PlatypusHow do you battle depression by your own?
Recently someone recommended a book about this topic. I haven’t read it (yet), but I found the title quite fascinating. It was in German, so I’m trying to translate:
“Do not believe everything that you think”.
I have tried a couple different things, but they haven’t really helped me.
I started running back in March. I used a free android app called Just Run and I bought myself a cheap smartwatch to track my distance. Like the app suggested, I take 1-2 rest days in between each run day. It was more satisfying in the beginning being able to check off days in the app, but even then it only does so much. It provides a brief distraction I guess. I have tried to continue it because it’s supposed to be good for you regardless. Although running really does suck ass haha.
Recently I have been trying to take an OTC supplement called St. John’s Wort. It is one of the few supplements that has showed statistically significant results similar to SSRIs in clinical trials. However, do note that if you take literally any other medicine, please do not take it. It interferes with basically every other drug out there. But if you aren’t on any meds it might be worth trying. I haven’t found a noticeable difference with it either after trying it for several weeks. But I just bought a “better” brand and am planning to increase the dosage a bit (I was taking one less dose than recommended on the bottle), so we’ll see if it does anything.
So yeah neither of these worked for me. But I’ve read that they have worked for others. It doesn’t necessarily hurt to try them. Except like I said, please do NOT take St. John’s Wort if you are taking any other medication.
Should try meditation. Specifically mindfulness meditation. If you want a book, I Recommend “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” by Shunryū Suzuki.
OtterSt. John’s Wort
if you take literally any other medicine, please do not take it. It interferes with basically every other drug out there
Thanks for including that! The link below has some more information on common interactions.
The list below includes some recognized interactions. However, other drugs may also interact with St. John’s wort. Check with your doctor before using St. John’s wort in combination with any other drugs, especially prescription medications.
This is a comprehensive article! Thanks for the link!
Jo MiranOn running. I found that running or lifting weights on their own had no effect on me, but doing cardio AND weight training AND deep stretching in a single session was like magic. So instead of running for an hour, or weights for an hour, or yoga for an hour, I did 25 run/20 weights/15 yoga+stretches.
Very unsuccessfully, I’ve been fighting this fight for over 30 years in and out of the care of doctors, luckily right now I have insurance so I’m just out copays and whatever fees the psychiatrist’s office decides to send my way but it’s worth it because I’m stable. Without professional help I pile on distractions, hobbies, overwork, volunteering, etc. Not a healthy coping strategy, I’ve tried to kill myself twice (the last time earned me a 4 day medically induced coma) and been put on psychiatric hold. I know you said poor people can’t afford it but there are clinics where I live that deal almost exclusively with the homeless, if they can find a way to help them they may be able to help people in better financial positions who still can’t afford treatment on their budget.
Professional help can be cheap! You just might have to look little harder. For a while, I saw a psychologist who had a deal with a church where they subsidized most of his fee. So it was super cheap for me.
One of the most helpful things for me was Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT. I used a workbook that helped me see how skewed and untrue some of my thinking was.
Finally, walking in nature or, even better, exercise! Find what works for you. I like jump rope. Good luck!
There’s literally nothing where I live. I’m not American, so many of your structures and help don’t apply to my world.
Walking outside is free! There are free support groups online. Those require time, but just 20 minutes can make a bigger difference.
The CBT workbook I used was maybe $20, I think. It’s worth the investment.
Finally, getting over depression is all about retraining how you think. It’s going to take time, practice, and effort. Depression wants to show you how you don’t have the resources to beat it. That’s not true. You can beat it, even if you don’t have the resources other people might.
Depression has forever changed me. It’s easy to think that it was for the worst, but I’m more empathetic to people than I was before. Something that helped me was realizing and believing that depression is temporary. You won’t always be like this, even though you might feel that way.
You can do this.
MightyI know your point. Access to professional help is a privilege that few have.
