1. Go to the Doctor and get medical help. This one was so very important when I was severely depressed, not sleeping, having obsessive thoughts. My Doctor was able to discern if I just needed to talk, or needed medication to help me get through. At that time, in my twenties, I really did need medication. These days, I still need to talk to my Doctor at times.
2. Talk to a wise friend or family member, who is not self-important and has a sense of humour about life. This one helped me. Even though I’m a Christian, one of the best people to talk to when I was depressed was an agnostic friend who came to see me in hospital, who is a very humble person. Also my parents were good to talk to, & my Doctor. (This was when I was about twenty years old, when I had a severe episode of depression)
3. Pray - ask God for help, and hope, even if you can't feel hope. God is real and will help you. Believe that, even if you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel today, one day you will be able to, one day you will wake up in the morning, not depressed. It is very important to believe this, because eventually, it can happen, and it did for me.
4. Have a drink (beer, wine) with a good friend. It was reading about the German reformer Martin Luther’s experience with depression that led me to this tip. (Obviously it’s not good advice if alcohol is your ‘problem’ but for me drinking was and still is a good thing to do when depressed or melancholy.) A couple of glasses of wine or beer can help you forget your troubles for a little while, you can have a laugh about things, ‘wine maketh glad the heart’. Obviously if you drink too much, you have to deal with the after-effects, but in moderation, with a good friend, it’s not a bad thing to do from time to time.
5. Read a funny book or listen to something funny. I read my way through the Peanuts comics by Charles Schulz, and this really helped me a lot. At the time I wasn’t able to read the Bible, or anything deep or philosophical, even novels, because my mind twisted things and made them negative. Even Reader’s Digest articles sometimes disturbed me. But the Peanuts cartoons were something I could read without getting disturbed or worried, and they helped me recover my perspective and sense of humour. Also the jokes in Reader's Digest were good. Lake Wobegon, too.
6. Forget yourself for a little while by doing something you enjoy. Watch a movie (for me it is usually Sci-Fi). Read a good book. Go swimming. Go for a walk in nature. Spend time with a friend. Have a good, nutritious, tasty meal. Sometimes I was so depressed I couldn’t enjoy any of these things - but when I started to recover, some of these sorts of simple enjoyments helped me along.
7. Forget yourself by helping someone else. I helped a good friend of mine take a group of Quadraplegics shopping - and it is not the ‘virtue’ of the activity that helped or any ‘brownie points’ I thought I could earn (with God we’re all in debt, no amount of brownie points can change that, after all, all we can do is trust that He loves us) - but the relationships I formed with the Quads, and the fact that in so many ways they were worse off than I was, yet still able to be cheerful, these things really helped me. Visiting friends in nursing homes, hospital, etc., helped at times too.
8. Spend time with an animal or a pet. Dogs can be especially comforting, because they are overjoyed to see you and commiserate so well when you’re sad.
9. Don’t try too hard not to be depressed, don't try too hard to experience things. But if you can, simply notice beauty in the world. How beautiful the sky can be. Feel the bark on the trees. The softness of the breeze. Sometimes, though, depression can even dull these things - nonetheless just by noticing, rather than trying to experience beauty, I was able to forget myself a little. And the beauty of the world can point us towards the God who made the world, and loves us.
10. Give your life to Jesus Christ and ask Him to help you and save you. I did this quite a few times when I was depressed, praying with Christian friends or counselors, asking Jesus’ help! At first it didn’t seem as though anything much had changed, and it took a long time before I could see His hand really at work in my life, but in those moments of prayer I really did feel Jesus’ comforting presence, and those moments kept me hoping that my life would change. And there were times of closeness to God, even at my lowest points. And eventually, Jesus did help me, healed me, saved me from depression. (Please note - this advice is not just for Christians. Jesus loves everyone, wants to help and heal and save everyone, no matter what creed, colour, gender, etc etc. And He is real and alive, this is true.)
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