Habits/Routine to battle Depression?

I take a morning and/or evening drive almost daily now. When my daughter is not busy with sports we drive up into the foothills to look for wildlife or just cruise in the evenings.

I also try to take the dog on a walk at least once per day. Just that 15 minutes of exercise helps loosen up my back and my mind tremendously. 

I had to take today off. Been working a seasonal contract, that was looking like they could keep me busy long term. 
got a call a bit ago, and the company is not going to keep me. This was looking like the first long term job I wasn't miserable doing in about 7 years, so the depression will be overwhelming. Should be able to find a contract this time of year, so I'll have a bit of income, but a serious kick in the teeth. 
The timing of this thread popping  up the same day, does help me smile a bit, for a moment, at least 

This one is gonna hurt. 

In reply to 03Panther :

Dude that sucks. 

Should be lots of contracts right now - just finished separating their tolls from mine, and back to hotel. I'll be looking at sites like roadtechs and road dog now... hope I can find something within a days drive of the house. 

Got a great call for a contract near the house this morning; great timing.

For those that don't believe in a "higher power", my luck never runs this good... if still on other contract, I'd have had to burn a bridge to take this one. Since they burned it down on me, I'm free to take what os a MUCH better offer!

Will still be a bit to come out of hole... sucks that way. But great news. 

03Panther said:

Got a great call for a contract near the house this morning; great timing.

For those that don't believe in a "higher power", my luck never runs this good... if still on other contract, I'd have had to burn a bridge to take this one. Since they burned it down on me, I'm free to take what os a MUCH better offer!

Will still be a bit to come out of hole... sucks that way. But great news. 

Dude that's awesome. A friend of mine likes to say "sometimes life just works out". He's annoying because it does for him. He's one of THOSE people. Lol

A couple friends (that type) don't understand my depression. They accept it, cause we're close. But don't understand. They truly think that their experience is everyone's! 

My wife's son, before he passed away, liked to go to casinos. I've been with him. He had no "system". Walked around and picked a slot machine at random. Would put about $20 dollars in. 80% of the time, before that 20 was gone, he doubled or tripled that, and moved on. Another 10%, and he'd win REALLY big! Only lost around 10% of the time. Did NOT understand it was not like that for most! Really was not capable of believing it. 
Same thing I've found with folks that don't understand depression.

Even with the great news, from starting "down" it'll take me a bit to turn it around.
Im blessed, cause I know I CAN turn it!!! 

I did not read all the responses so far and I'm sure these have been listed already but something I have done for many years (since 1987, actually) is keep a journal every day. I write down what I did that day and on days where something is bothering me, I write about what is bothering me and how I feel. Somehow, writing it out longhand with an actual pen takes the weight off my mind. It's like my brain wants to hold onto all this bad information and it knows that it's all written down so it lets the feelings go. I went through a spell 2 years ago where I was particularly depressed for 2 months and journaling alone wasn't cutting it. I started going to the gym and microdosing psilocybin and the depression quickly went away and has not come back, even when I was recently fired from a lucrative job I enjoyed (office politics, long story).

I have been struggling a lot. Saturday's autox with people I haven't seen in almost 2 years helped. Knowing that Gumby and I are less than two weeks from an all night cruise to Gainesville helps a bit as well. But it's harder day to day recently. I also understand its the SAD side kicking in. 

In reply to 03Panther :

My go to for depression is helping others.  It seems like I can't be depressed when I'm helping someone out.  

When the D takes over I can't help anyone, not even myself. It takes everything I have to get out of bed. 

Don't know if you are already doing it, but my wife uses one of those lamps in the morning that is supposed to help with SAD.  Seems to help her some.

dealing wih arrogant stupid people is really making it hard to be positive today. At least there's only a week to go .

frenchyd said:

In reply to 03Panther :

My go to for depression is helping others.  It seems like I can't be depressed when I'm helping someone out.  

