Best books on depression?

[M]

-Avoid all stress, including some stress that may not be obvious e.g. constantly checking the news/facebook, ruminating about the past or personal thoughts about your self worth etc (you can't change the past...). Avoid negative people, including other depressed people or angry people. Avoid work stress at all costs. Avoid financial stress. Take breaks and rest as needed.
-Eat a mostly plant based, high fiber diet. Eating salmon occasionally is ok.
-Mostly avoid all other saturated fat e.g. chicken, beef, dairy.
-Mostly Avoid all sweets, pop, and anything with added sugar.
-Treat deep fried food as a kind of poison. Seriously. It is poison. STAY AWAY.
-Consume vitamin D supplements. Most multivitamins include this.
-Consume fish oil daily.
-Walk outside 30 minutes per day.
-Talk to positive, loving people. Or just be in an area with many other people e.g. park, gym, classes etc.
-If you have past trauma talk to a therapist or compassionate person. Let the past go - you can't change it and it will haunt you in the present.

Imo depression is a symptom, which could have several different underlying causes including past trauma, inflammation from sugar/poor omega 6 omega 3 ratio, lack of fiber to feed good gut bacteria, rumination and anxiety, etc. Certain genes may make you more susceptible to depression. There are other less common causes also. If you have experienced serious depression in the past then you are more susceptible to depression. The brain is like a muscle that tends to repeat itself.

[guitarplayer]

-Consume fish oil daily.

Nice list! For vegan readers, this I believe can be replaced by a heaped tablespoon of ground flax seeds daily.

[M]

Nice list! For vegan readers, this I believe can be replaced by a heaped tablespoon of ground flax seeds daily.

Right.

The fish oil is just to try and balance out the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of someone eating a standard American diet. This is to reduce one kind of inflammation. Our grain fed meat and dairy cows have pretty horrible omega 6 to omega 3 ratios which throws most all Americas way out of balance.

For a vegan diet flaxseed should work, but honestly, I doubt someone on a whole foods vegan diet needs to worry about this...Unless they are eating a ton of vegetable oil or 'vegan cheesecake' or deep fried food etc. In general though I doubt most vegans need to worry about this. Usually their inflammation, if they have any, is being caused by sugar and simple carb consumption. Just my .02 cents.

[guitarplayer]

Cool, noted this.

[Crusader]

I enjoyed this talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc
(not sure if anyone else mentioned it, didn't read the entire thread)

[Lemur]

I'll add that while ground flaxseed has a lot of ALA - what you're really looking for on the physical/mental health benefit front is the DHA/EPA which is a byproduct of ALA conversion. This conversion in humans occurs rather poorly (something like 3-10% of ALA is actually converted to DHA/EPA); however, Vegans do have the option of taking Algae Oil to get DHA/EPA directly.

I'll add to the discussion that depression should be understand as a multi-faceted problem and requires sometimes multiple solutions. Just browsing through this thread...most of the solutions seem to be covered by someone. But I'll add some nuance:

1.) Can't emphasize enough on getting adequate sleep. A day is ruined with poor sleep (look up Matthew Walker). And vaguely read somewhere that fixing one's sleep can move them several points up a 1-10 happiness scale. Might as well add on the obvious here - good diet, get sunlight, do walk, and eat your greens.

2.) Understand that depression can even occur in those who have all there basis covered ala Maslow's Hierarchy but are failing to self-actualize. This article is from another thread somewhere but articulates the issue: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/02/18/a ... -universe/ . Constantly living a lifestyle that is antithesis to one's core values can cause chronic stress which leads to depression. Some people compartmentalize these conflicted values well enough to avoid the mental issues but there is a maintenance here if you will to keep this up.

3.) From a biological basis - its a chicken or the egg. Chemical imbalances in the brain surely cause the feelings of depression (where else do these feelings come from?) but is it the environment one is responding to or the makeup of the brain that is the source of the problems? The paradox is solved when you recognize its a bit of both: nature and nurture or genetic and environment.

4.) No amount of philosophizing can take someone out of a shitty environment (like a bad job, bad neighborhood, abusive relationship, chronic pain, or simply a brain that is just wired wrong and needs to be molded differently through a combination of drugs and lifestyle changes) which can cause chronic stress that leads to depression. Though one could develop better mental tools to cope in the short-term. But its difficult to develop these tools while undergoing stress. If possible, find a new environment.

[ertyu]

Currently reading CPTSD - From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker and learning about the ways dysthimic depression (the can't be fucked to do anything but stare at a scrolling screen feed, no energy, motivation, etc type) can be rooted in one's upbringing. Feeling rather called out. If attempts for self-care along the lines suggested in this thread won't work or won't result in meaningful, lasting change, it might be worth it to delve deeper into the implicit lessons we were taught about ourselves, life, and others.

[M]

Just finished reading Brain Energy by Dr. Christopher Palmer. He makes an interesting case that mitochondrial dysfunction can lead to low mental energy levels that lead to dendrites pulling hack, serotonin production going down, neurons dying, etc, etc.

I started taking creatine which has given me more mental energy and motivation...Thinking about taking more mitochondria supportive supplements, such as CoQ10.

I also bought a led therapy light to help with sleep because I noticed a significant difference in sleep between cloudy days and sunny days.

Depression and fatigue went hand in hand for me so improving general bodily energy levels seems to also lower depression symptoms.