How I cured severe depression without meds and therapy......

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despite having arguably one of the suckiest lives of all time, with some of the worst bad luck, and a universe that didnt know how to give me a break.

Im not saying I dont feel sad and down from time to time, nor am I saying I dont have depression to some extent still, but as far as depression symptomology goes, my scores for depression have went from the severe range to the mild and at times non-existent range. I did this without therapy, without medicine, and while having my life go to hell over and over and over again.

And when I say my life go to hell the following are just a subset of some of the things ive been through in these 4 years alone:

Injury that messed up my body and destroyed my dreams in 2017

Cousin and friend commit suicide

Another cousin recently commit suicide

Had all my money robbed and the store I worked so hard to establish was destroyed in said robbery

Another injury, this time to the head that forever messed up my head, brain and ability to read, concentrate and think properly. Ever since migraines, passing out, and reduced cognition have been the norm

Mom died

Had to drop out of school when I was only a few classes from graduating

PTSD from being at the center of the Floyd riots

And so much more. At my lowest point this year and even weeks ago I was severely depressed, severely suicidal, had to go to the mental hospital several times, and was inches away from killing myself

Now I haven't had 1 single suicidal crisis, dont feel suicidal at all, I feel great some days, and at my lowest moments now I definitely feel sad and cry, but its not the type of severe depression where a person cant even get out of bed or do anything; at worst I just feel sad and emotional, but not severely depressed.

I cured this severe depression without medicine and without therapy (even at the hospital I wasn't given medicine. i got special exceptions, dont ask). Here are some basic steps I took:

1) Getting to the root of the problem. This may be controversial since many believe depression is a chemical imbalance, but I subscribe to the bio-psychosocial paradigm where depression isn't just chemical imbalance but more holistically induced as a result of complex dissonance between ones needs and expectations and the present circumstances not aligning with said needs. Deep at my core and soul I knew I was depressed because I was tired of being a failure and being crippled and knew I could never be happy without seeing myself attaining my goals and living my dreams. No exceptions. By pushing myself to go to the gym and workout in spite of injuries, I began to slowly heal and eventually by reaching my max bench of 175 lbs since my injury (before injury my max bench press was 325 lbs) I made my dreams more realizable. No amount of therapy and coping statements will ever satisfy me, so I had to make a choice: if I know I cant live life without my goals and dreams and what I want, I either have the choice to die or make my dreams a reality by whatever means necessary. And I mean whatever means necessary.

2) Exercise. Now its harder for me to exercise because of multiple injuries, so if I can do it so can others. The key to exercise though is intensity; brisk walks, basic movements on the machine, etc is not exercise and not beneficial. Exercise is rigorous when your face is turning red and grimacing, grunting, and you can feel your veins and muscles bulging and like its going to pop. That is the kind of exercise I put myself through, and the pump was so intense I felt a chemical rush to my brain unlike anything that could be described, it felt euphoric. I did weightlifting to induce said euphoria with heavy weights and that type of workout felt rejuvenating. I also supplemented it with high intensity cardio sporadically

3) Cold showers. Trust me when I say a freezing cold shower a day really helps cure depression. Among many other benefits:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articl ... -alertness

4) Watching and reading David Goggins. Forget about any and all other self help gurus who are frauds and quacks, this guy is the real deal and the only person who I can say saved my life:

https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Hurt-Me-Mas ... 1544512287



5) Revamping my diet. I dont drink anything but water and tea, so no pop, juice, milk, etc. Im also gluten free, dairy free, and lately red meat free. I also take vitamin supplements every day, specifically vitamins B12, C, D, K, as well as Zinc. My diet consists of solely natural, organic unprocessed whole food, meaning nothing from a gas station, no snacks, nothing in a box. Its fish from a local fishery, broccoli, bananas, eggs, peppers, chicken breast, and fruits.

6) Walks in nature. Being cooped up inside or in industrial artificial settings are damaging. A nice saunter through a pine forest without technology is deeply therapeutic

7) No social media. That stuff is cancer. Granted I do use facebook to promote activism for causes I care about, but thats it.

8 Tracking progress with a progress planner to show my efforts are paying off.

9) Chakra therapy and energy healing. Here's a kid's show ive used to help me (granted its a little simplified but it works surprisingly well for me:



Theres a lot more but those are some of the most important interventions I tried that came to mind.

So while my life isn't where I want it to be nonetheless I dont suffer severe depression anymore. I have at worst mild depression, and at best feeling amazing.

Thank you very much. I will attempt to copy your plan!

I wish more people would understand what you've figured out.

It is frustrating to see people religiously going to therapy for years in hope to recover, but completely ignoring absolutely essential factors that could help some of them in a matter of days.

All the scientific research supports your approach, but it will take like couple decades for official healthcare to catch up due to domination of dogma in the field, bureaucracy and incompetence of government agencies and resistance from pharmaceutical industry.

Regarding point 1, I don't really see a controversy. Depression is relatively well researched as a biochemical condition. All the underlying mechanism are biochemical, our neurons use chemical conductivity, there is not way around it. Depressive disorder on the other hand, is very ambiguous. There are a lot of factors leading to depression, including psychological issues, but it all still works on biochemical foundation. I believe depressive disorder as diagnosis would be made obsolete in future and depression would be seen as a symptom, in a lot of instances having no underlying disorders, as trivial as dehydration.

Yeah, cold showers are the best, I haven't skipped a day in like 6 months.

Decade ago I would never believe I would take cold showers, workout and walk outdoors every day. A lot of people think it's easy for me to do, they think I love doing it. They say "yeah, I would do it If I wasn't depressed", but it's the other way around. I'm not depressed for the very reason I made sunlight, fresh air, physical exercise, healthy food my highest priority after reading tons of articles.

One of the sad / ironic thoughts is that when I was really-really depressed, probably I would have dismissed all this information as total BS.

Well I just use marijuana for that...even got my med card for PTSD, so I can get the medical grade cannabis products. I mean I have tried various meds for my issues, but I always prefer weed. At least I have some control of how much I am smoking like if I don't need it I don't..If I do it's good to have it available. But I don't like the idea of taking a pill and being on that all the time...I would not discourage people who find those treatments work for them but I always have bad reactions with pills or drugs I have to constantly take. Like seems I just cannot handle most psych drugs well either they don't work at all or I get bad side effects from them. And I can smoke weed to relieve things without any of that craziness...so that is the one I prefer because I feel less f****d up just smoking a bowl to calm down, than constantly taking some psych drug that makes me feel weird all the time.

I haven't tried cold showers but I do moderate intesnsity exercise, eat healthy foods and try to be in nature as much as I can, but that still doesn't help. Is there anything else you recommend?