I think next best thing is socialising. There’s probably groups in your area (see social media for that, meetup, Facebook, forums) that meet up and talk. I highly recommend in-person meetings. Also I tried giving my body some help with food. Carbs give you some serotonin.
You don’t have to go to a specialist to get antidepressants; many GPs will prescribe them if you ask. I also see a lot of online clinics offering prescriptions without an in-person appointment, but I don’t have personal experience with that. The standard antidepressants are fairly safe and I wouldn’t be too worried about side effects to take them without a psychiatrist’s supervision.
Other than that, what helped me most was realizing that I couldn’t trust my own thoughts. It’s hard, because generally “X is true” and “I think X is true” are subjectively the same thing. When I went through periods of depression, I sincerely believed that I had never been happy and that my depression would never end, but as a matter of fact I had been happy (or at least reasonably content) for most of my life and prior episodes of depression had ended. Being able to realize that I had actually been happy and probably would be again, despite what felt true in that moment, made depression much more bearable.
Another key intervention for me was moving closer to my family. It felt like a huge defeat (here I was, an adult who couldn’t handle living on his own) but I told myself “plan based on who you are, not who you wish you were”. Having supportive people around helped a lot; when I’m depressed I don’t want to be around other people but that is actually the wrong strategy.
Lots of other people have said running & friends, those things help me. But recently/now I am depressed and running 40 miles a week and seeing my friends regularly.
What’s a really cheap solution? Pirate some bibliotherapy books! Feeling good by David D. Burns is older, but I’m reading it right now and it seems like a really solid CBT book. I would also recommend “Adult children of emotionally immature parents”. It helped me understand why I am the way I am
I don’t have depression. Journaling help, saying stuff out loud helps. Seems that antidepressants work. There might be other factors that contribute to the depression and can be minimised to help take the weight off.
Steps
It’s so ironic how almost everyone tells you to go get professional help, but I guess that’s the best option.
One simple thing you can do is workout. It’s physically painful so you can forget about the harsh reality for a moment, plus you’ll become (physically) healthier.
I found gaining an interest in hobbies that are difficult gave me a will to live. I want to experience mastering all of these crafts that take decades to master.
Cooking, drawing, woodworking. Becoming a master of just one is hard enough, so every minute is extremely precious. I try to spend as much time as possible practicing and learning.
I can’t think of suicide because I worked so hard to male this much progress, and I still want to experience my other hobbies.
One’s craft helps one’s life. An old Japanese saying.
Don’t do it on your own, do it with other people.
I found that the more time I spent with other people, the less time I was spending beating myself up.
There's an AA saying that the opposite of addiction is community; I find the same thing is often true of depression.
Ever heard of the cocaine mouse?
The experiment was to put a mouse alone in a cage with two water sources. One had sugar water that would keep the mouse alive, the other had cocaine and no nutritional benefit. The mouse would keep drinking the cocaine and starve to death.
Then someone tried the same experiment but they gave the mouse companions. With other mice around they would all eat.
Highly agree with this.
I struggled with depression for years and the most beneficial change I made was to put effort into developing close friendships. Having friends and family that you can talk to and share things with is immeasurably valuable.
Also, listening to other’s problems helps develop your own empathetic response and it’s a short step to extending that empathy to yourself. Be kind to yourself and avoid negative self-talk. You deserve better. Life is hard enough as it is.
That’s not a possibility
You’re literally interacting with people right now.
There are people online who need help with all sorts of problems.
If nothing else, you can just listen to what they have to say.
Online interaction does nothing for me.
It seems like if what you’re doing now was working you wouldn’t have posted.
Why can’t you interact irl?
Maybe see if there are help groups like the ones for alcoholics. I'm sure they also exist for depressed people, or people who procrastinate. Generally they're lead by volunteers and people who suffered through it themselves and not professionals who need to be paid...
sing. doesn’t matter what you sing or how well.
That dopamine hit.
