Things are becoming more depressing every day and I can’t afford for professionals and don’t want to jump to the last resort or drugs. Is there a medicine that can make me happy if I take it in proper doses and does not require a doctor’s prescription?
Just mentioning this because I see all the others: spicy food. Your brain makes happy chemicals to help with the pain, apparently.
Someone I think on mander.xyz was saying that regular 90-second cold showers seemed anecdotally to be maybe competitive with medication in terms of how well it combatted depression
St Johns Wort can help. It’s not as effective as prescription medication, but can help deal with mild ‘low mood’ type symptoms. It’s comparable to the effect of a compression bandage on a joint. It will help with the equivalent of a pulled tendon, but will do next to nothing against the equivalent of a shattered elbow.
It is worth noting that there are 2 sorts of depression. Feeling sad, while unpleasant, is a lot easier to treat. It’s generally caused by external stimulus. While this is harder to treat with drugs, it responds a LOT better to lifestyle changes. Basically, you need to figure out 2 things. What is making you sad, and how do you remove that effect. Implementing it can be an absolute bitch, but it’s worth the effort.
The other sort of depression is proper “clinical depression”. This is a chemical imbalance in the brain. It can be brought on by external stimulus, but it’s not dependent on them. With this, your brain starts losing the ability to care. Motivation becomes a lot harder, and so the cost to payoff with positive activities gets worse. Internally, it’s like having the chroma on a TV turned down. Everything gets muted and dull. Nothing is worth the effort required to do it. This sort of depression does need proper treatment. It’s far more insidious and will grind you down. To beat it you need to change your very brain wiring. This can be done, but generally requires significant external support. If you could beat it alone, you likely wouldn’t have become trapped within it.
I’ve experienced both. Neither are pleasant. Just keep in mind, both distort your thinking. Often, you can’t fully trust your own thinking. Situations that seem impossible to cope with will just crumble when actually attacked. However, without enough motivation, you often won’t even try.
An just to note, if you get to the point of intrusive, self destructive thoughts, that’s when you need to seriously reach out to external help. Even if you think you can cope with them, they can send your mind spiraling downwards.
Exercise boosts endorphins.
Physical contact boosts oxytocin.
Sex does both.
Chocolate helps produce serotonin.
Capsaicin-heavy foods will make your body produce adrenaline and endorphins.
Caffeine is a drug but can give you a long hit of dopamine — but overdosing will make anxiety worse, and can fuck with your sleep cycle. It’s also rapidly addictive and the withdrawal symptoms include malaise and depressive feelings.
A stable sleep cycle is A#1 for happiness, though. It won’t make you happy on its own but screwing it up will make you unhappy on its own, so it’s the foundation to build everything else on.
Vitamin D3 is a good idea, generally the recommendation is 1000 IU a day. Especially now after the winter (assuming you’re in the Northern hemisphere) your vitamin D storage is probably depleted (the body needs a certain amount of UV radiation on the skin to produce vitamin D.
Regular exercise has been proven to help against depression and I think it’s probably the best and most important thing you can do. While helping your depression it will also help your general health and fitness.
Eat well: lots and lots of veggies, legumes and whole grain products. If unhealthy food makes you happy, don’t cut it from your diet completely. Allow yourself to eat sweets etc every once in a while and in moderation, but try to have a very healthy diet as a basis.
These things are probably hard to implement when you’re depressed in the first place but I guarantee you they’ll help and become easier as you go if you consistently stick to them. It takes about 66 days on average to build new habits. So if you manage to stick to it for about 2-3 months, it will become a lot easier.
Good luck!
Go on hikes through forested trails on a regular basis, no bullshit.
Vitamin D
A lot of people, especially those who don’t go outside, have a vitamin D deficiency. This is especially prevalent this time of year as winter is just ending.
A lot of depression symptoms can be tied to Vitamin D deficiency. Go out and get a supplement and take it for a week, see how you feel.
deleted by creator
I don’t know about that kind of medicine, but resolve your repressed anger and depression will disappear.
but resolve your repressed anger
how to do that?
Sorry for seeing the comments now, but it’s never too late hopefully.
Therapy helped me. Looking back first important step was noticing that I am angry. It is strange how hidden and unrecognizable anger can be.
Second part is discovering why I was angry. As soon as we discover why are we angry, we stop being angry. When ai asked my shrink how does that work, he said “I don’t know, but it works”. And it really does.
Now when someone says “I am angery and I know why I am angre” I am sure they have no idea.
And I haven’t found other way to resolve that, than psychoanalysis as therapy.
I don’t feel angry, all I could feel is hopelessness about the future. I have no plans, no job and my girlfriend is going to break up with me but I don’t know when exactly she will and I don’t even have a clue what is the reason. I don’t hate anybody, on the other side I just don’t feel loving anyone, especially me. I wish I could have wings and fly across somewhere. That should clear my mind.
Check out Dr. K on youtube. HealthygamerGG is a channel ran by a psychiatrist that focusses on educating men and their mental health problems. It’s not a replacement for therapy, it may help you in the right direction.
I have constant anxiety and low dopamine. I take Ephedrine, and it’s worked miracles for me. It even helps me concentrate throughout the day.
I prefer Primatine, but Bronkaid also works. Both can be bought over the counter with an ID
This is a drug, which OP said they’re avoiding. It’s also potentially dangerous.
Medicine is drugs, dummy. And ephedrine is safer than ibuprofen, so do a little research before you drop a dumb comment
Wow, did you miss the point. Yes, I was pointing out that ephedrine–a medication–is a drug.
And no, it is not as safe as you make it out to be. I have both “done my research” and spoken with a couple of physicians about it.
What medications aren’t drugs? Please, give me a list.
And your anecdotal “research” doesn’t really mean shit against the mountain of evidence towards ephedrine’s safety. It’s one of the longest studied stimulants on the planet.
Yeah, that’s why I made fun of you suggesting I do my own research.
You have completely misunderstood this entire conversation. I just said that medications are drugs. Are you high? Is that why you can’t figure out basic statements?
If so, that’s fine, you’re welcome to be high, but you might want to stop commenting on the internet.
You’re a moron with no point, holy shit lol
