Has anyone here overcome depression?

Yes, read stuff by Matthieu Ricard.

TRT helped me a lot, but I think I'm one of those people who'll always be depressed to some degree. Still, my life is much better than it used to be and I actually function like a normal human.

>>34908075
I'm the same way. Always in a mild state of depression from living completely alone with no friends.

>>34908055
Mostly. I was medicated for about seven years before I finally managed to work through my shit and get better about dealing with stress.

>>34908055
Nope, I feel like a failure in everything I do, way too much pressure. Lifting and drinking with friends is the only times I feel pretty good.

I've done it twice.
Each time it's when I finally let go of trying to think my way out of my problems and suffering and just started doing things.
Reading self help doesn't really work, as you can keep analyzing and planning and thinking.

You need to distract your mind, with hitting the gym for example. Doing sports, meeting people, learning to play an instrument, helping others and keeping your mind and body busy.

When depressed you feel like you've always been a little depressed throughout your life, fear you'll always will stay depressed, feeling numb and tired and dumb, sometimes worthless and without self confidence.

But it passes, you just have to start doing things you don't feel like doing, the ones mentioned above, hitting the gym being extremely good for mental health, since it not only improves looks and hormonal stuff, but all the organisation around it keeps your mind busy.

>>34908055
idk if you'd call it overcome, it's pretty much always there but it's a lot less now

>>34908055
Yes. Overcame depression when my health insurance stopped paying for my therapy.
I didn't continue taking the meds either, broke up with my gf and started running every second day. I knew since nobody was going to help me from that day on it was all on me. I didn't even know where all that inner strength came from but I knew that I had to choose between dying an hero or getting my shit together.
Since then I lost 20kgs, got fit, found new friends and I keep going everyday.
There are still days where I feel down but I now know how to cheer me up again.
Not having to listen about how miserable my condition is by my therapist 1-2/week helped a lot too.

>>34908055

I think I've traced the root of my depression. I'm being a little bitch. I'm gonna try to hop on TRT and see if it helps

>>34908055
You don't overcome it, it's like being a diabetic.

>>34908055
Nah, learned to live with it and have the space to shut down and just chill for a while.
The black dog isn't a horrifying enemy anymore, it's just a unwelcome visitor that shows up occasionally and leaves just as suddenly.

>>34908055
yeah i took lsd and broke my cycles

I wouldn't say overcome, but I am managing and I am stable. I was using opiates for a couple years and was in pretty dark place. I went to rehab in april 9 of this year and over that time, i lost 65lbs and look somewhat fit now. Got back into university and got my job back. Now I look great (didn't even know I had solid facial aesthetics cuz I've always been fat). I'm lifting 4 days a week as well. Life is not bad. Exercise and eating right has helped battle depression. YOU can do it. I was a hopeless junkie who almost killed himself.

Diet and exercise have really improved my self esteem and confidence. Spending more time outside and losing weight worked better for my than any drug. I had just run of the mill depression though.

>>34908055

All I did was just stopped thinking negatively and it went away. I saw the beauty and awesomeness of life and how I hold the reigns of a godship in my hands and that through sheer will I can change the world. Once you're in that moment of epiphany and ecstasy- remember it. The longer you spend in that moment, the more your brain can recall it. Afterwards, it can consume your entire palate of consciousness. I am free.

I don't think you overcome it without changing yourself from the ground up and I mean a hard reset to personality and how you cope with shit.

It's like the difference between being an ex smoker who says he still gets a craving every now and then 5 years down the road or being thoroughly convinced that you never actually needed the stuff, never doubting it for even one second because there is no need to, you are a changed man.

You don't achieve that through willpower but through soul searching and building self-esteem possibly followed by changing your entire life from your career to relationships and these things definitely don't come in the form of a manual or "just doing it".

Just my thoughts, may sound esoteric to some but like I said this is not a matter of the brain per se but rather finding yourself... alone.

>drawn in to the backdrop here

>>34908110
I know what you mean brother. I'm sick of paying $80 a month to receive those 3 automated texts and a paypal TOS update email.

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>>34910061

Not overcome, but through lifting and proper nutrition, it is usually very manageable.
Now I'll just have a bad/hopeless day every once in awhile instead of waking up every day wanting to kill myself.

Especcially for men beating depression is never easy. The two pieces of general advice i would give you is that you should try being more open about your problems with the people around you. Dont worry about displaying weakness or something like that. You are always your harshest critic and during depression its even worse. Talking about your problems can be a huge help.

My second piece of advice would be to try and find someone that will show you genuine emotional affection. Now this part is really hard especcially in a depression. Personally doing volunteer work with the mentally disabled really helped me. Also hookers i guess .

The causes for the depression are usually very specific you should try visiting a psychotherapist sometime.

I gotchu bruh.

In my experience:
tried lexapro-> felt boring, got fatish... moving on.

Read Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns. Its a book on cognitive behavioral therapy, and has a large number of exercises which you need to complete no matter how trivial.
CBT is one of the most widely recognized methods to overcome depression. it involves changing the patterns in which you think.
Basically if you tell yourself you suck and other bad things, you believe them, and the more you tell yourself, the worse you feel. Its a pretty shitty cycle.
What you need to do is analyze why you really don't suck that much, and you actually have a lot of things going for you. You have to do this in a very logical manner. As in don't tell yourself "im awesome," you write down (gotta do it IRL) " I am good at x, I help people y, I make people happy" Seems stupid but after a while of reminding yourself you are actually a good person, you start to break the cycle of telling yourself you are shit. You combine this by analysing ways you make up false bad things about yourself (such as "I am the worst at this" so you write down, I am ok at this, I need more practice but I am better than some and not as good as others who put in more effort. When I put in more effort I will get better). Also realize how you take small negatives and blow them out of proportion.

