anybody have tips for dealing with/avoiding depression.

The first and most important thing I have learned: to recognise, acknowledge, and insist that difficult things are difficult. My primary problem in life has always been pretending that I am FINE JUST FINE as my world falls apart. Who, me, upset? Never!

Once I started saying "this sucks" when something really did suck, I felt much better able to cope with the troubles.

You might already be there, but this was a massive struggle for me that continues to this day.

Other than that, I only have limited tools to work with. Can't take pharmaceuticals, so I make do with Vitamin B and chamomile tea. Not as sexy as prescription meds, but searching the stuff out keeps me busy (hard to find good supplements and herbal teas here in the UK).

I'm not allowed to spend much time in the sun, but even when down I force myself to go out every single day. To walk, see people (even if that is just buying groceries), interact with the world.

If I could, I would spend all my time in the water - salt water especially - and I find that taking really long baths helps me feel more stable and positive. Of course this depends on having access to an ocean, swimming pool, or decent bathtub, and that has not always been true in my life. But it is still a good tip! Water restores....

When my kids were tiny it was nearly impossible to find time to be alone, to think or just breathe without someone demanding something, and finding that time really helped me calm down. To get it I worked out elaborate schemes with a husband who was in grad school and had zero time to offer, and set up childcare trades with people I met here at HM. I know this tip isn't useful for everyone depending on geography or family situation, and at the time it was not easy for me either as I had just moved to a new town... but it really helped. Though I ended up with only one evening a week to myself, and had extra kids around the rest of the week. The extra kids were actually handy, because all the children entertained each other, and that gave me more time and space to have non-child thoughts. And I felt good about helping other mamas. Though this only works after your own kid is about 2 years old.

The necessity of needing time forced me to make friends, and having friends was a huge improvement.

Which is the final and equally important point: community is key. I'm not very friendly by nature, and building up a circle of friends every time I move has proved horribly difficult. Especially in a new country. But necessary and overwhelmingly valuable....

Hope some of that helps! Depression just sucks. It is the opposite of fun and when it descends it is hard to believe it will ever depart. Huge good wishes to you!

Exercise and housecleaning. Also, giving time to myself to work on my creative projects.

i'll echo what bee said. sunlight and swimming in the ocean, god i miss living at the beach... aerobic exercise daily. yep, daily. i go through cycles of this and i have to force it for the first two weeks but after that the improvement is noticeable and it's easier to keep it up.

telling people that you have it: it takes the piss out of it. saying it out loud and acknowledging that it's a real thing that you go through and that you're experiencing it right now and things you say will be colored shitly. it will likely prompt a conversation wherein the person will commiserate, and ask about prior cycles and thus remind you that it happens, it passes, and it's not as big as it seems.

oh and eating breakfast. get up and eat something healthy, early in the day. for some reason this has helped me shorten my episodes.

oh and this part is obvious, but doing all these things has the collective effect of treating it like something you have to nurse and tend to like a cold, rather than who you are, which is an important distinction. particularly when people in your life find it inconvenient and would have you believe otherwise.

I want to add to all this great advice: Bach's Rescue Remedy. You know how you can kind of feel it before you start to really lose control? At that point, I use Bach's. It come in a little spray that looks like breath spray. It doesn't take away the depression, but it always helps calm me down to the point that I can logically deal with the depression rather than let it take me over.

It also helps me to remember that emotions are just chemical reactions. So when I'm depressed, I think about how subjective feelings are and if I just tough it out, I'll have the good ones again. It's hard to do, I know, but that plus Bach's tends to help me.

Have you considered talking to a therapist or a counselor?

This, too, shall pass! You don't have to let the depression take over. And we will always be here if you need to get stuff out. Sometimes typing out a long, long blog about my feelings helps. No one will judge you, or if they do, their judgements don't matter. Love to you, motor!

all good advice up here.

When my anxiety started escalating I did a lot of natural things, all mentioned above. That really helped but I did ultimately have to go the medication route & that took a while to get leveled out.

The most important thing, for me, is to accept that I am anxious and depressed & the reasons for it. If it's situational or chemical (usually both) I feel a little more normal when I acknowledge it.

Not much to add, except reiterate to really trust that it will pass. I try to just try to distract myself until it passes. Sometimes situations need action though.

Day Trips to the beach have always helped. Also, taking really good care of my body is a great depression fighter (green tea instead of coffee, avoiding sugar and flour helps my body, lots of fresh veges and fruit, yoga, sun, volunteering for or studying something really interesting to me, writing, and once in a while I just self-medicate.

my depression waxes and wanes with the moon, if im not depressed i have a period of stability before i fly off into mania. the tools i have i have to use everyday or else i crash hard. im invovled in radical peer support groups online, offline, via snail mail and email. i have too much to say in the topic but ditto alot of others suggestions. self care, creativity, homeopathy, herbs, yoga, community, singing, cleaning, alternative therapies, blogging...theres alot of tools i use. theicarusproject.net is a good mad positive site/forum that i have found really helpful with my depression/mania/everything else.

I am going through a bout of mama-depression currently and that is what has brought me back to this site, actually. I realize that this was a post requesting ideas for dealing with and avoiding depression, however, I kinda need to vent about my own depression... perhaps someone can relate and we can swap stories(?). Right, so, I am fairly new to my city and haven't made any friends (I think I forgot how to do that), I don't have family, I'm not working so I don't have enough money, and I have two kids who fight constantly = recipe for a solitary, socially inept, stress ball. I cry often. But, some days I find a renewed strength that demands time to myself, if only for an hour. Or sometimes, I will treat myself to the smallest of pleasures, breakfast out, a coffee to go, a smoothie, even though I don't know how we will pay rent. It helps for the moment, I guess. Still, I am constantly rejecting the bill collector's calls on my cell and am considering bankruptcy. I mean, WTF? I used to have kick ass credit and no real worries about money. You wanna know what happened? I entered into a new chapter of my life where my work as a preschool teacher made me insane and I had to quit. My husband is supportive as he knows how nutty and stressed I was when teaching. It had gotten to the point where dealing with kids for every single waking hour of my life got to me. I didn't have anything left at the end of the day for my own family. I wasn't nice to be around anymore. This was last November. Now, I am at home and am trying to figure out what to do next. My husband is in retail management so he has a fluctuating schedule that keeps me pinned to working around the kids so a day time job that can cover bills and daycare is the only real option.. not gonna happen. He is waiting for a job position change that potentially holds a set day schedule so I can go back to school evenings, be with the kids during the day and pick up a PT night job. So, there is a plan... but, it's a months long waiting game that is enough to drive a person crazy. Yeah, me crazy. How does one manage to teeter on the precipice of change for so long without going mad? I guess, it's about perspective. What seems like an eternity is really just a blink in the duration of one's life. So, how do you really learn to deal with it all when it feels like a downpour and the rising flood waters threaten to drown your good intentions? Sometimes I can float, sometimes I sink and sometimes I have an extra glass of wine with dinner. There is no real surefire way to make it go away. Some days are better than others and it really depends on caring enough about yourself and your family to just keep moving forward.

Dancing. By yourself, with other people, whenever, to whatever music is on hand.

Watching live music.

Therapy. A damn good therapist is worth her weight in gold. (I've always seen female therapists, guess I'm prejudiced that way).

Wine.

Medication.

Indulging myself. Aka self-care.