Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

- Go to bed early and develop a regular sleep pattern, and don't fool yourself with the myth about being a "night person", you are not a cat, you have just offset your sleep/wake cycle from lacking proper routine.

- Exercise regularly. Aerobic exercise(whatever that means for you) that you can maintain without develop injury or over-training will be your baseline. Endorphin is what you are after, since it provides a boost of immune system, better sleep, less anxiety and increased overall health.

- Be outside in the sun everyday, take a walk or sit and read a book.

- Cut out any consumption of large amount of drugs: alcohol, sugar, nicotine...

- Talk to someone about your worries and sprinkle some Zen in your life.

- Help someone else for no personal gain, but don't let it consume all your time.

- Understand that all things are transient, nothing is static, and trying to be eternally happy is impossible and the quest for such a thing will make you unhappy.

It was like someone massaged my thoughts or rinsed off my brain. Maybe it is more like a reboot. In any case, my brain felt good. So many thoughts that were negative just didn't have the same sort of affect on everything else. My worries had a different sort of framing on them. I could look at some of these things and make a reasonable decision about them. Some things, sure, I need to work on - but I was a bit more motivated to actually do so. Other things, I was able to make a decision not to be bothered by them. Since I had some time without so much mental stress, it wasn't so difficult to teach myself that those things were a bit ridiculous. I had a better sense of personal well-being and self-love that has stuck around.

I imagine doing this with an actual therapist would be even more helpful. I completely understand why it seems like a miracle for mental health in drug trials.

I've done other sorts of drugs in my life - lsd, for example. While they shaped some of my perception and thoughts about the world and life, nothing was quite like this. I couldn't describe myself as unhappy before, but now I'm really content with life.

I should now mention that I would urge folks to have caution. I can understand how folks would get addicted to it. And there is a risk of simply doing it too often and actually having the opposite effect. This is something to do occasionally, not every weekend or even once a month. The most profound change was the first time: I've done it since then, and it while (for me) it reinforces the things I learned the first time and still feel mentally refreshed the next day, it simply isn't as large of a change.

Another small sidenote: I've done it with my spouse. It also strengthened our relationship as well simply because we basically sat and talked positively for hours.

> Moderation or abstinence from social media, news, and most ad driven media

Amen to that: garbage in, garbage out

This chart about effects of life events on happiness is quite informative - https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Life-e...

I would not do prescription drugs (only after honestly trying everything else.)

Supplement magnesium (so key to health and so neglected). Try it, you won't regret it, unless you have some psychological barrier to supplementation.

Supplement gelatin before sleep (which contains a lot of glycine, there are studies showing it regulates serotonin and dopamine. In my family's experience it is amazing for helping you sleep. Also it is the reason why in my country broth's are seen as relaxing before sleep: they contain lots of glycine)

Look into lifting weights, I took it up after being depressed for months after my last breakup and it has been life changing. It has so many benefits from increased metabolism, growth hormone, testosterone.

Spend time in the sun frequently

Do something that makes you afraid/thrill. For example, I took motorcycle riding this year, hard to be depressed when your heart rate goes up. It might seem temporary but it sets the beginning for change.