power of Habit but you can have one habit that kickstarts a chain of events. The exercise gave me energy, discipline, and confidence, that helped me find a partner. I had terrible social skills and major issues so therapy helped me navigate that and my partner gave me support, accountability, hope, and love.
Along with the good suggestions here I would add try to face the issues that make you unhappy. Somethings have no answers but sometimes there is and you have yet to find it. Also is your depression cyclical? Could be a mood disorder like bipolar depression. Psychiatrist can figure it out. Be honest at the doctors office. Your word is usually all they got to go on.
* Drugs - you may have to try a few to find what works for you. Cymbalta worked for me for a while, but then I slipped back hard. Now I have Abilify in addition to the Cymbalta and I'm doing much better.
* Sunlight. Get outside. I have seasonal affective disorder on top of major depression, and if I don't get enough light, the suicidal ideation comes back. I have a lightbox but its not as good as the real thing.
* Exercise. I know. This one sucks. This might not be possible until the meds bring you back up to a baseline-functional. Try to get a walking buddy, and just take a short walk once a day. Walk outside to get extra sunlight as a bonus. You don't have to do a major workout, even just a 15 minute walk is better than nothing. Try to get a friend to walk with you. Not only does having someone to talk to make the walk go quicker, but it also gives you someone you have to be accountable to about walking. Or if you can't get a walking buddy, find a favorite podcast or something that you only listen to on walks. Make it something to look forward to.
* See a doctor and take care of anything else that's also going on. Get your thyroid checked. Get your blood sugar checked. Hypothyroidism or diabetes will make depression worse.
* Good sleep is vital. Maybe ask your doctor about a sleep study too, if you snore. You might have sleep apnea, and not getting good sleep will make your depression worse.
* Try to eat better. This one is hard too, and like exercise, might not be possible right away. "Better" is pretty subjective and nutrition is a volatile subject, so I'm not going advise a specific diet, but if you're eating pizza and fast food every day because you don't have the energy to cook, changing that will help.
While that's true the studies I've reviewed talked more about a debilitating amount of sleep (like 16-20 hrs/day) vs. a consistent amount (8-10) and a regular schedule.
My suggestion was more about sleep quality than quantity. If you have undiagnosed sleep apnea, you are probably not getting sufficient sleep no matter how long you're in the bed.
I've always heard from neuropsychs that an all nighter is a good reset, especially for people who may build up imbalances of one kind or another. I always thought it was because it got the body to actually sleep and detox etc. the next time it got the opportunity. Then again, I may be a bit manic/depressive so it is also something that makes riding out the waves less unbearable.
Right on. I don't suffer from depression but my partner does. Because I don't have much experience with it myself, at first I was completely clueless about how to be helpful and supportive. Eventually I realised that just being around, ramping up my own affection and gregariousness just a bit, and not obsessing about the depressive state is already noticeably helpful.
Hugs and cuddles are not things you can do yourself. Not everybody has the privilege of having those options so you might as well list things like winning the lottery. If you do have money though, I have found that massage can be at least a partially acceptable surrogate for other types of human contact and social interaction, if you are in a location where that’s an option.
On the subject of depression meals— pre-prepped salads are a great way to combat this. They're cheap, easy to make when you're having a good day, and you can make a few days worth in advance. When you're feeling down all you have to do is put it in a bowl, and you have a healthy meal.
I hate repeat meals. Are there any configurations of this that avoid that challenge or keep for a long enough time that I could spread the salads out more?
Grooming. Shower, soap, brush teeth, shave. But beyond that, go to the aesthetician and get a facial. In addition to feeling like a million bucks, I have reason to believe that receiving grooming treatment from another primate triggers dopamine release and or beneficially lowers cortisol levels. I can't cite any sources but I recall that idea from my undergraduate work in animal behavior.
There is plenty of research [1] on various relevant topics, but if you're depressed, I recommend a JFDI and test approach.
I feel like a major problem with life today is how social media has become a funnel for social interaction, and that for many people it's difficult to cut out the harm of it, without also cutting out your social life. That's not to say that it's impossible, and I'm sure some people here have successfully maintained their social life in the absence of social media.
