How to deal with depression

My depression is very severe. I feel almost no joy day-to-day. it's rather disabling. I'm wondering if anyone here has had success with anti-depressants? I've tried most all of them besides tricyclics and they just don't seem to work. How about St. John's Wort? Things of that nature? Any tips would help. My brain fog is also an issue that I'm trying to deal with. My lyme seems mostly centralized in my brain.

Regular excercise, cacao for magnesium, well balanced healthy diet, limit tv phone and emf radiation, find a way to share your purpose, service to others feels good, reach out and connect with humans, practice the conscious cultivation of mind- mediation, what are you grateful for? What’s going on good in your life?

I miss exercise, that used to do it for me. I would say it (moderate exercise) is 1000% better than any antidepressant tricyclic or otherwise, any day of the week. Now if I could only heed my own call, and get my exercise on again! Heck, I'm on small business workaholic mode though now I forgot! I feel like my quality of life and feelings of joy or achievement or pleasure in many things I used to enjoy has been well ...greatly diminished sorry to say. I want to think good feelings and moods are still there after a quick jog, slow bike ride or leisurely walk if I can muster it. I used to be a fairly intense athlete so I feel like the depression and stopping training now is harder to manage. Anyway, I feel like my depression got worse with my TBI's...I think some LLMDs recommend light weight training and avoiding cardio though... count your blessings..follow Tim Ferriss' guide and do 5 reps of "something", anything, each morning, pushups, burpees, squats, stretches you name it.

Hi M.Lowe,

Sorry about your depression. It has been one of my worst symptoms so I can relate to how you feel. I have done a few things that have helped quite a bit.

In two weeks, it will be a year that I quit social media and stopped watching the news. Both were very depressing and making me feel worse. No wonder kids are committing suicide because of social media.

It was a life changer for me. I no longer have to worry about other people's problems and can focus on my own.

And the news; all they report on is bad news. If I was visiting from another planet and used the news to learned about people on earth, I would just fly back to my planet and never come back after seeing how screwed up this planet is and its people.

Even this forum. I come here for a while and try to help as much as I can but then I have to leave for a while to take a break. It breaks my heart to see so much pain and sorrow, specially when you have lived through it and know first hand what it is like to feel what they are feeling. I don't know how Traveler was able to do it for so many years. She is a Saint.

So, going back to the depression thing. What I have found helpful is magnesium. Once it loads up on the body, it calms the nerves down, it calms the brain also. Most if not all of the nerve and muscle pains just seem to ease off or go away. You mention that your GI tract cannot digest well. There is a magnesium spray that works absolutely great. It gets absorbed through the skin very easily. It helps to calm the brain, eases off the depression, controls anxiety, and it helps to heal the gut.

I have also found certain antibiotics that cause depression for me. I've taken some that a few days after going on them i get so depressed that I can't get out of bed or want to. At one time I was so depressed that I almost did pee in bed. I just didn't care what happened any more. I didn't care what people said or thought of me.

Herbs can be of help. Holy basil and Chinese skulcap are two that can help.

Prescription medicine such as Xanax can help too. I've taken Xanax for extreme anxiety but not for depression.

M. Lowe - i'm so sorry you're going through this. Please remember that you're not alone.
here are some of my suggestions that have helped me:

P.s. they are not in a form of pill or supplement or tincture.

1. Journaling~
2. Affirmaitons from Louise Hay - Also her book Heal Your life has helped me so so much!
3. try surrounding yourself with happy people - - or try and watch funny movies or even cat videos on youtube

alsoo - DANCE! MOVE ! Try and do some walking or just stretches - i know how painful it can be to do any type of exercise myself but just try and move a little bit every day.

and hey maybe even write positive affirmaitons on post it notes and post them all over your house..

i know these all seem silly, but they have helped me so much, and the way i see it , they cant hurt...

Sending you lots of love !!!!

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time with things. Something that has helped me immensely during my first fight with lyme was keeping a joy journal. Before I got out of bed every morning I wrote a list of things I am thankful for on the left side of the page, and the last thing I did before going to bed at night is to write a new list on the right side without looking at the morning's list. I will admit some mornings the list is only "woke up" or "still breathing". The list doesn't have to be long--just honest. It really helped to see that even on some of my worst days the list would grow throughout the day. My short term memory was also very bad at this time and I used that to my advantage by writing encouraging notes, bible verses, etc. on post-its and hiding them around my apartment. It was always uplifting to find them throughout the day/week. It also helped to just rant to my cousin while we worked out. Granted most days it was me watching him do his workout or I would do slow laps around the park while he ran laps, but just having someone to listen and talk to about things really helped. Now that have relapsed these are all things I'm trying to start up again.