Managing depression/anxiety without meds - what helped you?

[Anonymous]

If you are able to manage your depression or anxiety without meds, what worked for you? (Side note that I am not anti meds, but I spent 10 years medicated with significant side effects and little mood improvement on pretty much every SSRI out there and have also gotten way too dependent on Xanax at various points in life so am looking for non pharmaceutical options.)

[Anonymous]

Exercise, meditation, yoga. Therapy. I’m not 100% but I’m way worse without all of those.

[Anonymous]

Exercise and not working full time.

[Anonymous]

Two things helped me immensely- taking 3-5k vitamin D and iron supplements. Both gave me energy and improved my mood.

Dh was not even depressed but I put him on the vitamin d without saying why. Two weeks later he commented on how much better he was feeling recently. I then told him about the vitamin d. A majority of people have low D levels.

[Anonymous]

I also had some very difficult experiences with side affects and just never found a medication combination that successfully addressed my depression/anxiety without seriously impacting my personality or ability to work and maintain relationships. Also had to taper off meds before trying to get pregnant and have never gone back on.

None of this is a perfect solution, and I do sometimes contemplating going back on medication. But I would say this manages my mental health about 85-90% of the time:

- Routines (making my bed everyday, meal planning, having a planner and sticking to it)
- Therapy and journaling. I don't go to therapy all the time, but will do a 12-week stint with my therapist when I feel a depressive episode coming on. I also journal a lot to practice what I work on in therapy, and find the practice of observing my depression and anxiety and recording it helps to mitigate it's effects. This is probably the single biggest "breakthrough" I've had in treatment -- that it is possible to detach from my depressive and anxious thought patterns by simply observing them.
- Caffeine, but controlled intake. I don't do highly caffeinated sources, but one caffeinated tea in the morning and a Coke in the afternoon, pretty much every day, helps modulate my moods which makes it much easier for me to tell the difference between my depression/anxiety symptoms and ordinary mood fluctuation.
- Online message boards like this one. You have to find the right ones and be careful about how you use them, but I have found them particularly helpful for talking through CBT or DBT methods that can help, or just talking through a particularly intense anxiety attack or depressive episode (i.e. if I wake up at 2am with intense anxiety, it can help to put a post on a message board for people who struggle with anxiety, just describing what's happening and asking for support). It genuinely helps me to feel less alone and has also helped me identify therapeutic methods that have helped me.

I do still have that 10-15% of the time where it does not feel well controlled. My therapist and I have been talking recently about how to create a kind of "emergency kit" for those times so that I know what to do. The good news is that it's mostly just anxiety, because they generally don't last long enough to qualify for a true depression event. I find anxiety more frightening but also more responsive to stuff like mindfulness training and meditation. And if I can control and mitigate the anxiety, the depression is less likely to set in.

I hope this is helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exercise and not working full time.

I am the long poster from above and I would echo these as well. I actually am working back up to full-time, but I changed my career a lot to make it possible to deal with depression/anxiety while also being a parent. I don't think I could have my old high-stress job, be a functioning parent, and take care of my mental health at the same time. A lot of the mental focus that used to go into my job now goes into myself, and I'm okay with that. It was hard in the short term though because the loss of income drove my anxiety for several years. I had to do therapy and a lot of self-work to get that under control. So not a panacea.

[Anonymous]

-A LOT of exercise
-vitamin B
-regular wake and sleep times, enough nighttime sleep to feel functional, but not too much (no sleeping to avoid other stuff), for me, no napping
gratitude practice/for me super simple just consciously acknowledging all the good things in my life
-Whatever therapy gets you to the point where you can recognize and correct your wrong thinking (I haven't heard from anyone this week, so clearly people don't like me vs. people are really busy. I will feel better if I lean into feel vulnerable and make sure to reach out to someone each day)
-for me, being busy and having a moderate amount of external stress helps. I know this isn't true for everyone, but I grew up in a high stess enviornment. If I have no external stress, I start getting weird and inventing/creating stress.

