Shaking depression preferably without meds

nexuscrawler

So I've kind of been "off" the last month or so. I'm constantly tired, listless and irritable. i also haven't been sleeping or eating much at all. I have a history of depression so I'm pretty sure I'm just in the downside of a cycle right now. Still i can't seem to shake these problems no matter what i try.

I have a bad history with anti-depressent meds and would like to avoid them at all costs. I'm wondering if you guys know any good way I can fight it without them. I'm open to pretty much anything.

witch_ie

I suggest starting an exercise routine that you enjoy to get the endorphins pumping. Also, while this is more psychological, take a good look at your life - what it is, and what you want it to be. Then start making some positive changes.

Edit: for grammar

SpongeCake

Exercise is always the best option. Go walking or jogging, it'll give you a big fat endorphine boost as well as having the added benefit of keeping you fit and healthy.

stixs4321

Practice breathing deep.

Lay on your back, place one hand on your belly button(2 fings on button and 2 below), place the other hand on your chest, exhale completely till your chest deflates, inhale trying to push your lower hand as high as you can using only your breath to fill your stomach, exhale completely, exhale some more to get that last bit of air, inhale trying to push deeper this time, ect.

Its a good idea to stretch before you try this as it'll open up your lungs even more. Attempt to do this nightly before bed as it'll help you sleep as well. Go for a set time of breathing if you can like 5minutes or even longer(30mins) if you want to become very relaxed and test your patience. You should also attempt to do it elsewhere in your life like when you're watching tv, reading a book or playing a video game. Every little bit helps and once you nail it, it only gets easier and easier to upkeep.

Supplements to take are fish oil and B-vitamins. A natural anti-depressant if you want to try is 5-HTP.

For depression its a good idea to exercise daily if you can. Also eating healthy can give you a sense of control upon what you put into your body and the added nutrition is good for you either way.

Do you have any medical problems? Any chronic pains in your body? If you do getting those cleared up can help with the depression.

To sum it up;
- Take fish oil and B-vitamins
- Get 30minutes of sunlight
- Eat healthy
- Exercise daily
- Stretch daily
- Most important practice the deep breathing

citric

Yeah, exercise -- running is supposed to boost a person's mood as much as meds.

GoodOmens

I concur on the exercise idea, but I also know from my own depression experiences that getting moving can be the hardest thing. It might be a good idea to try taking long walks instead of "working out" per se; give yourself a some time to relax and recharge a bit.

Dangerous

Along with the exercise and healthy eating, good sleep helps a lot. Even if you need to take something at first just to help you sleep, getting a good sleep cycle established helps a ton.

Serule

Try getting more sunlight - many people get depressed during the winter months; light therapy has been shown to alleviate depression in some people. This goes great with 'get more exercise' - try walking or biking.

Feral

Another vote for exercise.
Also, see a doctor if you can and get a checkup. Depression can be a symptom of various other diseases.

Grundlterror

I was on meds for a while and decided to tackle my depression while off the meds. Good for you, trying to avoid meds at first. I'm not a doctor however, so I can't say that it's the right choice.

I would also like to second fish oil and exercise. I'd also like to recommend an additional thing of my own. Water. Drink lots of it. I'm pretty sure it's been shown to decrease daytime fatigue and irritableness. Plus whenever I drink a lot of it I seem to be in a better mood.

Also, I was recommended a book by people in these forums not too long ago that worked very well for me. It's a cognitive therapy book called Mind Over Mood. I got it off Amazon.com. I would highly recommend it.

Good luck in whatever you choose to do.

Einhander

I have a history of depression as well, and stopped taking medication for it because antidepressants generally make me almost entirely anorgasmic.

And that's a problem for me.

Anyway, it hit me bad again (depression, not anorgasmia) about a month ago I quit a job that had me working nights, and for the last couple of weeks I've been taking a multivitamin amd riding my bike a lot, and it definitely helps. I've also been surrounding myself with people I know, doing things with my friends to alleviate lonliness, and getting drunk a lot (don't get drunk a lot). All of these have helped me considerably, especially with the lack of interest in everyday things (and the lack of motivation that accompanies it) that usually plague me.

Good luck with whatever method(s) you decide to go with.

Yar

Exercise, meditation, and diet. All good advice. Sleep is good too. however, sleep deprivation has also been shown to cure a down cycle. I know of I go on half sleep for two night it kicks me right out of a down cycle.

GrimReaper

Exercise, if you're not the kind to go down to the gym like all the plebs then do what I do. Walk home from work, it's a good 4 miles so I get a decent amount of exercise everyday.

Stop drinking sugar drinks like coca cola, eating sweets etc. Infact, stop eating/drinking anything that has sugar or caffeine in it. Only eat things that have natural sugars in them, for example apples. Oh, if you drink alcohol try and cut back and try drinking only water or at least increasing your intake of water daily.

I started doing this a few years ago, apart from the relapses around holidays I stick to it and I find my depression etc is SIGNIFICANTLY less.

Whenever i've had sweets a while after I feel listless and often depressed. My problem is I discovered this by accident, I stopped drinking coca cola a couple of years ago because I saw it was affecting my teeth, after losing a couple of stone I noticed my moods were significantly better. When I started walking home from work and losing more weight I noticed when I woke up on a morning I wasn't particularly groggy like I often was before.

Unfortunately because of the sweets and coke I drank as a kid it has cost me roughly £1500 (about $3000 I think) in dentists bills so far with more in the future I suspect.

Feral

Yar wrote: »

Sleep is good too. however, sleep deprivation has also been shown to cure a down cycle. I know of I go on half sleep for two night it kicks me right out of a down cycle.