I struggled with it for such a long time. About 6 months ago I realised I was dumping time, energy and sanity into someone else's platform. I made the decision to stop posting, then stop reading about other people's wonderful lives, then deleted my previous posts, and it's been positive overall. Cutting out negative people from my life made more of a difference overall, but the dopamine hit from swipes, likes and other such facile BS has gone. Sure, I have less interaction with people, but the quality has gone up.
I'm bipolar which is quite different to depression in a number of ways, but one thing I've found helps a lot and others have reported too is accepting that is will always be with you and manage it rather than fighting it.
Rather than trying to cure it completely, which isn't likely to happen, learn to monitor the matter and mitigate its effects instead. This can remove the cyclical nature of the problem, whereby failing to deal with it to your satisfaction causes you to sink further into the darkness, reducing the severity of problem periods.
(This of course may not work in severe cases, in those professional help and/or medication may be needed.)
Beyond this, as others have already mentioned:
* Maintain good health with exercise and decent diet. Some like myself find exercise to be directly therapeutic, for others the benefit is still very real but not as immediate. If you try something and hate it, try something else - I like running, I know people who can't stand that but enjoy swimming/cycling/climbing/walking/<other> instead.
* Try to maintain a routine, especially a good sleep schedule (this latter part could go with "maintain good health" above). This can be easier said than done as the condition can affect both the ability to sleep and the recuperative efficiency of what sleep you do get, but lack of sufficient good sleep can exacerbate many mental instabilities/imbalances.
* Make sure your routine involves the outside world at least in parts, even (perhaps especially) if you are "not in the mood today".
* Talk to people if you can.
* Consider medication if recommended. You might be wary of being stuck on it for life, but in many cases being medicated for a short while can give you a short break from the worst symptoms making it easier to find the impetus to start following the other advice and build a routine that helps you manage yourself.
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[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 151 ms ] threadAlso on reddit, there are again, anecdotes saying that a LHCF (Low-carb, high-fat aka ketogenic) diet has been huge in improving people's moods. (/r/keto).
Usually that also leads to working out, which of course can have a huge impact not only on your health but also on your mood. I know some people don't feel the endorphins like others, but it's worth a shot at least.
Of course, also ensuring time set aside for yourself (reading, "getting out", etc.) is also key. You need to rest and recharge. Unplug everything one day a month (minimally, or every weekend!) and work on resetting things internally.
And I know some people may disagree but I think even pharmaceuticals can be helpful for a period of time when used wisely. Don't be afraid to talk about it with people. We are born to be relational people—work on building some relationships better.
That said, many non-nootropic supplements can be highly effective for depressive symptoms. I love 5-htp for a temporary serotonin boost. I use it for 2-3 days at a time until my mood improves.
People who sleep well, have strong social lives, and exercise frequently are rarely depressed. This isn't because of some biochemical reaction, but simply doing the above doesn't fit the definition of depression.
Anyway, probably best to talk to a doctor about it.
Hypericum extract is supposed to help in episodes of mild depression and is much less problematic that strong meds.
Thirty percent of all clinically depressed patients attempt suicide; half of them ultimately succeed in taking their own life.
It is crystal clear that the risk–benefit ratio is in favor of antidepressants.
Exercise is key. Probably a hard one to implement, but makes the largest difference in all.
Speak to a counsellor. Pragmatic, impartial perspective seems to be a good addition to other methods.
Eat well. A crap diet will put a lot of drain on your body and its part of a terrible cycle.
I've heard mixed impressions on things like SSRI's, but they can help over the short term to tear you away from burying yourself in negativity. I've heard over the longer term they become rather insufferable due to emotionally suppressive nature of them.
If anxiety is a part of it, other pharms like Citalopram can be a great help to manage attacks and help you see the 'other side' as it were.
One overall health trick I wish I had started doing when I was younger is fasting. Over the last 10 years, I've done maybe 2 dozen fasts of 3 days or longer. I've done 3 fasts of 7 days or more. It helps to clarify things mentally, not so much during the fast, as afterwards.