Learn to redirect, wear a bracelet or similar physical reminder of a specific thing you like, when you experience the thoughts you want to avoid, redirect and focus on the things you like
Change your environment, identify triggers that push you toward depression and avoid them. Some literally cannot be avoided, and some situations are impossible to escape, in those cases accept the associated negativity and redirect
Find people who have the attitudes and feelings you want to emulate and spend time with them, we are social and learn much from our peers
Ingest media that aligns with your desired world view, avoid tragedies, horror movies, gore, popular doom news media, etc. This will force you into an echo chamber but it is a popular coping technique
Most important you are your own person, write down how you feel and what triggered those emotions every day. You can’t really know if you’re improving if you don’t have a record
Hello. I am 51 and have been battling chronic, often severe, depression since 1989. I also found “professional help” ineffective on the psychology side and ultimately harmful on the psychiatry side (meds)…for me. I understand that they are helpful for most, but no two people are the same.
I have found that there is no one thing you can do. There is no “silver bullet”. It will likely take a number of techniques and solutions in conjunction and others only when needed. Here are a few that might help, or might not.
- Fitness and Exercise - Yes, I know. The last thing you want to do is torture yourself further but, the effects can be immediate. Sometimes a strength and cardio workout can give you enough of a chemical kick in the ass to help you through at least part of your day.
- **Bullet Journaling ** - Journaling is the most useful tip I got from a therapist, but it wasn’t until I tried Bullet Journaling that I saw its potential. It is very easy to get lost in ourselves and lose all hope of anything ever being better. Keeping a journal, especially one as detailed and focused on your well-being as a bullet journal, can really help you realize tye progress you have made. It can also help you evaluate your past states of mind and possibly find relationships between those states of mind and things you have done. Maybe you notice a pattern between depressive episodes and eating steak or broccoli or chats with your sister, etc. Don’t scoff, depression is fucking weird. Anyway, I highly recommend reading The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll. If money is an issue, you can probably find it in you local library system, used book stores, or 🏴☠️ if you must. I bought a copy used on Amazon for $6.
- Quit Alcohol - Sorry. Depression and alcohol consumption are besties and every time they get together, you pay the price. Not much more to say than that.
- Microdose - I personally don’t think it is a good idea to get full on high. Again, we are not identical robots. Everyone has a different bio-chemical system, but abuse of any one substance never tends to work out well. That said, microdosing weed literally saved my life. I won’t go into details but chronic and severe insomnia had me a the edge of suicide. The meds I was being given were not helping and they were literally stealing “me” from myself. Two puffs from a vape pen before bed (not enough to get me proper high) gave me a solid five to six hours of sleep (I was getting 60-90 minutes before).
- Diet - Eat as clean as you can. The less processed food and ingredients the better. Eat balanced. Instead of making meat the centerpiece of the meal, try making the enhancement. Lots of greens, legumes, fruit, etc, on your plate to go along with your small piece of protein.
- Hydrate - I struggle with this one too.
- Interact with others in person - I am not saying that you need friends and family, or that you need to surround yourself by loving relationships, etc. All that sounds great, but isn’t on the cards for many people. It also comes with the risk of introducing toxic people or relationships into your life. What I mean is, try to make an effort to engage with the humans around you, even if it is superficial. I small talk with my cashier at the market, my waiter, etc. I try to engage with others as often as I can. It is low risk because if they don’t respond you can move on and you will never see them again, and even if you do, they will likely not remember you. Just don’t keep trying with that one person if it didn’t work previously. Don’t be creepy. The point is that our stupid monkey brains need that. We do not do well with absolute isolation.
- Sunlight - You need it.
- Recognize and remove toxic people and relationships from your orbit - The word “orbit” is on purpose. I do mean directly from your life, that should be obvious, but I also mean from your vicinity. Maybe you hang with someone who’s nice but they are in a toxic relationship. You don’t need that energy around you, especially if that person is just an acquaintance (we overuse the word friend when we often mean close acquaintance). This might sound cold but you need to save yourself before you even think about trying to save others. Otherwise your depressed ass might do more harm than good.