I can totally attest to this. I have no idea why it works, but it does, at least for me.

misbehavin

SpongeCake wrote: »

Exercise is always the best option. Go walking or jogging, it'll give you a big fat endorphine boost as well as having the added benefit of keeping you fit and healthy.

Absolutely 100% true.

I always exercise normally, but when I hit those lows (trust me, man, I've been there!), I just start running my heart out, 45, 60, sometimes even 75 minutes at a time. By the end of one of those runs, I'm so tired I can barely breath, seeing spots, and I get the greatest runner's high.

It goes away after a few hours, and I tend to sink back a bit, but never as bad as I was before, and it helps me get through the tough times to do that each day during a bad down period. Plus, it keeps me in great shape and healthy, which is an added bonus.

EDIT: Lots of sleep helps me too, but I usually can't sleep when I'm really down, so I won't suggest it.

Dalboz

All the suggestions in this thread I would concur with. More exercise, more sunlight, better diet. A key to remember about fish oil, as was suggested, is that you need to get fish oil that's filtered, because the heavy metals in fish come out in the oil. For myself, instead of fish oil, I grind up flax seeds and put two tablespoons on my cereal every morning. It works just as well.

I would like to add something though: Do you see a therapist at all? You can go to a therapist and not take medication, or at the very least they can't make you take it, and if you're honest up front that meds aren't an option, they may also recommend some natural methods. Probably along the lines of what's been said here, but still you also have the added benefit of having some time set aside for you to unload your mind to someone.

Khayless

I've been here before, and yes, medication is a temporary solution at best. However, talking with a therapist is a great idea.

I agree with all the suggestions on diet and exercise, but I've found that something as simple as setting goals for yourself, and then taking some steps towards that goal, can make a world of difference. You don't have to find a cure for cancer or climb Everest, just find something you want to do, and work out the first step to take.

The biggest problem I've found with depression is that you get stuck in a rut, and it feels like life is passing you by. A sense of achievement can make you feel like you're in control again.

Chaotic Descent

I'm curious about more subtle changes for people who have less control over their lives. Maybe it's a long complicated road of figuring out why your mind is resisting. You know like when you watch a TV show and one of the characters is being really stupid about something and won't let it go, like on Lost when Jack is obsessing over the guy his wife is cheating on him with. You just... can't leave it alone.
I wish I could find a good therapist but... I just don't have much faith in most of their competency.
Friends, exercise, all would be nice things to have. I just don't know where the potential for change comes from. I haven't found it yet.

stixs4321

Chaotic Descent wrote: »

I'm curious about more subtle changes for people who have less control over their lives. Maybe it's a long complicated road of figuring out why your mind is resisting. You know like when you watch a TV show and one of the characters is being really stupid about something and won't let it go, like on Lost when Jack is obsessing over the guy his wife is cheating on him with. You just... can't leave it alone.
I wish I could find a good therapist but... I just don't have much faith in most of their competency.
Friends, exercise, all would be nice things to have. I just don't know where the potential for change comes from. I haven't found it yet.

Do the deep breathing. When I don't do it for a long time I go nuts and obesess/stress over everything like "why'd did blah say blah to me and my boss said blah to me last week." Also I sometimes can't watch tv shows or comedians in particular when I'm like this because most jokes to me are ignorant of the individuals who find it funny. When you practice the deep breathing you can hit a meditative spot and you'd be suprised at the period before the clear mind how many things you let go, solve or just accept. Even if you don't hit the meditative spot you can usually let the world around you flow much easier and the more you practice the easier the world flows.

Example: You bang your foot and flip out beating up the chair. After practicing deep breathing, you bang your foot and just keep walking on.

ben0207

Excercise, a healthier diet, see your friends more, and if necesary listen to Walk by Pantera on repeat.

saltiness

Exercise and sunshine. They work for me every time.

Echo

Exercise = better blood flow to the brain, which is always a good thing.

Feral

Chaotic Descent wrote: »

I just don't have much faith in most of their competency.

Going to a therapist is like going to the gym. Whether you go is more important than where you go.

Bliss 101

I've wrestled with depression and anxiety for the past ~10 years now. I've tried antidepressants as well as meds that help me sleep, but neither seemed to work terribly well for me. The sleeping pills in particular were something of a disaster. I didn't feel like being a guinea pig anymore and set out to beat the disease on my own, and what I have now is a reasonably balanced life with occasional days of genuine happiness; the depression doesn't control me anymore, even though it's always there. There are a few tricks I've learned along the way:

- First of all, I agree wholeheartedly with everyone who suggested exercise. Running a bit has a huge impact on your brain chemistry, and at least for me it works immediately: even while I'm running I notice I'm feeling better, thinking more clearly, and quite literally even seeing the colors of the world around me more clearly. Forcing yourself to actually leave the house and do this is the tricky part, but it's well worth it, and gets easier once you settle into a routine.

- Avoid addiction. Get rid of everything that triggers an addictive response in you, be it alcohol, drugs, sex, online games, whatever. It's always something that takes you away from being the real you, and it'll make you feel worse in the long run. I myself still have cigarettes to deal with and then I'm clear.

- Treat the depression as an entity separate from yourself. I think of it as a tumor. This makes it a lot easier to deal with the fact that you keep fucking things up because you're depressed.

nexuscrawler

Thanks for all the adivce guys. I' trying ot be a bit more active physcally and socially. it seems ot be helping a bit. I also started taking vitamins and 5-htp again. HOpefully that'll help a bit.