Not me, but someone I know very well. Yes, lifestyle helps, but doesn't fix depression. Example: running is great! If you get up, go for a 5km run, do a bunch o

Not me, but someone I know very well. Yes, lifestyle helps, but doesn't fix depression. Example: running is great! If you get up, go for a 5km run, do a bunch of stretches and maybe pick up the dumbbells for 10 minutes, then have a shower and then eat a healthy breakfast, you physically feel amazing! If you have depression or anxiety, it's still there, but instead of also feeling tired and crap, you at least have a baseline 'feelgood' with it. If you do this regularly enough that you're in good shape, then you don't have depression and hate your body. You're also less likely to sustain random injuries when you're physically active. But depression and anxiety is still there. This person has been managing depression without drugs or counseling for decades. There are ups and there are downs. From the outside, it's not always possible to tell the difference until they drop the bombshell "I'm extremely depressed lately" (as in, not just today or yesterday, but continually for a week or more). I think of it like this: inside my head is a brain, and that brain experiences the world a particular way. Let's call it a colour filter. Well, everyone has a different filter, based on genetics and formative years. For some people, their normal state is 'content', unless something pushes their mood above or below. For other people the normal state is "shitty: slightly worried about nothing in particular, a bit sick of everything, I just want to go to sleep", and they have to constantly struggle to push above that state into one that is more bearable.