Remember, these are just opinions. No two people are the same. You need to find what works for you.
whotookkarlI think the usual recs are things like start small and consistent and take care of your physical health (not over/under sleeping, good diet and exercise, keeping yourself and home clean, etc), hobbies, cultivate relationships, etc but if you’re not able to take the steps to make those things happen you may need a professional’s help who can offer things like talk therapy, behavior therapy, medicine, etc. i.e. If I have a sprained ankle I can keep weight off it and wrap it to let it heal, but if it’s a break I’d need a doctor to maybe set the break and cast it to get it to heal properly, similar for mental health some stuff you can do yourself but some stuff takes some else trained to heal or help identify the difference between the two.
1- Exercise - I generally think that walking or running on trails in nature is one of those generally free beneficial thinks you can do for depression. Worse case scenario, you improve your fitness and feal better about the shape of your body.
2- Sleep - Yeah, this is a massive one, aim for at least 7-8 hrs. Regular exercise will help, but try to keep a relatively even sleep schedule (schedule yourself to be in bed without your phone by 10pm is a lazy but easy way to help).
3- Limit doomscrolling - Looking at the latest news about what craziness is happening in world probably isn’t that amazing to do that often, so limit it a bit.
4- Diet - I’m vegetarian, and when I started years ago I noticed it really seemed to make my bouts of depression easier to handle. That being said, at the very least make sure you aren’t eating too much junk food and try not to drink. If you aren’t getting enough of a particular nutrient, take a multivitamin (magnesium is a pretty common deficit for most, and can affect your sleep).
5- Meditation - The act of breathing can occasionally give a bit of a break from the spiral of depressed thoughts, so it’s no wonder that a lot of therapists tend to recommend it. Just start with 10 min a day and see if that helps any.
6 - Atmosphere - I know his can’t always be helped, but just adjusting your living environment can make a tremendous difference. Try taking a day or so just to thoroughly clean your room/apt/house. Personally, my advice is to clean like you are trying to truly help someone you love/respect so that at the end you feel like no stone was left unturned.
7- Music - Kinda try to find some music you like that is soothing and try to like depressive or harsh music. Sounds stupid, but it helps some.
8- Psychodelics - A bit controversial, but I personally use shrooms long term to handle depression. They honestly have been the best long term depression maintenance I’ve found for the price. But truthfully, most of what they do is give you a few hours to step out of your emotions, and force you to actually look at yourself. They are basically just making you acknowledge the above for the most part, and after a trip if you don’t make changes, they won’t really help that much. Pro tip, a notebook to capture your stream of thought can be very helpful for post trip integrations.
Excellent post.
On the topic of shrooms, the 50-100mg of Golden Teacher or Penis Envy have worked well for me. Every other day for 2 months. Then take a month off.
If you have the ability, OP, you could adopt a pet. It helped me a lot to have someone to keep me company and that I was responsible for.
You can’t just lay in bed hoping for tomorrow when you got a terrier yapping at you to get up and play with him.
Glad it helps, I was kinda in the same situation as op as few years ago (depressed, broke, and living with my parents), although I was in the US. I don’t personally recommend having a pet when depressed, I’m thankful that my dog wasn’t cared for by just me at the time as I suspect that I wouldn’t have gone great. I personally try to fully trip every 4-6 weeks, but the more time passes the longer I find I don’t need to trip that frequently. I take a pretty high dose, have to schedule out a full day to get through it. I haven’t really tried much in the way of micro dosing, but I’ve heard that they work for a lot of people.
I’ve found, like with most drugs, I need more than average. I take a quarter+ to really trip then smoke DMT during. While my friend I last tripped with ate an eighth and tripped out.
5-HTP serves me well. It’s got a similar serotonin impact without the tripiness of shrooms.
EduardEverything (except 8, obviously) is pretty standard practice for CBT as well. In terms of self-help, I’d also definitely add
9: Find nice people/a nice group to spend time with. Doesn’t really matter what it is: sports club, theater, study group, board game club, garden builders. Just follow your interests.
