What helps you the most?

[Vicfran]

My name is Vicfran and I suffered with persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia or chronic depression) for about 21 years. If you also have PDD you'll know what that's like. It's a horrible place to be. I kind of held down a job, but everyday it was a major struggle to get out of bed, I was on the brink of tears constantly, had very little or no energy or motivation, my home was messy and I isolated myself from my friends and hid my feelings from my family. My dog was really the only thing that kept me going. I cared so much more about her than I did myself.

For the past 11 years I've been on the road to recovery, with lots of hiccups on the way. A little progress, followed by a return of symptoms, another step forward, another two back and so on.

Today I'm living symptom free and what I'm hoping for from you, if you'd be kind enough to share your thoughts with me, is to share what is the number one thing that helps you in your controlling your depression symptoms (not including medication or talk therapy)?

For me, it was getting more social connection and I found this really hard, but the most helpful in the long run.

For years I had isolated myself, spending whole weekends on my own, dreading the phone ringing, wearing dark glasses outside so I wouldn't have to make eye contact with anyone.

I took baby steps to encourage myself to interact more with other people; spending a few minutes chatting with dog owners down at the park, having brief conversations with people in shops or at the library, responding more when people spoke to me.

What's the one thing that's helped you most on your road to recovery? (Outside of medication or psychological counselling).

Thanks for sharing!

[GarethE]

Hi. I'm pretty far from recovery but I find that just doing normal things like shopping, going for a walk, doing the dishes etc helps to turn down the incessant screaming anxiety

[CitM]

Taking a good multi-vitamin every day.
Vegetarianism.
Knitting or some other home craft or art.
Getting out of the house once a day
Prayer
Sun Lamps during winter.