Whether you’re experiencing a short bout of situational depression after you’ve moved away from home for the first time, or the wintery weather is bringing your mood down, depression in any form is not easy to deal with. Medication is a common and effective approach for managing the mental lows, so it’s an easy choice for medical professionals to lean on. However, it’s not the only path to feeling better. Here are some options to explore if you’re interested in navigating depression treatment without medication:
Exercise
Any heart-rate-raising movement has the potential to release endorphins, our bodies’ natural mood boosters. By getting your blood pumping, you’re increasing blood flow to your brain, a critical component for our brain’s handy regeneration (neuroplasticity) superpower. Remember, it doesn’t have to be some big, beginning-of-the-new-year fitness craze. You don’t have to join a CrossFit gym or even a gym at all. You can get exercise on a brisk walk around your building on your lunch break. Or do you find dancing fun? Sign up for some more adult dance classes in your free evenings.
Nutrition and Lifestyle
Changing your diet to include more healthy fruits and vegetables while reducing your processed sugary snacks or drinks can vastly improve your outlook on life. Additionally, curbing your depressant substance intake, like alcohol, can prevent anxiety-filled hangover days and the inevitable low moods that follow.
Other changes like reducing stress (the stress you can control, that is) and improving your sleep quality can really help reduce and prevent depression. Simply giving yourself a sleep routine, such as a wind-down time and routine to get yourself in bed at the same time every night, can help facilitate better sleep habits.
Mindfulness and Meditation
Negative thinking patterns, such as ruminating thoughts, can play a role in depression’s development. By practicing mindfulness and meditation, you can hone your skills for managing your depression. There’s even mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) that combines traditional cognitive therapy with mindfulness strategies, which can help you break free from negative thinking patterns in a professional, structured environment.
Art and Music Therapy
Creative therapies such as art and music therapy offer alternative avenues for expressing and processing emotions. By engaging in creative pursuits facilitates self-expression and introspection and may bring you therapeutic relief.
Acupuncture
While depression is a mental disorder, it can cause a lot of physical symptoms. Some find relief with therapies such as acupuncture and massage. While evidence for these approaches varies, they can provide short-term positive effects on mental well-being, especially if you’re using them to alleviate some of the physical symptoms of depression.
Light Therapy
Also known as phototherapy, light therapy is a powerful tool to fight depression, especially for those who struggle with weather changes or are susceptible to low vitamin D levels. Whether you’re officially diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or not, if you find your mood plummets on gloomy days or is especially low during winter months, light therapy can help regulate your circadian rhythm and improve your mood. It involves exposure to bright light that mimics natural sunlight.
Support Groups
Joining an in-person or online support group or engaging in community activities can foster a sense of belonging, connection, and support. Bonding and engaging with others who have experienced or are currently experiencing depression provides a safe space for shared experiences, empathy, and encouragement.
Counseling and Therapy
In addition to support groups, group therapy is an option. Most prefer individual talk therapy, though, a cornerstone of non-medication depression treatments. There are many options, such as the previously mentioned MBCT, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and interpersonal therapy (IPT). There’s also counseling and life coaching, depending on what you are trying to target and achieve from your sessions. Whichever method or modality you choose, they will offer you tools to understand and manage your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors contributing to your depression.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
TMS is a non-medication, FDA-approved treatment for major depression disorder (MDD). TMS providers use magnetic fields directed via a coil on your scalp. This stimulates nerve cells in areas of your brain responsible for mood and emotions. It’s highly effective at treating depression, especially for those not responding to traditional therapies with treatment-resistant depression (TRD).
There are two forms of TMS. Standard TMS treatment typically looks like five weekly treatments for up to eight weeks. You’ll start to see or feel results within a few weeks. Accelerated TMS is up to 10 sessions daily for a maximum of two weeks. The benefit of the accelerated option is you will start to see results in a matter of days. Not all TMS providers offer the accelerated option, so search for “accelerated TMS for depression near me” if you are interested in this treatment.
Holistic Approach
The journey to overcome depression without medication is a highly individualized one. What works well for some doesn’t have the same mood-boosting effects for others. What does work well for most is focusing on these main areas mentioned above and exploring alternative options within each category. Running may not be your exercise of choice, but a group yoga class outside combines socialization, exercise, and light therapy in a single 30- or 60-minute session. Combining these areas into a holistic approach empowers you to find what resonates with you.
Whatever path you choose, it is important to work closely with healthcare professionals either to tailor a comprehensive treatment plan that addresses the unique aspects of your experiences with depression or to at least monitor your progression to ensure personal safety. Hopefully, illuminating these multiple paths to healing helps you understand there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Even if your journey results in antidepressants, remember there’s a spectrum of possibilities for you to reclaim your life from the grips of depression–to no longer go through the motions but find joy in your daily life again.