Ed, I had not heard of recurrent brief depression and had to do a search for it. It sounds like it presents some challenges a little different from longer episodes of depression.

I have been having depressive episodes for years and find that when I am coming out of them that it's a gradual process. It's kind of like getting back in shape after a prolonged time of not exercising, except it's physical and psychological.

Procrastination definitely is a part of the process as well as avoidance of unpleasantness for me. When I'm depressed, I'll procrastinate or make bad decisions to avoid unpleasant feelings because I think "hey, I already feel bad enough, and I just don't think I can deal with doing X".

This leads me to make bad financial decisions, neglect my connections to other people, and well, lots of things.

Do you go to any kind of psychotherapy? It seems like it would be really helpful (if you have a good therapist, of course.)

Lately I have been looking at habits as a big tool to help me fight depression. Every time I have a long depressive episode, many of my good habits erode and then I have to work to rebuild them when I start to feel a bit better.

I hope you'll read some of the posts on this forum and contribute as well. I find that this forum is helpful to me. Psych Central is a group of people of different ages and with different diagnoses. We're all kind of sharing our experiences and trying to help each other through the tough times.