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It can be chicken and egg. I imagine that for many personal lifestyle changes are more difficult than popping a pill. Once they start to feel the benefits of medication then doing things out of the norm may come easier. In my own anecdote, it was over the counter stuff like St John's Wort and valerian that helped me do the life change stuff. Also, no one lives in a vacuum. If your husband/wife and kids are all used t…
For me, as someone that's been through it, and as someone that other people in my group of friends come to for help, the thing about exercise, cleanliness, and diet is that you're right, it is a hard lifestyle change. For most people . But I notice that almost everyone gets to a point when they hit their own personal rock-bottom, and they're willing to try anything. One of my best friends said something similar when…
You're looking at exercise, social activity, and other lifestyle changes as a means of combating depressive symptoms. That's absolutely true, and there's a wealth of peer-reviewed evidence to support that. Almost anyone with a depressive disorder would benefit. For that matter, almost anyone would benefit. And the social aspect, with friends and family pushing and supporting you as you set out on those efforts, can absolutely play a profound role in mitigating those symptoms (assuming those around you notice; it's quite common for people even with severe depressive disorders to be able to mask their feelings from even those closest to them). But for the worst cases, and even many that aren't as severe, those first steps are the difficult on a level that those who don't suffer from depression can't really conceptualize.
Imagine a mental pain so severe that it cuts through to your very soul; an existential despair so pervasive that simply envisioning a life without it is nearly impossible. I remember a professor of mine discussing a former patient of his: the patient described her depression as an overwhelming hopelessness so great that even suicide was too much of an effort despite wanting to do just that. Obviously, she managed to get help at some point but I remember feeling goosebumps along my spine as those words were repeated to us. It was a chilling description of an inner hell that nobody realized this woman was living in.
At some point in their lives, almost every single human being will feel a sense of hopelessness, despair, sadness, etc. Even the shitty emotions are part of the human condition. It's when they start to interfere with your ability to function in everyday life, and/or they persist for a longer period of time, that you start to look at a problem beyond the norm. Depression isn't about simply hitting rock bottom; it's more about not being able to see anything but. But even that's a bit of a generalization.