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Dead billionaires.

Major positive changes in your environment and removing any stressors, coupled with effective, active weekly psychotherapy. The whole exercising, eating well, self-grooming etc things will come naturally as things get better and easier.

Don’t get me wrong, doing them will also help tremendously, but no need to beat yourself up with not being able to do them while in full crisis. Your mind just can’t cope with it at this point.

Community. Walkable neigborhoods. Culture. Access to high quality (prepared) food. Treatment of chronic illnesses. Free time to do things that make one feel happy and fulfilled.

Drugs only make it easier to cope with a world that makes these inaccessible to the average person. They individualize and pathologize a burden that would otherwise have to be addressed systemically by the ruling class that hopes to have a functional and passive working class.

edit: ... I realized something, looked it up, and wouldn't you know it; here in the US, good old Reagan closed down the psychiatric hospitals less than a decade before Prozac hit the market (antidepressants existed before that; since the 1950s; but were mainly only marketed to doctors who would prescribe them to women with ""housewife syndrome"" for the purposes of domestic labor). That's not to say that psychiatric hospitals are any less of a band-aid solution, I just think it's rather telling that they were closed at a time that folks with clinical depression (and probably other illnesses) could simply be given a pill and put back to work.

It's a chronic illness. I'd say there definitionally isn't a cure. Just different ways of managing it.

Money and really good friends

Treating the cause, because depression is not a ~~symptom~~ illness but a ~~consequence~~ symptom (eg unknown mental issues, chemical imbalances etc). It's not trivial.

(thanks for helping me out with the wording, got confused)

None of these are a cure. Clinical depression is a real thing and you should see a mental health professional. But here's my list.

• Go outside and get some sun
• Exercise
• Drink water
• Get enough sleep
• Eat healthier
• Form meaningful social connections
• Reduce screen time
• Only use your bedroom for sleeping(and sex), use different spaces for different activities
• Journal
• Write down 3 things that need to get done today, and then do it
• (bonus edit) Meditate for 10 minutes

Most importantly. You don't have to do all of it. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. If all you can manage today is drinking a glass of water, then start there. This random Internet stranger believes in you.

Also drugs.

The fall of a fascist regime and its replacement by an actual democracy, based on the needs of the people and prioritizing them over corporations and billionaires?

Not having a crushing job that saps your will to live so someone else can get rich off your toil.

Sunlight

Running.

And no, i'm not kidding. I knew one who got the choice his therapist : take medication or start running. He took the advised solution and found running really works. A co-worker started running a few years back and later admitted the feelings of depression went away.

Therapy, seriously. I am not a mental health professional, but from what I have read, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be just as good as chemical antidepressants.

If you are struggling with depression, please do yourself a favor and see if your health insurance covers therapists. If not, at least read up on therapy techniques to deal with depression. I have been recommended Feeling Good by David D. Burns as a book to follow.

Dogs. Very difficult to stay depressed when you've got this warm fuzzy cheerleader who is happy just to see you and completely loves you for who you are AND keeps you active with play and walks. Not impossible mind you, but as close to it as you can get without drugs.

Exercising, taking a walk, 8h of sleep per night, destroying capitalism.

This is not a practical long term solution, but one answer is falling in love. Everytime I've fallen in love my depression goes fully into remission. I have lots of energy, it's easy to keep my place clean and super easy to shower, do my hair, whatever it takes to look pretty. I am inspired to try new things and get into hobbies. I have patience and am less irritable. Works like a charm until we've been together long enough for the relationship to become completely routine, and then the depression creeps back in, bad as ever. But you can get like 6 months out of it.

The drugs are only there to make you stable and able to receive therapy. They are not a cure, they are a tool.

Don't be afraid to go to a psychiatrist (the kind of doctors who deal with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental and emotional disorders) and ask them about alternatives to perscriptions. I did that when I was frustrated with trying so many different medications and combinations of medications, and I learned about TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) and so I underwent that and it was life-changing for me.

I dunno about a cure, but a cat that wants to snuggle is a pretty effective treatment.

Exercise and money.

You could just sorta snap out of it. (/s)

At least for milder forms of depression, it can help to pretend that you're not depressed. Do stuff, get out, meet people, feel the rain, try to be in the moment, etc.