I’ve been posting for a while about feeling low and how things have gotten progressively harder over the past several months.

Lately, I’ve decided to shift how I think about treatment. I’ve tried a lot over the years: medications, IOP, even some unconventional options. But each new attempt came with hope that things might finally turn around, and the emotional cost of that hope, especially when things don’t change, adds up.

So I’ve started taking a more realistic and sustainable approach. Rather than chasing improvement, I’m focusing on staying as steady and functional as I possibly can. For me, that means treating depression more like chronic pain — managing the discomfort and working to maintain enough capacity to get through each day with some consistency.

It’s not the end of the story, just a different chapter.