to ask if you are depressed but don't take antidepressants, how do you manage your symptoms?

[97876757user]

Long time lurker. First time poster. So... Coping with depression without meds.. How? Just that, really. If you are not taking any prescribed meds and you manage it by yourself how do you do that? Curious to know how people against meds for mental health cope. Understand that there's a MH section. Posting for traffic. TIA

I've had quite a lot of private therapy over the years, mainly cbt, which has given me strategies for managing my depression. I can usually identify when my thought patterns are getting too negative and turn things around. On a day to day basis, I meditate and do some form of exercise outside, and I listen to lots of uplifting music. I've also made some lifestyle changes, I used to suffer badly with work-related stress so changed job to something more manageable, which I realise that I'm very lucky to have been able to do.

None of this means that my depression is cured, and I occasionally have some very dark times, which usually leads me back to therapy. I dont know if my life would be better / different if I took medication but it seems to work for me.

What I need to do is see friends and play sport, ideally team sport ( HIT workouts and yoga dont do it for me), basically me time. And having things to look forward to, planned in regularly - seeing family, holidays, meals out, fun trips. After almost a year of these things being illegal most of the time, I feel like I need to go back on antidepressants 🙁

Exercise helps with mild depression. Lots of studies done around that.

Therapy, and lots of it. I used to see someone twice a week. Psychoanalytic. I also got a blood test to check my vitamin levels and now take a regular B complex and D. Yoga has helped too but long term psychotherapy has been the most effective because often with depression, its hard to put your finger on what the issue is, sometimes we aren't even conscious of it.

At the risk of being mocked, but I'll be honest......I always needed to masturbate to get me started in the morning and get me out of bed. Otherwise I could have just slept all day. After some personal and family issues after a few years I had to eventually take to the pills to bring me back.

I think social contact really helps. With people who know you well and accept you.
psychotherapy
Exercise eg long walks
Music
Humour

Why would you not want to take medication? It can be revolutionary....

I have never taken meds as my father is an addict and it had given me a bit of a phobia of tablets. To manage my anxiety and depression I do a few workouts per week (2 that I pay £££ for because if I am not held accountable to turn up then I won’t do it, they are online right now).

Therapy, have paid in the past but currently having phone counselling with Mind.

I am fortunate to have a DH who is a good talker. Try and spend time planning fun things but that is difficult at the moment.

When I turn into

I concentrate on the people that need me to keep going and be there and be 'me'. Mum wife friend.

Push through, till i come up again. Have faith that i will come up and out again.

Posted way too soon!!
I meant to say, when I turn into a depressive episode I definitely need medication to get me out of it
But after that, it's cliché but exercise and healthier eating.
Exercise I like both cardio to get the sweat going and yoga for the calming mindfulness. I used to meditate a lot, but now I am better able to cultivate mindfulness throughout the day which helps.
When I say healthier eating, nothing too drastic. Try have some fruit in with breakfast and focus our main evening meal around veggies. We still eat rubbish sometimes, particularly weekends but our weekdays are fruit and veg centred to give the energy I need to battle through the week.
And yes, having things to look forward to, even if it's talking half a days annual leave to finish early one day so I can nap/walk/bake/craft. The small things

If you have an illness why are you against meds? Your choice really it seems mad to me, if you had an infection are you against antibiotics?
I absolutely love the strengthening of my emotional state steralyn gives me, it makes life worth living with healthy eating and exercise. I still have bouts I wake feeling like I've the weight of another person on me it thankfully few and far these days.

I do a few things:

Use tools taught to me in extensive therapy
Meditation
Reading
Exercising

But what I want to stress is none of these works in isolation and if I am having a relapse, I am having a relapse and there is very little I can do to stop it. In those times nothing but plenty of baths, terrible TV and snuggling up on the sofa works. My last relapse was in October and the one before that in 2018 so they are not overly regular.

I had cbt and it taught me a lot of coping mechanisms; I learnt what practical things help me feel better and how I can disrupt the thoughts that make me feel a certain way. I’d say taking one day at a time helped me the most and really by that I don’t even mean taking a whole day, sometimes it’s just taking a morning or an hour at a time. I concentrate on what one activity I need to do next to help me feel better and don’t let my mind jump ahead to feeling overwhelmed.

