>>18819604As someone who suffered from "major depressive disorder" for over a decade, I'm going to redpill you all on depression.
First off, modern psychiatry has no idea how to actually treat depression from a chemical perspective. Drugs are created, tested and perform only nominally better than placebos whilst also introducing side effects which can worsen the psyche and feed depression like fatigue, low libido and a lack of focus. I have tried SSRI's, SNRI's and mood stabilizers. Chances are, if you meet with a psychiatrist and they diagnosis you as depressed, they'll just let you pick whatever drug you want from whatever class upon request. This is how scientific prescriptions are for depression. The main measurable chemical imbalances that cause depression for men is thyroid and testosterone. Lots of pysches will give you meds before a blood test. So get that checked first.
I believe that depression is much more than simply a chemical imbalance in the brain. It's a culmination of physical health and perception which is shaped by how we process trauma. Depression feeds itself by making you live unhealthy, it makes you withdrawn, it makes you feel low energy so you don't work out, it makes you feel hopeless so you stop trying. The only way out is forging an environment in which you force yourself to be accountable for your health and not give up and let it consume you.
That means pushing means of escapism out of your life (video games, internet, weed, alcohol) and making commitments to do things that foster healing. The two main ways of doing this are being in nature and getting physical exercise. And just by saying that, you're probably thinking my advice is stupid and either sound inconvenient and uncomfortable because that is how your depression is feeding itself. You need to feel connected to your environment and you need the hormone regulation and growth of exercise before anything else. It's about training your brain to process everything properly.
