| Talking to your doctor is the number one answer to this. Only he is going to be qualified to give you medical advice/refer you to someone to talk about/prescribe you something. Nothing you find online should be substituted for ACTUAL medical advice.
That being said, I went through a long bout of depression right around the beginning of law school that lasted for about 8 months or so. Some of the things that worked for me were:
-Exercise. Yeah yeah you're releasing endorphins and all that, but once you get into the groove it's just plain fun. If you're into it, I'm sure your local gym could be a great place to sarge/meet people, although personally I usually have my music going to block everything out so I wouldn't know lol. Plus you're going to see results over whatever period of time you commit if you go to the gym, and that can help with self esteem.
-Get a hobby. A big part of my depression came from not having much time to myself. During 1L (basically freshman year of law school) you have about 2 hours of hw a night per class. The idea is that you're supposed to commit 8 hours of studying a day plus class. When I added that up to my commuting time (another two hours out of my day) and tried to to get 6-8 hours of sleep, it basically worked out that I had no time to myself. It wasn't until I started carving time out to go to the gym and to read/write (I'm big writing on short fiction) that I began to feel a little bit better. Some other hobbies I have are listening to podcasts while I play videotapes (so I can pretend I'm doing something productive haha), sports, and photography.
-Diet. Take at look at what you're putting into your body. Log your meals on MyFitnessPal for a day or two to get a general idea, if you're seeing more junk food than meat, vegetables, and complex carbs, then it might be your diet that's contributing to how you feel. As Fat Bastard said in Austin Powers (3?) "I eat because I'm unhappy, and I'm unhappy because I eat." He also said that he hasn't seen his willy in nearly 2 years (long enough to declare it legally dead), but that's neither here nor there.
-EFT. You can try the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is completely safe to try on your own, although probably more effective with a therapist or experience practitioner. It works by targeting energy meridians through tapping in order to deal with past traumas, fears, and energy imbalances. Everyone is different, but I had some good results from using it.
-Gratitude. Write down 5 things that you're grateful for every single day. Do it all in a notebook or on a note in your phone. After a week it's incredible how much it adds up. Since there's no repeats, it's gets to be pretty interesting coming up with new things to be grateful for. The first few days you're usually grateful for basic stuff like your parents, home, job, being alve, etc., but once you're like 5 or 6 days out you'll be thankful for the little things, like making it to work on time, or the girl who said hi to you in line getting coffe. It's really humbling in my opinion, and it's really easy to do.
Overall, and this is just my opinion here, I feel like depression, anxiety, nervous ticks, etc. all come from imbalances somewhere in your life. Identify these imbalances (physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, emotional, etc.) and set goals to change them, and you'll be in your way back to equilibrium. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that your brain is simply 'wired' to feel a certain way. Yes, anxiety disorders exist, but why label yourself before you see a doctor? Plus, these types of disorders wax and wane as you move through life, and can even completely disappear, just like other habits. How many people on this forum thought that they were 'wired' to be AFCs and changed themselves into PUAs?
What I'll say is this: it's called 'going THROUGH depression' because there's an end to it. Talk to your doctor, enlist the aid of your friends, family and this community, and never give up, and I guarantee you'll make it through this.
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CHAT