I do take antidepressants. I also take vitamins; walk a lot in our local fells; eat a healthy diet; check in with friends and family regularly.

I’m not sure I could manage some of the latter without the former, at the moment.

If my arm was broken, I’d have it treated. My mental well-being needs treatment at the moment, so I sought treatment for that.

A very strict attention to daily positivity . Grattitudes. Exercise . Rest. Gin . Good food . Social stuff . Time by self . Daily walk . . However.. i dip several times in a year and have to have meds for a while

Antidepressants made me worse ( I know that happens but I couldn't cope and persevere, and couldn't face

What helped
good sleep hygiene
being outdoors
sweaty workouts
yoga
making a point of talking to myself as kindly as a I would do a small child
last year - growing vegetables.

not managing any of those at the moment and feel myself teetering again

It depends. Sometimes only meds will work.

If I don’t take my meds my behaviour alters, I get a bit loud & overactive & hyper then crash into major depression. I wish I didn’t have to take them but that’s life.

It's all very well suggesting exercise, therapy and spending time with friends, but when you're depressed, you can't physically make yourself do those things. In my (lengthy) experience of depression, you have no motivation to do anything and even the thought of brushing your teeth is enough to make you cry, let alone leaving the house or, god forbid, talking to people! I can't even bear to listen to my favourite songs/TV/movies, they just piss me off when I'm depressed and I want to scream at them! It really is a case of not being in your right mind and your behaviour is usually very unreasonable. If someone told me to take some exercise whilst I was in the middle of a depressive episode I would either bawl my eyes out or get so fucking mad I'd want to punch them in the face!!

My therapist told me that until my meds started working properly, therapy would be useless as I couldn't even begin to focus, let alone put into practice the skills I needed to learn. Once I am on my meds and stable, I can begin to exercise, eat a healthy diet, socialise, wash etc. When I'm "normal" I'm at the gym 5 times a week, take good care of my appearance and am very house proud. During a depressive episode I look and smell like a homeless person and my house is a state - although OH does usually jump in to the rescue thank god!

Sorry, that got a bit more ranty than I expected!

The thing that has improved my mental health more than anything has been coming off Facebook. It wasn’t the easiest thing and actually took me about 2/3 years but now I’ve made the jump, I really don’t want to go back. I came
Off in December, and have literally sailed through Jan & Feb haven’t had a depressive episode or mood swing since. I realise it’s early days but I really do feel so much lighter!!

Also, since the end of December, I have tried to write down one thing a day that I’ve beenthankful for. It can sometimes feel forced and a bit false, but actually it’s made me recognise how much good stuff is in my life.

I find that forcing myself to get out of bed early really helps with staving off massive depressive episodes. If I feel I'm in the danger zone, I start getting up earlier and earlier. I've noticed that the whole waking up crying and not being able to get out of bed thing only arises when I've slept beyond 9 am. At the moment I'm trying to push myself back to 6 am because I feel mentally vulnerable right now. Wrt to sleep hygiene, I only get on the bed to sleep at night. I totally avoid it during the day.

Also, vigorous exercise has a noticeable effect, of course.

I'm not sure any of this could get me out of a severe depression, but it can stave it off and keep me in the realm of general misery and basic anhedonia until circumstances change and improve.

Got shot of the people that were making me miserable, mostly.

That gave me the freedom to do things that were good for my mental health - sleep properly, eat well, think without somebody demanding that I think about them and their wants all the time, every single day, do things I enjoyed, get out and about. Things like that.

None of them would have been possible - or permitted - by the person who was actually the cause of my unhappiness.

What helps for me:

• Going NC with people and family who make my life miserable
• Taking Vitamin D and B, they really do make a difference!
• Finding something I can focus on
• Going part-time
• Basically stopped giving a shit about what other people think and trying to fit in so much with society/today's standards..it's easier said than done but I feel at peace most when I can just be myself and not hating myself

I would kill myself without my meds. My brain just doesn't function properly without them