[esperent]

Yes, I've been teaching myself guitar for the last six months. I think I would put that in the ambivalent category. It's more often frustrating than exulting and probably will be for another year at least.

But I also took up old hobbies of going out dancing and hiking and those are in the definitely helpful category. I never gave them up fully but had stopped doing them as often as I used to.

I think I'd summarize as: pick up an old hobby that you already know, if possible, or if choosing a new one, make it easy and even better if it involves meeting other people, being in nature, physical movement, or all three. I.e. go out to a pottery making workshop rather than learning it by yourself at home if you can handle it.

[breck]

Physical activity, and social activity, and interacting with the world (guitar) are all critical too.

But have you "tried a hobby(s) building things in the real world"? Movement is great, but in addition to that I'm specifically wondering about building.

I can tell you are a great writer, which makes me think your mind likes to build things, and I wonder if you've been restricting yourself to only building 2 dimensional things (on paper/screens), and not building things in the 3d/4d world (plumbing, gardening, electronics, etc). Maybe the depression is your body telling you it needs to be building in the real world too.

(Just an idea; could be wrong; feel free to totally disregard)

[esperent]

It's a good idea and one I've considered myself - and it is true that over the last few years for several reasons (running a business, living in the tropics where it's pushing 40C much of the year) I don't build real things as much as I used to. I do miss that, and I do identify it as a contributing factor.

However, one thing I'm sure of is that there are many contributing factors, and any reductive attempt to fix depression (just do a keto diet, just build things, just get more exercise) is not gonna be a solution. Besides, in a deep depression, these are likely to be close to impossible.

The best initial solution, as per modern scientific research, is CBT therapy and/or antidepressants. Next step is to bring joy and health back into your life - exercise, socialize, healthy diet, build things etc.

The third step is to figure out what went wrong and what's needed to fix it. You can and should do all of these concurrently - although it's probably a good idea to hold off on the last one until you've retrained yourself, or used drugs, to have a positive mindset - but the first step is the one that's needed to kick things off.

[breck]

> The third step is to figure out what went wrong and what's needed to fix it.

Very much agree.

Lately I've been wondering if depression is nature's way of forcing us to leave behind our current ways of thinking and grow a new neural shell: https://breckyunits.com/doHumanBrainsMolt.html

Lobsters act depressed during molting. It's a painful process. Even if they are comfortable in their current shell, nature does not give them a choice. Proteins escalate, and they must molt. This goes on for their entire lives. I wonder if we will discover a similar mechanism in human brains.