[AndrewMock]

1. Get medicated.

2. Set one small baby-step goal each day. (set an appointment today, etc.) Change the goal every time.

3. Change your environment. Move cities or schools if need be.

4. Exercise. Start with one rep on day 1, two reps on day 2, etc. Baby steps.

5. Ask for feedback on stuff. Any positive feedback helps motivate you to learn and do more projects.

6. Seek a healthy relationship.

7. Be vulnerable. Let somebody else that cares about you know of your state.

8. Be spiritually-curious. I'm christian and that inspires a lot.

9. Realize when your "objective observations" are not objective. Don't be blindsided by emotion.

10. Vent your emotion in a healthy and controlled way.

11. Write one sentence about your week every week. Again, baby steps.

12. Never do drugs. This just amplifies your problems.

13. This includes no smoking.

14. If you make lists and spreedsheets, track the frequency you leave the house.

15. Make alarms on your phone.

16. Volunteer once a week.

These are mostly based on experience and personal observations.

[farresito]

I wouldn't be so fast about getting medicated. There are well known side effects. I don't think that is the solution, at least right now. I'm not sure about this obsession with getting medicated for every problem, honestly. If I got medicated for every issue I've had in my life, I would be in debt.

To answer to the original question, one of the easiest and potentially best solutions is to pick up an sport if you don't practice one and to spend more time with other things besides programming. Forget about programming for a few weeks. Do your college duties and don't spend more time than that. Go do other stuff. I've gone (and still do sometimes) through the exact same thing.

[Strom]

1. Get medicated.

12. Never do drugs. This just amplifies your problems.

Your points #1 and #12 are a nice big contradiction.

Anti-depression drugs in particualr tend to have rather significant side-effects, which can last for a decade after you've stopped taking the drug.

Going to drugs to help against depression should be a plan C kind of a thing. Changing your environment and activities should be well tested before that.

[TeMPOraL]

My guess is that GP is not native American (or a native of other English-speaking country). As a non-native, it took me some time to grok that the term "drugs" can mean both "medicines" (like aspirin) and "addictive substances" (like alcohol, tobacco or cocaine). I suspect GP is referring exclusively to the second meaning. For instance, in Polish, we always use separate words for those two concepts.

[collyw]

"medicines" (like aspirin) and "addictive substances"

There is a lot of overlap in these two sets.

[TeMPOraL]

Not disputing that, only pointing out that some languages don't use one word for those two, however overlapping, groups.

[collyw]

Well depends how you look at it. They are pretty much the same in many cases. There are plenty of "drugs" that aren't addictive and plenty of "medicines" that are. Is caffeine a medicine or a drug in your view? I don't see as much of a distinction as you would appear to.

[TeMPOraL]

Again, I'm not saying there is much difference - just that there are languages that use two separate words for those concepts and don't have a (common) one for both.

For example, in Polish you'd classify aspirin as a medicine ("lek", "lekarstwo") and caffeine as a stimulating substance ("używka"). There is another word that is used to refer to harmful addictive substances like cocaine ("narkotyk"). There is no generally used word in Polish that encompasses all three terms.

[0tiger1]

Sure, you shouldn't rush to get medicated, but you should be open to medication as an option. I believe depression is often chemically caused, and if you've tried healthy living, meditation, etc., there are many good, relatively benign, well tested medical options out there.

[TeMPOraL]

Indeed. Medication are not silver bullets and usually won't solve problems alone, but a right pill may be just what's needed to enable you to deal with the problems. Personally, I'm on SSRIs and (despite getting a common side effect) I'm very happy with them - even though I still suffer from depression symptoms, they're nowhere near the level I had before getting those pills, which pretty much restored my ability to hold my head above water.

[lxt]

Definitely this. I fought depression (originally PPD, but didn't go away) without medication for three years. Tried exercise, sunshine, B vitamins, volunteering, etc, etc. When I finally went to the doctor the medication working was such a huge relief, because nothing else did.

[techbio]

Consider your state of mind. Contemplate and act on potential adjustments. This, too, shall pass. Put out feelers. Find an understanding, not "sympathetic" professional. Also, pull your pants up and get to work.

[rosser]

There's definitely a place for medication, but for the majority of people, it's probably not number 1.

[theanti9]

Having spent a long time on medication for depression in the past, I can verify this. There's a lot you can do to help yourself before trying medication. Exercise and learning to manage your emotions are a great place to start and can help a lot more than most people think. It definitely has a time and place, but the side effects can be a lot more drastic (and sometimes detrimental) than a lot of people expect.

[Symbiote]

My doctor (in the UK) strongly recommended 4 before 1 for several friends. I think only one used medication in the end.

[lucd]

Rather than taking medication, you may want to take some supplements with 5-HTP, a precursor of serotonin. IE: Griffonia Simplicifolia.. It does have far less side-effects, no dependency.. Far less popular with the pharma industry because not patentable..

[oldmanjay]

1. Get medicated. 12. Never do drugs. This just amplifies your problems.

[midniteslayr]

I will agree with Volunteerism. That was the best thing to help my mood, because, while I wasn't getting paid for it, I was among people who were genuinely happy to see you and talk to you.