I'll give you a run down of all the things that eventually helped me out. 1. Health. 30 minutes minimum, 1 hour preferably a day of moving around outside. Obvi

I'll give you a run down of all the things that eventually helped me out. 1. Health. 30 minutes minimum, 1 hour preferably a day of moving around outside. Obviously general exercise like lifting weights is good, but you need sun vitamin d daily. Go for a long walk daily at the minimum. Find what you like to do and what you can sustainbly do. I have rotator cuff issues, so gymnastics is a no go for me, for example. Even though I'd love to do it. Oh well. I jog, walk and do some weight lifting. Also, eat right. Get your blood checked. I happen to be a bit iron deficient. So I eat beef liver once a week and pate throughout the week to keep it up. Has worked well for me without the need for artificial vitamins. When my iron is low, that's when the head fog and general "woe" really starts to kick in. 2. Social. You got to be social daily. This one I noticed one day where I was invited to a party after a really bad downhill on depression. I accidentally clicked with a few people about movies and we talked for like 6 hours straight. My voice was gone for like 2 days, but holy shit did I feel great for like a week. You need to have dumb, long conversations with people. Laughing and having fun. Try finding social groups over a hobby or activity locally. You said outside of US, we have Meetup.com, maybe you have something similar? I've done it here in Florida a few times. 50% of the ones I went to were good. Dont get down trodden if you show up to a few stinkers. Try different groups until you find one. Just look for groups where you can talk and have fun. If you happen to have a circle of friends already, just not tight knit (yet), take it upon yourself to do a weekly thing. Board game night, book club, movie night or just everyone buys a random 6 pack of beer and you all hang out for the night talking shit. Do not underestimate the value of this. I'm serious. It seems silly, but we've evolved as social-pack animals for a reason. 3. Personal mental health: Lots of variability here. Try it out or try to learn from it and do your own thing. Free write journaling: Sit at the computer, word processor open, and type exactly what's on your mind. Did someone piss you off yesterday? What do you want for lunch? Was that chick/dude yesterday cute and you should have introduced yourself? What should have you done? Does your ass itch? You are dumping your thoughts. It seems super silly, I know. But it's literally exactly what's in your head as it passes by. I do this almost every morning. It clears my head and makes me feel refreshed, kind of like a mental shower. I also think out what I want to do during the day, what went right or wrong yesterday and so forth. But it's not structured at all. Simply stream of thought, no matter how stupid the thought. 15 or 20 min of this. Typically I just feel like stopping when I figure I have nothing else "new" to think. No one ever reads these journals by the way. Nor should they. Task/purpose: I dont know how to explain this one easily. Actually, Jordan Peterson talkd about this the best. Anyways, pick something difficult to do, because YOU want to. Not because of a trend or whatever. This can range from a crazy in depth research topic, read all of agatha Christie novels in order, do a non-profit, do a 10,000 piece puzzle, start a community garden, whatever. It just does have to be out of your norm, longish term (I say minimum 2 weeks to accomplish, but whatever) and something you just want to do, for you, to make you happy, fuck what anyone else thinks (as long as it's legal). If they're somewhat short term, you do another one and so forth. I think the more important of a task, the better, but I say dont focus on that at first. Do for you to practice focusing, for you, on your own happiness. But do make a definable end point goal. So you can say, "I finished this". Start small, work upwards overtime. Hobby: similar to the last but this is just fun, for you. I really dont recommend video games. A "constructive" hobby is best. I like woodworking and fiction writing. If I could get past the sound of cats fucking, I'd play the violin more. I imagine somewhat soon I'll get into model making or painting. Creative/analytical balance: probably specific to me, but I'll mention it. If I do too much dev or research, I burnout. If I do too much writing or the occasional graphic design/marketing, I burn out. I've learned I have to do a little bit of the opposite everyday or at least try to alternate days. Easily if I go 3 days doing only one, I get into a funk. Meditation: Eh... i did it as focus training for a month and haven't for a few years. Mehta, maybe for you? Free writing or reading always feels better for me. Regrets, mistakes: this is a rough one and good as a journaling exercise. Talk to yourself about your regrets, on paper or word processor, whichever is the most comfortable. See about what you can fix if you can. Forgive yourself for what you cant. Everyone has regrets and it's alright. Talk to yourself about it, be honest and work through it all. This was a big one for me. It ends up being painful and cathartic. Can take a few weeks, but it's well worth it. Cant think of much else except I read somewhere relating depression to an angry dog. Right now it's biting you. Work through it. Got out of its clutches. That dog will eventually just occasionally bark. If you ignore it, it'll bite again. Eventually you learn to appreciate the bark as a warning that something is wrong and you need to fix it now before it gets worse. You will have ups and downs and trip sometimes. Take the good times as a sign you were on the right path. You slip a bit, that's okay, you'll get out of it again since you got out before. Somewhere else talked about how anxiety and depression, once you are mentally healthy, are good tools to feel. Small, slight depression is subconsciously telling you you're on the wrong path with nothing to gain. Anxiety is subconsciously warning you that you are not fully prepared for a situation, be alert and careful as you step forward. It's just when we never address them over long stretches of time, stacked on top of poor health and poor social interactions, is when we come to our depression states that eat away at us. Hope it helps, feel free to ask me more.