What’s mildly infuriating about these threads are people’s concepts on “what you should do if you have depression”, and the things they list are like, eat right

What’s mildly infuriating about these threads are people’s concepts on “what you should do if you have depression”, and the things they list are like, eat right, get enough sleep, take vitamin D, exercise… like, no shit! If you are truly depressed, you often have to do those things just to meet a baseline. You don’t have the luxury of _not_ doing at least some degree of self-care. No overcaffeinating, undersleeping, going on a substance binge, whatever. Those suggestions are to get to an even ‘okay, my life still sucks, but I can get out of bed after an hour’ baseline. My experience as somebody with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and clinical depression is that SSRIs are awesome. Do they have side effects? Yup. Do most either not get them or get mild side effects that often go away? Yup. For me, I can’t even function as a result of my mental illness without medication. I’ve also been in therapy for many years, off and on, and therapy is no cure all. I do recommend it, and medications often help when first starting therapy (studies have shown therapy efficacy increases with medicated participants).