Whether exercise is an answer really depends on what kind of depression you have. If you suffer mostly from lethargy, then you probably aren't able to exercise. In that case it's probably best to see a doctor, and perhaps take anti-depressants.
If your depression mostly consists of bleakness/sadness, exercise might help, or it can make things more intense. Therapy can help, if you can find the right therapist.
[0]: https://blog.samaltman.com/productivity
If there's a chemical component, well, you either address that chemically, or you try to fix everything else and live with what remains.
From a general "life circumstances" perspective, exercise, as jppope said. For myself, I like ultimate frisbee. It's social, and it has a free-flowing, read-and-react style of play that's a very healthy break from how I normally operate.
I find that light helps me (I may suffer from seasonal affective disorder).
Psychologically, one view is that anger signals a blocked goal, and depression signals an impossible goal. If that's what's going on, it might be worth figuring out what the impossible goal is. If it's truly impossible, the only thing left is to let go of it as a goal.
Some people find meditation to be helpful (or prayer, if you believe that God exists).
Exercise changes my mood a lot.
Also having a project you give a shit about and are makin regular, visible progress on helps.
* Predictable sleep patterns. Set an alarm both to wake up and go to sleep.
* Get out of your home, even if you don't feel like it. You'll be glad that you did.
* Sort out any anxiety - it can lead to depression.
* Take at least 5000 IU vitamin D.
* Proper diet
* Consistent sleep schedule
* Maintaining a social support network (and having a dog)
* An hour of light to moderate cardio _every_day_ (walking my dog forces me to do this, but I also bike to work and go rock climbing.) My anxiety melts away when I do cardio.
* Focus on my hobbies and individualism
* Self-guided CBT
* Medication for ADHD when I'm working on something that is too painfully boring to work on (armodafinil)
* Focusing on pragmatism and thoughtfulness in every action (or at least, aspiring to)—Check out stoicism and virtue ethics
I have struggled with major depression for years, but have finally clawed my way out of it and am trying to proactively safeguard myself from ever slipping back into my own personal hell. Life is damn good, but I have to stay vigilant. Godspeed. And remember, treating the physical symptoms comes first.
I jog for exercise. When I'm dealing with a deep bout of depression, nothing works better than a fast mile. A comfortable pace for me is about 8-8.5 minutes per mile. If I want to break out of depression, I'll run the first mile around 7. The resultant runner's high almost immediately shocks me out of the depression.
I'd also add meditation/prayer to the list, plus I see a professional therapist every two weeks.
I’ll simply add two more.
Keep asking for help, trying new things. Someone somewhere has an answer for you. It also helps if you have someone in your life to serve as your “patient advocate”, keeping you honest, on track, to help calibrate your self reporting.
Anxiety and depression are wicked hard to untangle. My own recent example:
My sweetie now has some hearing sensitivity issues, magnifying the other issues. After much effort, we finally determined that age onset tinnitus has become a factor. Validation and mitigation steps helped to make progress on other fronts (eg improving sleep).
I want a dog, but I'm afraid I won't have the time to take of it.
CBT matches a software developer's mindset really well (at least in my view) and should be looked into.
Journaling therefore helped me, the disciplined kind where you write down all the thoughts you're having, at least to do with something that is bothering you. Then after each thought, you further journal by sharply analyzing the thought: basically, is it true?
Something I struggle with is specifying my emotions sufficiently. Does anyone know of a complete reference? Something that includes common causes would be best (such as: stuck on a problem you can't solve -> frustration). I have seen some relevant books but they tend to be more gimmick than substance
Compassion - getting out of bed was a win some days. That's OK. This shit is serious, and you can die from it. Have some compassion for yourself.
CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) - finding my values and starting to live by them was the key take-away from this.
Meditation - mainly learning that my thoughts aren't "me" and that I can ignore them with no consequences. Especially the ones that replay every bad thing I've ever done.
Exercise - Some days I did no more than put my running gear on and get to the front door before heading back to bed. That's OK. I ran a 12km "fun run" (it wasn't) within six months of starting running. I still run regularly.