That is a great one. And there is never a bad thing, anytime. 
Sometimes the lows are bad enough others should not be subjected to an azz hat like I can be during bad ones. 
Some folks have it bad enough to not be able to even get out of bed, much less leave the house. 
But it is great to help with a mild depression (that people that don't have debilitating problem this IS bad )

03Panther said:

frenchyd said:

In reply to 03Panther :

My go to for depression is helping others.  It seems like I can't be depressed when I'm helping someone out.  

That is a great one. And there is never a bad thing, anytime. 
Sometimes the lows are bad enough others should not be subjected to an azz hat like I can be during bad ones. 
Some folks have it bad enough to not be able to even get out of bed, much less leave the house. 
But it is great to help with a mild depression (that people that don't have debilitating problem this IS bad )

Once again, there's not one solution because everyone has a different issue and handles it differently. 

Cycling has been my main method for years. If I don't ride often enough, it really starts to get to me.

Right now I'm dealing with severe imposter syndrome on top of everything else. I have been reassigned to a client in NH, some 350+ miles from home. I was asked for by name due to previous work I had done with this client. The PO is literally just for me being here.  What will I be doing? I haven't a berking clue. A project is under construction and is way behind schedule. Some of it was design-delays. Some of it is supply chain delays. I'm a designer but my company isn't the engineer of record for the project - one of our competitors is.  I'm here as an owner's representative - a role I've never had to do before.  In theory, to help some of the client managers deal with the engineer and the contractor.  Jumping into a project that is already under construction moving a million miles an hour. How am I supposed to help?  Again - no berking clue.  Hopefully things start to clear up in a few weeks.

I feel like I'm here to try to put out fires... except the whole bloody forest is on fire (it's actually even worse than that, but for better or worse, the "worse" part isn't my problem).

And on top of it all, I was given an early and fairly substantial raise to take this assignment.  Yay...?

Living in a hotel room... possibly for the next 4 months... maybe more.  In NH... over the early winter... far from my bikes (not that the weather here is conducive to riding...). I'm crossing my fingers I'll be able to get to the local bike park before it shuts down for the season, since I'll be here over a few weekends. No idea if I'll be here for ski season (not that there's been much of a ski season around here recently).

My back is starting to ache after three nights sleeping on the crappy hotel bed.  Planning to change hotels for the next stint.

I'm getting too old for this... 

Oh... and I miss Seth's posts. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Very very true. 
Lots of folks, these past 40 years (longer problems; we just didn't know much back then)  has said: "just..."

I also figured out a comparable:

I can tell a smoker the only 100% way to quit smoking - stop smoking.

Absolutly true. And does not help them in any way  

Yep. Ya don't really get it, huh. 

frenchyd said:

In reply to 03Panther :

My go to for depression is helping others.  It seems like I can't be depressed when I'm helping someone out.  

I used to visit nursing homes. It helps you reset when you visit the sick.  Showed up in a suit sometimes and they fawned over you like you're the President of the country.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Run, walk, bike, just some kind of exercise.  Wrenching on cars helps a lot too.

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, where the berk is he?

Something I need to do, that others could also benefit from, is to stop doomscrolling the news and social media.

In reply to Appleseed :

Racing tiny bikes, doing podcasts, scheming for One Lap Rio next year.

In reply to eastsideTim :

Used to use this place as an outlet from all the doom and gloom but after a while it infected here as well. I literally have no outlet left. Lost my therapist to wu-flu, couldn't do the virtual thing. She's moved on and I haven't connected with a new one since. Wife has her own D to deal with and the stress of a new job. It ain' easy.

I medicated my ADHD and my depression and anxiety got SIGNIFICANTLY better; as in a bigger improvement than any psychotropic I've ever tried, and I've tried a lot. 

I know that's not the answer for everyone, and I'm not at all wanting to diminish the very real, very large, impacts of depression. That said, ADHD is grossly under-diagnosed in adults, and can lead to major depressive symptoms. 

It might be worth looking into and having a conversation with your doctor.

So.   Singular came out with a black box warning about suicide.  Previous allergy doctor never told me. New one switched me immediately.  That was helpful,  it didn't take me down the spiral but man it made that spiral long and deep