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Dead billionaires.
Community. Walkable neigborhoods. Culture. Access to high quality (prepared) food. Treatment of chronic illnesses. Free time to do things that make one feel happy and fulfilled.
Drugs only make it easier to cope with a world that makes these inaccessible to the average person. They individualize and pathologize a burden that would otherwise have to be addressed systemically by the ruling class that hopes to have a functional and passive working class.
edit: … I realized something, looked it up, and wouldn’t you know it; here in the US, good old Reagan closed down the psychiatric hospitals less than a decade before Prozac hit the market (antidepressants existed before that; since the 1950s; but were mainly only marketed to doctors who would prescribe them to women with ““housewife syndrome”” for the purposes of domestic labor). That’s not to say that psychiatric hospitals are any less of a band-aid solution, I just think it’s rather telling that they were closed at a time that folks with clinical depression (and probably other illnesses) could simply be given a pill and put back to work.
Money and really good friends
Major positive changes in your environment and removing any stressors, coupled with effective, active weekly psychotherapy. The whole exercising, eating well, self-grooming etc things will come naturally as things get better and easier.
Don’t get me wrong, doing them will also help tremendously, but no need to beat yourself up with not being able to do them while in full crisis. Your mind just can’t cope with it at this point.
It’s a chronic illness. I’d say there definitionally isn’t a cure. Just different ways of managing it.
Some cases are short term, situational depression - say, as a reaction to something happening or that occurred. Others are indeed chronic and unyielding. There are ways to manage it, or to adjust to it but I agree there is absolutely not a known cure.
Socializing is difficult when one’s instinct is to isolate. I learned that in non-human animals that exhibit depression it is often because they believe they are going to die and do not want to become liability to the rest of the group, when applicable.
Basically the same for humans where there’s a chance that if that situational depression is activated (for the lack of a better term) it might never shut off. Overactive hind-brain also makes one prone to fight/flight/fawn which is colloquially anxiety disorders.
Sunlight
None of these are a cure. Clinical depression is a real thing and you should see a mental health professional. But here’s my list.
- Go outside and get some sun
- Exercise
- Drink water
- Get enough sleep
- Eat healthier
- Form meaningful social connections
- Reduce screen time
- Only use your bedroom for sleeping(and sex), use different spaces for different activities
- Journal
- Write down 3 things that need to get done today, and then do it
Most importantly. You don’t have to do all of it. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. If all you can manage today is drinking a glass of water, then start there. This random Internet stranger believes in you.
Also drugs.
+1 zillion on sleep!!! It’s so under rated while it solves so much. Physical and mental. I could never repay my coach who tought me relaxing is an important part of training. 40+ years later i can still get to sleep in minutes. Often even seconds. Invaluable.
Treating the cause, because depression is not a
symptomillness but aconsequencesymptom (eg unknown mental issues, chemical imbalances etc). It’s not trivial.(thanks for helping me out with the wording, got confused)
Drugs.
Soul-crushing profit driven economies are the main cause of my depression.
Yeah but we don’t talk about systemic inhuman requirements.
The fall of a fascist regime and its replacement by an actual democracy, based on the needs of the people and prioritizing them over corporations and billionaires?
Utopia. I agree. That should be societal progression but we’ve been taken over by a whole system of people that are taught to own things and fight to the death for those owned things using tokens that represent false value. So much false value that they throw even more tokens at you called “points”. Now they are even letting the masses trade for free now that the stock market is a rotting husk.
This is not a practical long term solution, but one answer is falling in love. Everytime I’ve fallen in love my depression goes fully into remission. I have lots of energy, it’s easy to keep my place clean and super easy to shower, do my hair, whatever it takes to look pretty. I am inspired to try new things and get into hobbies. I have patience and am less irritable. Works like a charm until we’ve been together long enough for the relationship to become completely routine, and then the depression creeps back in, bad as ever. But you can get like 6 months out of it.
Problem with falling in love is that it can and will backfire and then the depression comes back twice as bad.
So. Find a sex worker you like and keep them on retainer?
/S for you idiots out there
Therapy, seriously. I am not a mental health professional, but from what I have read, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be just as good as chemical antidepressants.
If you are struggling with depression, please do yourself a favor and see if your health insurance covers therapists. If not, at least read up on therapy techniques to deal with depression. I have been recommended Feeling Good by David D. Burns as a book to follow.
Running.
And no, i’m not kidding. I knew one who got the choice his therapist : take medication or start running. He took the advised solution and found running really works. A co-worker started running a few years back and later admitted the feelings of depression went away.
i don’t run, but i walk a lot. it definitely helps. i went cold turkey on my antidepressants two weeks ago because my doctor is incompetent and thought that was what triggered my mania (it wasn’t, i just got a new computer). i tried explaining myself to him but he just said (in his limited english) “YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN”
Some doctor
I’ve been running from my problems for a while now and I’m fine
That’s great if you’re able bodied. What about those who physically can’t?
Fresh air and any activity you manage to do.
The drugs are only there to make you stable and able to receive therapy. They are not a cure, they are a tool.
Also true. Many think it’s the solution, but they (only) help you reach the turning point
Highly depends. If you’re depressed because of lack of brain chemicals, due to things like ADHD or whatever, then medication can be the cure (with therapy).
Exercise and money.
I dunno about a cure, but a cat that wants to snuggle is a pretty effective treatment.
