These are the themes that emerged after patients with major depression were in remission from van Grieken et al. (2013). It’s not an all-inclusive list, but a good reference for anyone struggling to find a strategy, from people that had success better managing their depression.
- Take the signals of my depression seriously.
- Maintain long-term professional support.
- Acknowledge that depression is a disease.
- Leave the house regularly.
- Find a therapist with whom I feel a connection.
- Ensure enough rest to avoid exhaustion through over-exertion.
- Inform close family/friends about my depression.
- Set realistic short-term goals.
- Explain my depression to family/friends.
- Involve close family/friends in my treatment.
The thing that works for me better than anything else I’ve tried is large amounts of exercise.
I’m glad that works for you. I’ve noticed running gives me more energy and puts me in a much better mood. The hardest part was starting. So I enrolled with a personal trainer so I would follow through. If I didn’t care about myself I weirdly cared more that I was inconveniencing someone else and that little social contract forced me to show up and start.
My understanding is it has a similar effect to antidepressant drugs over the course of a couple of weeks: hippocampal neurogenesis.
The short term benefits are nice too but the medium term benefits have been, as I said, more powerful than any other intervention.
I’m glad you’ve gotten started and found something that works.
My only advice is to take it easy if you’re older than 30, because the endorphins from running can make it feel good to go too far. Not an issue for most people, but if you’re under heavy chronic stress it lowers the threshold of overtraining.
I agree with this statement. Exercising had always been something that helped to ground my mind and improve my mindset; however, I had to learn how to not overdo it as a means of self-harm which I had done for a time too.