Just take a look into CBT, and really changing your thought patterns. Over time it helps a lot.

find a distraction / break your bad habits

i used to go to work, come home, sleep for a couple of hours, eat, get a shower, get in bed and watch netflix, fall asleep, wake up and then do it all over again

felt like shit all day every day

would have zero energy when i got home from work, going to the gym (which is literally a 4 minute walk from my house) felt like an impossible task

all i had to do was break the habit, i would get home, take my clothes off and then get in bed.. once im undressed and in bed theres zero chance of me making it to the gym, im just way too comfy an relaxed to do it

now when i get home from work i make sure i keep my clothes on, i relax for ~30 minutes, take a couple scoops of pre-workout and then i go have an epic gym session

to a normal person they might read this and think who gives a flying fuck, but remember a few months ago me going to the gym after being in work all day felt like an impossible task

after a few days of your new routine you feel like a brand new person, its crazy

>>34909382
I was going to post something, but what you said pretty much sums up my feelings exactly.

I got really depressed when I discovered that we're living on a prison planet, trapped in these flesh bags, as extra dimensional beings feed off of our negative emotions.

>>34911504

CBT honestly helped me so much. It forces you to think rationally. I used a computer version of it, but I cant for the life of me remember the name.

>>34908055
Yes. I've was depressed (got clinically diagnosed) for I think a year and half or maybe two of my teen years. At the time I didn't think I was depressed and denied it but looking back, its pretty obvious.

For me it might have been just growing out of it but I think what helped was just finding something to do, something to distract you.

>>34910061
fuck itkf

>>34908055
I realized I don't need to be happy in order to live.

About to.
1rep max guillotine press here I come.

>>34908174
same

I have, It can be difficult. For me, it was all about getting out of the house, even when I wanted to stay in and sob. It's all about your environment imo.

>felt like I was alone because socially awkward
>work to improve my charisma, colleagues consider me charismatic
>felt like I was alone because not rich enough
>get a second job, start doing side work, make money off of doing what I like on top of forty hour a week sustainability to own my own flat / car
>felt like I was alone because I was flabby
>perma cut, bodyweight routine - not joocy, or nuffin', but live in a town of chunky manlets
>still alone
What am I missing? I see hundreds of self content poor, fat, manchildren. Some are beta as fugg and some are self centered shits, but so many still have someone and are so comfortable. How? I just don't want to be so alone anymore, what do I do, /fit/? How do I fix myself?

3 years of trying different meds and nothing works. i haven't been able to have any peace of mind since the kidnapping. it used to bring me panic attacks but they dont happen to me anymore.

>>34908055

LSD

>>34915179
The big secret is that the majority of those people are just as insecure and unhappy as you are. Life sucks and the only meaning is what you give it. If you want that deep, meaningful sense of fulfillment you have to gain mastery over something. I guarantee that if you focus on improving yourself over everything else people will come to you.

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>>34908055
nope. love hurts too much.

>>34908055
yea man. suffered with it for years. pretty much told myself to stop being a pussy (works for me) but just listened to music all day, lost lots of gains yada yada. pretty much just chill with homies if you have them

>>34908055
I didn't overcome my depression, I conquered it and fucked it in its ass.

All it took was one day of motivation, one day to sign up to the gym, and one workout routine and my brain chemistry changed that day. I did a hell week where I did an absurd amount of exercises.

I'm wondering if I should a second version of a hell week once I hit the one year mark. Some days I do feel like I'm slacking.

>>34916391
why do most people seem so happy?

they always have something to do with others. while i spend most of my time indoors, browsing 4chan

>>34908055
TRT helped a lot, but not fully.

>>34916251
story?

>>34916391
>>34915179
So you basically achieved your carrier goals but also want a relationship with a grill you like ?

Compensating for one with the other is hard. Do you actively go out and try to findd some nice girls?

>>34911536
Motivation wise thats not a shabby strategy

>>34918882
Most people pretend to have a better life then they actually do. In the age of media your outward appearance is very important and quite a few people are very good at pretending to live "the life"

>>34908055
Lifting does the job for me in taking away the pervasive bleakness. I've had some terrible virus the past few weeks so I've been a bit miserable, coughing up blood will do that, but my life is generally in an upswing.

All the people in here saying they overcame their depression with CBT, with exercise, with "nutting up" are proof that we need to completely rework the DSM and get a better vocabulary, because people conflate major depressive disorder (as in an actual disease) with moderate and minor depressive episodes (i.e. being a giant pussy) constantly.

>>34919958
Exercise does help, usually. Makes endorphins and if endorphins don't feel good for you, idk what you're doing. I agree about CBT though, I went to a CBT-based residential treatment for like 6 months in my youth and I came out with absolutely nothing. Unless you have "circumstantial" depression, it's virtually useless. If you just ARE in a constant state of low mood, and derive no pleasure from anything, and have no interest in life whatsoever, CBT can't help you. If you get buttflustered after certain events that trigger you to feel upset, CBT can be a godsend. Sometimes people are just depressed without having constant negative thoughts or low self esteem, or having a reason/triggering event for feeling that way. CBT/DBT are fucking terrible at treating that type of depression.

Well I never had depression, but lifting helped my ADHD a bit.

>>34908055

for me lifting and cardio did it. i am feeling better since i started my new program.

>>34908110
the worst part was whenever I argued with my siblings they'd shut me down by mentioning I have no friends