| I suffered from a major depression some years ago, and with "major" I mean a condition where I used to have panic attacks everytime I left my house. It was painful and took me a very long time (2 years in the middle of my twenties), but in the end I made it. Some random advices based on my own experience that helped me feel better and bow out of depression (please consider that I am not a doctor): 0) You are not alone, so you don't have to feel alone; talk to people that you won't feel judged by (the internet is great for this, and so are the therapists) and spit out everything 1) As you pointed out, medications can alter somehow your ability to focus, particularly on the first days. I lived my depression as a condition where I hadn't really too much control over myself, so I decided not to take any med because I didn't want them to take control over myself: you probably want to do the same 2) Day by day, write down simple todo lists, and try to complete all items. These lists will help you distinguishing days by their completed items and reacquire the awareness of time. Additionally, there is always a little bit of satisfaction in completing things you were supposed to complete, and we all need that! 3) Your job pays your bills, work hard but don't forget that you're only in it for the money, your life is something else, somewhere else 4) When you feel you're at the lowest mood, don't question if you deserve to be alive or not, rather smile and think that one day you will be fine again. If you didn't deserve to be alive, you would be probably already dead so let that bad bad thought go away 5) Don't be ashamed of your current condition but at the same time try not to get into the collective imaginary as 'that depressed guy'; there's nothing wrong about being depressed, but the last thing you want to deal with now is people's pity. I occasionally run into people that knew about my condition and I can still clearly see that 'oh, poor guy :-(' look on their faces: a bit frustrating to be honest! 6) From time to time during the day, for several days, give your mood a rating, write it down, then look for patterns and ask yourself why, at some point, your mood was increasing or decreasing. You have no idea how this helped me 7) Read this two parts post [1, 2] 8) As you sense you're starting feeling a little bit better, that is the time you should ride the wave and get yourself out of it, no fear, no look back: you made it [1] http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.it/2011/10/adventures-in-d... [2] http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.it/2013/05/depression-part... |