[Anonymous]

I'm trying NAC

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3044191/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/heal-your-brain/201810/nac-the-amino-acid-turns-psychiatry-its-head

[Anonymous]

Really good CBT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also had some very difficult experiences with side affects and just never found a medication combination that successfully addressed my depression/anxiety without seriously impacting my personality or ability to work and maintain relationships. Also had to taper off meds before trying to get pregnant and have never gone back on.

None of this is a perfect solution, and I do sometimes contemplating going back on medication. But I would say this manages my mental health about 85-90% of the time:

- Routines (making my bed everyday, meal planning, having a planner and sticking to it)
- Therapy and journaling. I don't go to therapy all the time, but will do a 12-week stint with my therapist when I feel a depressive episode coming on. I also journal a lot to practice what I work on in therapy, and find the practice of observing my depression and anxiety and recording it helps to mitigate it's effects. This is probably the single biggest "breakthrough" I've had in treatment -- that it is possible to detach from my depressive and anxious thought patterns by simply observing them.
- Caffeine, but controlled intake. I don't do highly caffeinated sources, but one caffeinated tea in the morning and a Coke in the afternoon, pretty much every day, helps modulate my moods which makes it much easier for me to tell the difference between my depression/anxiety symptoms and ordinary mood fluctuation.
- Online message boards like this one. You have to find the right ones and be careful about how you use them, but I have found them particularly helpful for talking through CBT or DBT methods that can help, or just talking through a particularly intense anxiety attack or depressive episode (i.e. if I wake up at 2am with intense anxiety, it can help to put a post on a message board for people who struggle with anxiety, just describing what's happening and asking for support). It genuinely helps me to feel less alone and has also helped me identify therapeutic methods that have helped me.

I do still have that 10-15% of the time where it does not feel well controlled. My therapist and I have been talking recently about how to create a kind of "emergency kit" for those times so that I know what to do. The good news is that it's mostly just anxiety, because they generally don't last long enough to qualify for a true depression event. I find anxiety more frightening but also more responsive to stuff like mindfulness training and meditation. And if I can control and mitigate the anxiety, the depression is less likely to set in.

I hope this is helpful.

I think this is the definitive list.

[Anonymous]

DBT might be really helpful. Had a relative do it and I was really impressed at the specific tools provided and the emphasis on reframing how you look at things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DBT might be really helpful. Had a relative do it and I was really impressed at the specific tools provided and the emphasis on reframing how you look at things.

I've been trying to find a therapist who specializes in this. When I filter on Psychology Today there are plenty that come up, but when I visit their websites/read their bios, they seem to practice some kind of combination of CBT/DBT/etc...not just DBT itself.

[Anonymous]

Reiterating much of what is said here:
Low stress job
Vitamin D- game changer
Exercise/outdoor time
Journaling- I am actually writing fiction and it is so fun
Keeping an uncluttered house- environment matters a lot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DBT might be really helpful. Had a relative do it and I was really impressed at the specific tools provided and the emphasis on reframing how you look at things.

I've been trying to find a therapist who specializes in this. When I filter on Psychology Today there are plenty that come up, but when I visit their websites/read their bios, they seem to practice some kind of combination of CBT/DBT/etc...not just DBT itself.

I never found a therapist who really specialized in this way. Most do talk therapy and will support CBT or DBT (obviously filter out anyone who wouldn’t support it). But I’ve found that therapy isn’t really the right setting for practicing it. It’s more something I do on my own and then therapy is for talking through my issues, including issues that come up with DBT. I think unless you are able and willing to pay for one of the rare practitioners who really specialize in DBT (and their wait lists will be long), you need to be more self-directed. Maybe get a workbook and read it through, then use the stuff that comes up in your exercises as a jumping off point for therapy with a therapist who is versed in DBT/CBT and similar methods.

[Anonymous]

My dh really seems to improve with regular salmon. I know that sounds weird but after I noticed it I googled it and there appears to be a correlation for depression at least.