I think many people dismiss the incredible value friends bring to our life and the stabilizing effect it has on out mental health. Loneliness is one of the deadliest causes out there (some studies say it’s as harmful as smoking daily), so make sure to have people around you whom you like spending time with! And no, digital groups are not the same as real-life ones. Body language is incredibly important in communication, and with it missing orr brain processes information differently.
Tl;Dr: Get out there and find nice people.
Shrooms are definitely dangerous, especially for people who are prone to schizophrenia I’ve read.
Personally, they made me realize my mind is capable of being content. No longer full blast, spinning plates all of the time.
That experience made me realise change is possible, and I got professional help a year later. Turns out I’ve been living in C-PTSD since I was 5.
I’d argue that shrooms themselves aren’t a huge deal, but pre-existing conditions for sure have accounted for (if you are schizophrenic or have bipolar disorder, please be careful/don’t take them), correct dosages for different strains should be taken, and you should do them in a safe environment. Shrooms themselves can’t directly kill you, unlike some stronger psychodelics (lsd, research chems, etc) which is why I generally recommend them (and not mushroom chocolate bars, which are usually research chems even if they say otherwise).
Either way, glad to hear that you seemed to get the benefit of change!
Most of your info is solid, just a couple quibbles from a longtime psychedelic user. LSD also cannot kill you. I prefer psilocybin of course but don’t spread disinformation.
Second one is it’s psychedelics, not psychodelics.
Thanks for the catch on psychedelics, my autocorrect messed that one up and I didn’t notice. Also, while I know actual lsd can’t kill you, I have heard that there can be contamination one some with elements that can (admittedly secondhand knowledge, but still). Testing kits seem to pretty much catch it, but I think if someone is inexperienced they might not know better. More just trying push them towards shrooms first, as it can be a safe first step.
Right on. What’s being sold as acid right now is often the RCs like the shroom bars. I don’t think any of it is life threatening though.
It’s generally 4acodmt, which is similar to pure psilocybin. It’s most assuredly stronger than shrooms, and as you said I think you could probably confuse it with acid. That being said, you could theoretically take too much of it due to the concentration and be harmed, as while shrooms take a bit of time to digest, 4aco doesn’t. Also, much the same issue as acid, it’s harder to produce so there’s a slight chance of contamination that could be deadly (again, word of mouth but I remember a lot of long time shrooms users being wary of the chocolate bars as they didn’t want newbies to start with them and be potentially harmed).
Schizophrenia is the only reason not to take psychedelics. Your first sentence could easily be misinterpreted as a lie that tries to falsely apply that danger to other areas.
All the usual “be safe, feel safe” advice applies no matter what!
Walks, lots and lots of long walks. Sometimes 3 or more per day. I take my dog with me and he loves it. Seeing his smile while walking brings me a lot of joy.
Does it cute my depression? No
Does it help? Absolutely
Other than that, as many projects/ crafts as i can do. I make myself start painting even when I don’t want to. Before I know it 30 minutes has passed and im balls deep in painting. Again, does it help yes, cure ? No
I’m not sure if I was clinically depressed or not. But I definitely went through a couple months where I wasn’t feeling myself. My GF moved in with me this year and I thought it was just me adjusting with a new “roommate”.
I eventually realized it was the house. It was a mess and that was what making me feel depressed because it was hard to talk to someone about being a slob if you loved them.
So I guess maybe think hard about things that have changed and when you were happy and see what you can do to change them?
