How did you get back up?

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For those of you who have been very depressed in the past but have recovered / got back up to a stable level, how did you do it? Was it just by luck (e.g. something good coming to you instead of you having to go to it), medication, or did you somehow gain strength from the heavens and get back up yourself with no reason?

Basically I'm trying to find a reason as to why I should have gotten back up from depression (I'm not depressed as such anymore), since I don't have one yet. Surely, just being alive itself isn't it? There has to be a purpose too.

It's pretty much only the pills and my cat keeping my like this.

Last edited by Simonono on 14 Aug 2011, 4:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It just happens. If I could will myself out of depression, I would.

I did some searching on the internet and this made me feel a little better. I think I'll go read it again...

How to train yourself to be in the mood you want

I noticed that listening to the right music and having the right patterns and symbols on the walls and having the right smells and exercising every day really helps.

I don't think I was very depressed, but I had a number of issues and I told one of my friends who really helped me get over them. It was surprising how much it helped to simply have someone listen to me and accept me despite my bad characteristics.

Disclaimer: This is a personal account of purely subjective experiences. The methods I describe below seemed to work for me, and may not work for others.

By keeping busy (hobbies and exercise) and waiting it out. For me, keeping my mind occupied with one or more projects, and my body occupied with exercise instead of doing nothing (except dwelling on being depressed) seems to work. It may take several months, but one day I realize that the depression is gone, and without any memory of exactly when it went away.

The last time I took any prescriptions for depression was about 20 years ago. Changing to a more natural diet (fewer processed foods) seems to reduce the intensity and frequency of my depressive episodes, and I always let my physician know when I'm feeling depressed. If he feels that diet and activity aren't effective, then he can prescribe medication. Otherwise, he monitors my progress while I perform the regimen that I've described so far.

ALWAYS consult a degreed and licensed medical practitioner if you suspect that you may be depressed. NEVER self-medicate or self-treat without his or her approval.

Work. I moved back with my parents, eventually got a steady job within my capability with their help, and things improved from there. Unfortunately the job has gone to s**t lately, but I'm alright so far.

Likewise. I am not like anyone else, so no doubt have a skewed view of things. I have been generally very unhappy since the age of 9. But with me there is always a good reason. When things go well I am very happy, but things seldom go well. I have noticed this a lot with others. People who are depressed for a long time usually have a good reason for it. They/we have nobody to talk to, no job (or a horrible one), are trapped somewhere we don't want to be, and see our efforts fail year after year. Being depressed is therefore perfectly rational. The solution is to get the thing you want. But if that was easy there would be no unhappy people.Life is just tough and we have to use our brains to work out how to make it easier. And sometimes it takes a whole lifetime and we still don't succeed. That is life.

I should maybe clarify. Getting what you want makes you happy. Not having what you want - it's the process of change that we like. Once we have it we don't stay happy, we usually want something else. Also, I am well aware that chemical imbalances play a huge part. We are physical beings so ultimately all our feelings have physical channels. But science does not yet know what buttons to press. The easiest ay to be happy then is either to take massive drugs (which have long term negative consequences) or to get what you want. And the easiest way to get what you want is to change what you want. If you can see life differently so that easy to obtain things become desirable (like health or nature), you have it made.

My special interests.

And also, the realisation that if I wasn't proactive, I'd just get worse and worse. And if even though I couldn't see the positive side right now, if I did something positive it had to do something - just the notion that it was better to fight than remain apathetic...

Also I've been in therapy for four years and on meds for one, working well!

If it was partially someone else's "fault" you're in the state you are, then I've found it helps to let yourself be angry at them strongly for about an hour, and then stop the anger. Getting that out actually helped drastically for me. It took over a year to let myself be angry at him.

Keeping yourself exercising and eating right is important.

Find ways to help yourself when you're starting to crash. For me, I've been aware that water is relaxing to me. If I'm in a bad mood, then if nothing else is available I'll take a bath and read.

Paxil, clonazepam along with talk therapy and a neuropsych evaluation (resulting in a dx). I'm back in college, have long term goals again, in shape (working out regularly), and in general feel much more stable and level headed.

For me it was luck. An acquaintance from school randomly helped me get a job one day, and then everything pretty much turned around from there.

Anger helped me beat depression. Now I just have to deal with the anger...

I did a bunch of stuff. Moving halfway across the country really helped me. I think sometimes geography really CAN make a difference, the lack of sun on the east coast was slowly killing me.
I limited contact with people who consistently made me feel like crap about myself. I started getting a lot more exercise and eating better. I quit smoking and drinking.
When it was really bad I saw a therapist and took meds to help me through the worst of the anxiety attacks.

Now I do general maintenance. I keep to a routine so I don't forget to eat or end up in a panic because I'm late or unprepared. I look closely at the way I react to things and usually sit down and write out what I need to know about those reactions. (I literally write, "What I need to know about X..." and then list the items) Eventually I work out what is actually bothering me. I'm not very in touch with my emotions so this is really useful for me.

Lately when I feel stressed I'll think "what's bothering me the most right now" and if I can fix that thing, I do. Then on down the line. It makes me feel less helpless about the stress and I don't get overwhelmed thinking about ALL the things that need to be fixed.

-Distract your mind. I do purposeless things like trying to memorize lyrics or for example memorize the revenues of some random company from 1950-2010. I usually forget all this random stuff I memorize the next day, but just the act of listening/seeing/learning things calms me down and distracts me.

-Isolate yourself. Most people will say it's a bad things to do when depressed, but it works for me because I don't have to worry about friends etc.

-Try to make a big change in a part of your life that you don't like. This is hard to do because if you're really depressed, you don't care or don't think that changing one part of your life will make you happy, but it can.

-Avoid substance abuse.

Medicine helped me (sertraline, specifically), seeing a therapist, and the fact that my dog needs me and I need my dog help a lot.

It works best to find your own reasons for staying up after a depression.

I've reevaluated myself my last summer as a punker, two years ago. I've asked myself a whole bunch of questions and decided to be honest about myself as a person.

I don't need to do that again, for a very long time.