Ask HN: What do you do when feeling depressed?

Get out of your cubicle, go where people go, watch people have fun, have fun yourself, keep staying among people.

I recommend going to sleep if possible, or persevering with sleep in mind as something to look forward to. After waking, one tends to have a more harmonious frame of mind.

A sense of depression (and I assume you're referring to the emotion, not the medical condition) quite often has nothing to do with easily identified circumstances, the mind just tends toward the things it is dissatisfied with.

If you believe you have the medical condition, treat it like anything else: see a doctor. I know many people who have wasted years of their lives fearing a few moments of awkward discussion with their general practitioner. There's no rational reason to join them.

Going outside in sunlight and walking to a park is my healthiest trick. But my most effective trick is going to a cafe & ordering a Large Chocolate Mocha with 2 or 3 shots of coffee. (Failing that, a chocolate ice cream sundae usually works too.)

When I was in Berlin, on the rare bad day, I would go to my closest train station, sit on a seat and watch the people go by. Inevitably someone would come up and ask me for directions. Helping someone even with my terrible German skills cheered me up.

These tricks aren't long term fixes (walking & sugary mochas won't help you earn more money), but they might give enough of a short term boost that you can get back to working on something productive, and thinking about how to fix the bigger issues (improving relationships, finding a better job, making new friends etc).

Same.