Finding something larger than myself to contribute to - giving with no expectation of reward is amazingly good for depression. Finding a community and a way of contributing to it was a life-saver. Literally.
Therapy/Counselling - ultimately, acknowledging that I was not coping, facing up to my demons, and working through my shit in therapy has got me out of it all and back to a place of mental health. I still talk to my therapist about my emotions once a week, and it still helps. I don't know why.
What didn't work for me:
Diet - I lived on 2 litre ice cream tubs. One a day, eaten with a spoon straight from the tub. Meh, I didn't commit suicide, so winning. I have just about managed to shed the weight I put on (seven years later).
Anti-depressants - I was on these for about six months, and they just dulled everything and gave me no way out. I think I'd still be depressed if I'd stayed on them.
I don't expect that what worked for me will work for you. You're going to have to walk your own path on this.
But... seven years later, my life is totally different, completely amazing, and I'm a much better person for having gone through it. It can be a positive experience. I look back and consider how many times I came close to suicide, and I'm so grateful that I managed to avoid that. I'm genuinely happy and enjoying my life now, and that seemed impossible back then. Just keep breathing, and things will change.
Best of luck.
A good psychiatrist will treat the cause (for example, by recommending some therapy, like CBT), not just symptoms. And will not just prescribe medications, which do work quite well though.
I disagree with this. It's still valuable to hear from people with direct experience. Good professional help is a great idea if it's available to you. In the UK for instance, mental health seems very much underfunded within the NHS.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/transcranial-mag...
1. Go see your primary care doctor. Depression can be a symptom of hypothyroid and sleep disorders such as OSA. I have both and am in treatment. Rule those out!
2. Exercise! It makes a huge difference in your general sense of well being. It also increases your energy. I never liked working out, nor was I particularly good at weightlifting. I work out twice a week with a personal trainer. It's expensive but it's work the money. Having him there with me makes it more fun and keeps me motivated.
3. See a psychologist or psychiatrist. You might need medication depending upon how bad your symptoms are and how long it's been going on. But don't just go to someone who write you a prescription and doesn't do therapy sessions. Therapy helps a lot. I have found group therapy works really well for me. When it was first suggested to me I thought "no way! Why the hell would I want to talk to a group of strangers about my problems!" However, I've found it to be much more effective that one on one therapy.
4. Eat a good diet.
5. Take care of your microbiome. There is a link between the microbes in your gut and your mood. I use probiotic supplements like Align and Culturelle.
6. Find a hobby (and no, drinking and partying are not hobbies)
7. Don't try to "self-help" your way though it. If you broke your leg would you buy a self help book and try to treat yourself? Get the help you need from a qualified medical professional.
8. Get a dog. They provide you with unconditional love and endless amounts of joy.
Addiction, of course, is a real concern.
Don't get me wrong: I understand the appeal. Forgetting about your problems for a spell is actually quite nice. As you said, it can be easy to fall into a trap of addiction that only exacerbates the original issue while compounding others. So it's actually bad short-term, because the moment you sober up next morning, that rain cloud will still be floating overhead.
Everyone is different, but often after I sober up, I feel reasonably good for hours or days. Cured? No. As above, there is no cure.
A significant benefit of alcohol is that relief is more or less instant. That's good in itself. But it's also a useful lesson. Black moods suck, but they come and go, and the feeling that won't is just a feeling.
I don't care for analogies, but I'd liken booze to steroids. Harmful if taken in excess over long periods, but useful, even life-saving in some situations.
Recommending alcohol for depression is dangerous because alcohol is a depressant, it might make you even more depressed. Not only that but it can lead to addiction and the creation of bad habits - to drink when you're depressed. Before you know it you might become a depressed alcoholic and you will have two behavioral issues to fight instead of one, and they will be compounded because if you ever take psychiatric drugs to aid your depression, alcohol will not mix well.
I've had two suicide attempts, several years apart. I thought my life was hopeless- had tons of different diagnoses from major depression to bipolar to borderline and lots of drugs (started ~13 and lasted for 10 years). I am really happy today. I think I was so depressed back then that I wasn't even capable of imagining a better future.
