Note: This is an email response I wrote years ago to someone who contacted me about depression. Personal details have been removed and replaced with XXXX.

Hi XXXXXX,

I just realized how difficult of a response this kind of email is on my part. As I mentioned previously I have dealt with depression off and on most of my adult life. Depression is a strange thing. There have been situations that arise where I feel depressed for no reason and then there are times that I'm depressed because I'm depressed. The later is the worst because that becomes a cycle that is hard to break. Here are some things that have helped me. Therapy, many people in our field are excellent at logic. We can rationalize or infer all most anything about a data set or problem. Self-analysis or diagnostics doesn't work. If you are battling depression it's good to talk with someone about it. If you aren't doing therapy I'd recommend it.

It's great that you are keeping a journal. I keep two. One for research and the other for personal. Writing is useful. On the first page of my journal I have the following words written Job, Skills, Hobbies, Family, Friends, Spiritual, Physical and Financial. I have these written down because I realized that if I don't have a balance of these topics other parts of my life start getting affected. Usually this equates to following into depression. Each one of these requires nourishment.  I'd recommend exploring these topics and think about if any of these are out of balance. Here are my random thoughts on these topics.

    Job - I'm jobless right now so my main focus is to find a good job. At my previous job I made sure to find a balance in hours, energy, helping other people and all of the other cliches that go along with maintaining a job.

    Skills - I'm a researcher. I love learning, it is part of my life. Some good questions are what are my current skills? How am I on the foundations of these skills? What are my goals? Etc. I have a background in art so I think about skills as something that has to keep getting built, refined, removed.. The book Steal Like an Artist has some good examples of building on this. Just replace the word art with your current skill/desire...

    Hobbies - Find a hobby that is the completely opposite of your job or research. This will stage off burn out and expand your field of vision. I have found that the more areas of books I'm reading the better my research is. I look at problems a little different because my visions isn't as narrowed. Start shooting guns, race car driving, archery, study plants etc. If you can't find anything pick up something you did as a kid. I used to love to build forts as a kid, now I'd like to build a house.

    Family - I'm close with my family which makes things easy but it's helps others to call and check in on them to make sure they are okay.

    Friends - Make an effort to hangout with friends, make new ones, and ditch ones that aren't helpful. I have meet some good people through MeetUps, classes (welding) and other activities. I'm XX and just moved back to XXXXXX. The older you get the harder it gets to make new friends.

    Spiritual - This isn't exactly spiritual or religious but more about the unconscious and being mindful of the present. I meditate daily first thing in the morning for 15 mins. I don't chant or anything like that I just follow my breath. Mindfullness is very helpful for dealing with depression. Check out the work by Jon Kabat-Zinn if you want more information on using meditation to deal with depression. Night walks can be useful for having down time.

    Physical - Work out, plain and simple. Nothing more will effect your mood more than working out. I weight lift because it keeps me calm, counter balances the time startng at a computer, keeps me strong and also motivates me to eat healthy.  I have hit some very hard times in depression and one of the few things that got me out of it was working out. I work out three days a week. If you want to know how to weight lift properly I'd recommend Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. It's boring but it explains everything so you can push yourself but not get hurt. I would also recommend reading an article named A New Way To Work Out. by Daniel Duane. Yes, there are a lot of douche bags at gyms but this is why we have head phones.

    Financial - Plans, Save and spend money on things you will enjoy rather than tokens. Don't live to work.

I don't know if this email will help you but these are steps or ideas that have helped over the years. My life isn't perfect, things break, life has set backs but by finding a balance I have learned they are easier to deal with. Another tip I have that I learned when I was backpacking through Asia is plan for happiness. Nothing comes to us. Plan for it and odds are it will happen. Write down plans in the journal, review it, follow up on it. Etc.

Hopefully this is helpful.

XXXX