I know it’s probably not great advice but it’s free and it worked for me
Prescription drugs. Schedule an appointment with the doctor and they will have you fill out a couple questionnaires and discuss options. Medication is free with most insurance
I hear you. Not just in money but in time as well. Its very different when your situation is the cause of depression as loosing what little freetime and money you have to try and treat it is just adding fuel to the fire. Meditation. Buddhism as a philosophy, trying to get away from modern corp bs. Its easy to say and harder to do but there is a mindset. You want cheap and easy food treats and media so its easy to say hey its worth getting pick up food or paying for a streaming service. If you can realize how much nicer a clean environment is and how enjoyable it can be to make a nice meal from simple ingredients. Walks, preferably in nature, are great. If you get to a certain point you will despise the smartphone, the fast food, the monthly non necessities. OMG take a hot long bath if you have a tub. Embrace what you can.
Exercise every day. Eat decent food and get good sleep. Practice mediation. Find artistic hobbies that you enjoy.
anon6789I had depression for about 20 years and ignored it because I thought it would be too expensive and complicated.
One time I mentioned it to my GP at my free annual checkup. He wrote me a script for Lexapro. Even when I didn’t have insurance, it has never cost over $20 for a month supply.
It has been worth countless times that to me, and one of my biggest regrets was not just asking sooner and assuming and taking other people’s word it was complicated and expensive to get help.
As mentioned in another reply, try the teledoc and see if they can give you something. There are a few cheap types these days so you can hopefully get one that works for you.
Best of luck, it is truly life changing!
Severe treatment resistant depression here, not able to be controlled through medication, will never feel good yadda yadda.
I find goal setting is very important. “I just have to make it to X” then just move the goal post.
Save your energy, reduce sugar and glutene, sleep well, reduce distractions, exercise.
Also what you said to not tell you.
You really shouldn’t fight depression solo. We’re social creatures. Trained therapists aren’t the only people who can help you, even a trusted friend or a random stranger in a free support group can do wonders.
Local support groups probably exist in your area. Sometimes they aren’t very visible, and being depressed certainly won’t help you find it.
I didn’t know about any in my area, since when I’m depressed I’m unable to look for those groups, and when I’m fine, i have no need to look. But after joining a local mutual aid board, i found out about quite a few resources that were fully free or extremely cheap (less than $50 us) when others asked for them.
If you are queer, a lot of queer support groups often have resources to help you out.
As for how I treated mine, exercise and hiking, finding scenic areas, avoiding alcohol (which i was bad at), and trying to live more “intentionally” and not getting into patterns that left me feeling hollow. For example, i tried spending less time gaming, and substituted that time with reading, since that made me feel less like I was wasting time and my life. I also tried learning to cook, since having good meals was great, and not constantly eating shit from a local fast food joint helped me stop rapidly gaining weight, which was certainly making things worse.
I also have a trusted friend who i talked to about some of my problems, and he helped me get through the worst parts. This was probably the most important part, and it got me on the path to getting out of that depressive episode.
Reading internal family systems by Richard Schwartz, watching videos by sadhguru, taking time to try to follow the threads of “intrusive thoughts,” by trying to sit in them while focusing on my breath and trying really hard not to think in words, trying to listen to myself rather than talk to myself in my head.
I do also see a therapist, and he helps talk through things that paralyze me from making decisions.
imo, it takes a kind of effort to be constantly “aware” and “battling/ avoiding” depression. it would be nice if the brain just auto-switches in battle-mode but that’s not its natural state.
As for how I battle my own, I do hobbies like plants, walking and reading; and sleeping. Sometimes I do cheat days.
SusagaYou post stuff like this a lot. You keep talking about being lonely, or about being sad, or things in that same spiral. You clearly know what the answer is, but you refuse to listen to it or accept it, but you STILL ask the question. At a certain point, I have to wonder if you LIKE being miserable.
As harsh as it is to say, I think you need to get over yourself.
Get help. If you can’t afford a pro, get an amateur to talk to. There are low-cost helplines and support groups around the world. Don’t just come up with a reason why you can’t do it. You can. All that remains is whether or not you will.
Incorrect and no, your solutions are not available for me.
Why not?
Also, I’m willing to talk to you so long as you promise not to dox me.
Bro is a is giving off some strong “have you just tried being happy bro?” Vibes.