Stimulants: This one I may be wrong about. My general thinking is if it disturbs your sleep and poor sleep habits cause depression, you should stay away from the stims.
Alcohol: This one I may be flat out wrong on. Moderate alcohol consumption seems to have an anti-depressant effect. Heavy alcohol consumption is associated with depression and suicide.
Most of what I said, especially about diet, exercise, and sleep are not controversial.
They aren't controversial but effect sizes on mood are small. You do not fix depression with small mood changes.
A lot of this research is further confounded by the simple fact that depressed people exercise less as well as eat less healthy. Epidemiology does not show causation here, only interventional studies do with tiny effects.
Example is the studies that show having friends makes one less depressed. Obviously people who are depressed regularly have fewer friends because they're avoided.
> Most of what I said, especially about diet, exercise, and sleep are not controversial.
But it is controversial. This is the most frustrating thing with ultracrepidarians - you can use a search engine so you think you know better than people who devote their lives to studying this stuff.
If good diet and exercise was effective to prevent depression we'd see lower rates of mental ill health in athletes, but that's not what we see. We see similar rates.
A lot of this research is further confounded by the simple fact that depressed people exercise less as well as eat less healthy. Epidemiology does not show causation here, only interventional studies do with tiny effects.
Example is the studies that show having friends makes one less depressed. Obviously people who are depressed regularly have fewer friends because they're avoided.