A few things besides meds that I find can help.

1. Get some good sleep at night. You may need checked for apnea. Get your thyroid and testosterone checked too.

2. Get outside for at least 20 minutes a day.

3. Take a vitamin D supplement.

4. Force yourself to go do something you used to enjoy once a week. I'm bad at this one.

5. Find some social interaction, this one's tough when In feeling down because I feel like a say negative stuff to people and and up feeling worse. Sometimes just a brief casual talk with a stranger is more helpful than getting way into the weeds with someone you know.

6. Write down some small goals and after achieving them write down a little bigger one. Don't over do it, little victories.

7. Try to eat 3 fruits and 3 serving of vegetables a day. I did 4 fruits and 5 of vegetables for a while years ago and after 3 months I'd never felt better. I hstill have a really hard time doing this one. It takes effort and planning but it keeps you from eating other junk. I try to get 80 grams of protein a day too. I've lost 70 pounds since December but I've yo-yo'd a bit.

8. Make a written budget. It can be depressing when finances are bad but is the first step to getting control of your finances. It won't be perfect, they never are, but it will help you to prioritize. Finances can be turned around and it's a great feeling to be debt free. I was in massive debt after grad school and it took a while but I'm debt free now including our home. It has been a blessing to not have that stress on top of other stressors I'm dealing with.

9. Recognize and avoid self destructive behavior. It makes it worse later every time. I struggle when I'm down with doing stupid stuff on an impulse I wouldn't normally do.

10. Give it a little time and realize your not alone a lot of people struggle with depression and there's definitely a physiological component too it. Like diabetes when you manage it well you can do pretty well.

This list is mostly for me but I thought I'd share. I need to get doing these things again.

Bb

Last edited by Burleyboy; 07/31/22.