The thing that helped me the most was exercise. Exercise is a keystone habit that begins a gratuitous beneficial cycle. When I had enough energy after taking lots of baby steps, I decided to take ownership to improve my life and started exercising and training for a 5k using the couch to 5k program. The running tied in with my new love for stoicism helped me develop discipline. When you're able to run for 40 mins without stopping, you raise your pain threshold and increase your willpower. Plus you get the positive effects of natural dopamine, runners high. They talk about this in the book The Power of Habit but you can have one habit that kickstarts a chain of events. The exercise gave me energy, discipline, and confidence, that helped me find a partner. I had terrible social skills and major issues so therapy helped me navigate that and my partner gave me support, accountability, hope, and love.
* Sunlight. Get outside. I have seasonal affective disorder on top of major depression, and if I don't get enough light, the suicidal ideation comes back. I have a lightbox but its not as good as the real thing.
* Exercise. I know. This one sucks. This might not be possible until the meds bring you back up to a baseline-functional. Try to get a walking buddy, and just take a short walk once a day. Walk outside to get extra sunlight as a bonus. You don't have to do a major workout, even just a 15 minute walk is better than nothing. Try to get a friend to walk with you. Not only does having someone to talk to make the walk go quicker, but it also gives you someone you have to be accountable to about walking. Or if you can't get a walking buddy, find a favorite podcast or something that you only listen to on walks. Make it something to look forward to.
* See a doctor and take care of anything else that's also going on. Get your thyroid checked. Get your blood sugar checked. Hypothyroidism or diabetes will make depression worse.
* Good sleep is vital. Maybe ask your doctor about a sleep study too, if you snore. You might have sleep apnea, and not getting good sleep will make your depression worse.
* Try to eat better. This one is hard too, and like exercise, might not be possible right away. "Better" is pretty subjective and nutrition is a volatile subject, so I'm not going advise a specific diet, but if you're eating pizza and fast food every day because you don't have the energy to cook, changing that will help.
Positive human contact. Hugs, cuddles, and conversation can make a huge difference. We are social animals and it really does make a difference.
There is plenty of research [1] on various relevant topics, but if you're depressed, I recommend a JFDI and test approach.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4672226/ et al.
* balanced diet, to a proper schedule
* quality sleep, to a proper schedule
* quality work, to a proper schedule
* quality exercise, to a proper schedule
* real-life interactions with (positive) people
* no social media; fight the FOMO
* vitamin D supplements
* cannabidiol (CBD) oil and magic mushrooms
…and in the abridged words of Nick Offerman – "Go outdoors; remain".
> * no social media; fight the FOMO
I feel like a major problem with life today is how social media has become a funnel for social interaction, and that for many people it's difficult to cut out the harm of it, without also cutting out your social life. That's not to say that it's impossible, and I'm sure some people here have successfully maintained their social life in the absence of social media.
Rather than trying to cure it completely, which isn't likely to happen, learn to monitor the matter and mitigate its effects instead. This can remove the cyclical nature of the problem, whereby failing to deal with it to your satisfaction causes you to sink further into the darkness, reducing the severity of problem periods.
(This of course may not work in severe cases, in those professional help and/or medication may be needed.)
Beyond this, as others have already mentioned:
* Maintain good health with exercise and decent diet. Some like myself find exercise to be directly therapeutic, for others the benefit is still very real but not as immediate. If you try something and hate it, try something else - I like running, I know people who can't stand that but enjoy swimming/cycling/climbing/walking/<other> instead.
* Try to maintain a routine, especially a good sleep schedule (this latter part could go with "maintain good health" above). This can be easier said than done as the condition can affect both the ability to sleep and the recuperative efficiency of what sleep you do get, but lack of sufficient good sleep can exacerbate many mental instabilities/imbalances.
* Make sure your routine involves the outside world at least in parts, even (perhaps especially) if you are "not in the mood today".
* Talk to people if you can.
* Consider medication if recommended. You might be wary of being stuck on it for life, but in many cases being medicated for a short while can give you a short break from the worst symptoms making it easier to find the impetus to start following the other advice and build a routine that helps you manage yourself.