unpopular but effective treatment for depression

Those were YOUR WORDS not mine.

Well you said to work a little for it to happen. And that does not mean what I think it means you say?

Anyway, enough of this BS. I know what was true in my case and no one is going to tell me I'm wrong about my own life. Cheers.

Jimi, nobody was telling you that you're wrong about your own life. To the contrary we gave you credit for giving exercise a go. Works for us, not for you. No shame in that.

Amen! I know I'll try anything and Jimi, good luck. I'm currently trying a mood light in the mornings (I'm very far north and it's getting daaark) and I'm also having some luck with Noni juice. Those two potential remedies are proving to be pretty expensive, though as the bulbs are not cheap and the Noni juice is not either!

But when I feel that I'm keeping the depression at bay, it's a pretty amazing thing!

Thanks but im ok. My severe depression ended ten years ago.

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Yes, I walk allot, which has been the absolute best thing for my low back & sciatica problems. I'm not into any food-fads. But I don't snack & rarely eat junk food. I don't know if any of this helps with depression. But I'm not on any psych med's... so something's working...

ECT is the only thing that is saving my life. I have been doing it for 2 years and it has kept my suicidal thoughts and actions in check.

I was feeling down and "draggy" earlier today. A walk, fresh air, doing some grocery shopping did lighten my mood enough to feel it.

With regard to exercise, this is literal for me. I literally could not even do simple stretches without my antidepressant. My meds have elevated my mood and energy but it also has played a major role in healing my chronic lower back pain. Now I can do moderate calisthenic exercises and some cardio so I can further build a stronger core, but exercise had to be step 2, I could not have done it with out the antidepressant first.

I support this thread premise though. Exercise and especially diet can be an extraordinarily effective treatment for depression. It's worth a shot because being healthy, having energy, having strength will give you a whole lot of confidence to battle depression.

While I agree that exercise and diet help, it's not a cure-all. I am going to assume the positive and say that most people are willing to do what they need to do to get better. Therapy is hard work, too. I hear what people are saying about being so depressed that it is too much energy to prepare a meal. That's the way I get when my depression is severe. And it is expensive here in the US to buy the healthier foods vs. the processed crap that is readily available. I went through a period where I did all this research about superfoods and I was buying kale and all this other stuff to make shakes with. I even tried to make larger batches to make it easier on myself. The problem with that is that it would go bad before I even had the chance to use it all. I was tired of wasting money so I stopped.

I am not trying to make excuses here, but to say that sometimes the frustration and the cost outweighs the benefit, and that sucks. I don't live on garbage food. I get canned and frozen vegetables because they are the next best thing to eating fresh. And I spent a fortune on buying these superfood powders and vitamin supplements in the hopes that they would make me feel better.

I remember that there was this guy who posted all over the bipolar and other boards that he went gluten-free and that he was "cured". I am glad that it worked for him, but by the same token it may give people false hope that they can just dump their meds down the toilet and cure themselves through diet. Also, it reinforces the stigma that mental illness is just a matter of will when it isn't. That's my two cents.

I think if someone is too fatigued to take a simple walk outside every day, they need to be evaluated in a holistic way to see what is wrong with with bodily health (or figure it out themselves by researching and networking online). Instead it seems fatigue is often conflated with, and assumed to be a symptom of, a vague condition called "depression". Someone could be depressed because they are so exhausted.

Also I don't see exercise and good diet as treatment for anything. These are prerequisites to any sort of good health. Of course there can be a catch-22 if one can't find the energy or motivation to eat well or move. But again, there needs to be some detective work to figure out why this is so.

Seems the trap is that popping a pill and feeling better is assumed to mean the problem is being addressed, when in fact it's just covering up the actual root cause(s), and likely introducing a new set of problems.

I think what that example shows is that the very concept of "mental illness" that dominates mainstream thinking needs to be challenged. Rather than being seen as an anomaly, the gluten thing should be seen as a pointer to the sort of problem that might be at the root of depression, etc.

Gluten (for some) breaks down the lining of the gut. This opens the door to chronic inflammatory conditions that can affect the brain, which eventually becomes leaky also. Leaky gut can also cause food allergies which can affect the brain too. The gut is the primary barrier between us and the outside world and if it becomes compromised, the whole body is compromised. So removing gluten, for example, isn't just simply eating healthier, it can be part of a process to restore basic bodily integrity. This is an actual cure.

All sorts of other problems in the gut can affect cognition and mood. The gut is where most of the neurotransmitters are produced, where much of the immune system resides, and the gut sends more messages to the brain than vice versa (the "second brain"). A gut ecology wrecked by antibiotics, NSAIDs, glyphosate, gluten, processed food, and dominated by pathogenic organisms and lacking in healthy bacteria is a recipe for disaster.

Trauma and stress and situational problems would seem to be huge factors too. But these are not medical problems and can't be resolved with medical treatment.

I just started eating better and exercising because I'm getting off of meds I really don't think I could do it if I didn't eat well, exercise and meditate.