Tips for the depressed

I hope you will never give that list to somebody who has depression.

> I hope they work for some, but for me, SSRI's are frankly, trash. All the downsides with none of the upsides.

They absolutely work for many people. Unfortunately, many people deprive themselves of SSRI trials because they read too many negative anecdotes online. If you're seriously depressed for an extended period of time, it's worth a trial of an SSRI medication. If it doesn't work, just taper off and be done with it. At least you'll know.

> The only thing that worked was Imipramine, and I can't get it anymore because it's "old" and "not recommended".

That's bizarre. Imipramine is still widely prescribed with over a million prescriptions per year in the United States alone. If it works for you and your doctor is withholding it for some reason, please see a different doctor ASAP.

Given your strange and definitely not-normal experience with the medical system, can I suggest that you refrain from giving advice to others? I'm sorry you've had a negative experience with SSRIs and doctors, but it's extremely important that you not dissuade others from seeking proper medical treatment.

> If you're anti-depressant resistant, I'd recommend you try Gabapentin, a seemingly overlooked drug that works wonders for anxiety and depression. Quick tolerance buildup, do not give in and try to go over ~2g/day.

I recommend against Gabapentin as a first-line or even a second-line treatment. "Quick tolerance buildup" is not compatible with long term treatment stability. Gabapentin can be prescribed in limited circumstances for anxiety, but it's not a good first choice solution.

> The somewhat similar Phenibut also works, but it's a direct GABA agonist with terrible withdrawal symptoms and an extremely fast tolerance buildup.

Please don't recommend Phenibut. It's not an antidepressant. It's highly addictive and has severe rebound and withdrawal symptoms. Drugs that make you temporarily feel good should not be confused with antidepressant drugs.

Things that help me when I feel depressed:

- Listening to upbeat, energetic music and avoiding depressing music, which tends to make me feel worse

- Walking outside on a clear, sunny day

- Eating my favorite food

- Playing a good game to get my mind off whatever it is that I'm obsessing about

- If I am able to concentrate, reading something by a favorite author, listening to a good podcast, or watching a non-depressing movie (most of my favorite movies are, sadly, pretty depressing, so those tend not to help)

- Doing exercise

- Getting enough sleep, but not too much

- Improving my diet and supplementing to overcome nutritional deficits (this and regular exercise are long-term fixes, and have helped my mood and energy level tremendously)

- Talking to a good friend, or maybe calling a crisis hotline (though the results vary greatly depending on who you wind up talking to)

- Journaling (I've been using a voice recorder for years, and this makes journaling much easier, more natural and faster for me than writing... just talking things through, even effectively just to myself, often helps a lot)

- Talking to a good therapist. They can sometimes provide insights and offer good advice that I otherwise would not have thought of.

- Looking at the stars on a deeply dark night sky, and thinking about how small and insignificant my self, my problems, and everything else on this earth really are

- Reading stories of people who've survived ordeals and overcome tremendous adversity. This again helps me put my own relatively trivial problems in perspective.

- Then, as Nietzsche said, "The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night."

- Finally, I try to remind myself that I've been through this many times before and I always eventually feel better. Time heals all wounds.

There's some good stuff here, but it completely skips gratitude.

Focusing on what you're grateful for is one of the more powerful and best proven methods to combat depression. I've been through clinical depression and consider it the key to my recovery.

I largely agree with all the advice here. I dropped out of college due to depression, then I torched my tech career with a manic episode that led me straight from a FAANG SWE job to an involuntary psych ward patient for a month, which was followed by a half year brutal depression.

I’ve done a lot of research and I think psychiatry is pseudoscience and antidepressants are largely placebo.

I’m really on the mindfulness bandwagon but don’t believe it’s “positive thinking.” The opposite, it’s less thinking, more acknowledgment of how you feel. If you feel depressed, maybe that’s ok, maybe that’s part of the human experience. If it endangers your life that’s perhaps not ideal, but if it endangers your goals, perhaps that is ok. I think modern society pathologizes feelings and acts like anything that detracts from your ability to be “successful “ must be cured. It’s ok to feel bad feelings it’s how we react to them that’s more often a source of frustration. Meditation gets mislabeled as some way to reduce stress and clear your mind when I believe it’s training for how to learn to react to difficult thoughts and feelings.

I have many more thoughts on this topic for when the time is right but as much as self-care advice gets responded with “thanks I’m cured” self-care is the foundation to recovery. I have many more strategies to do this even when thoughts/feelings are giving resistance.