Vitamin D3 is a good idea, generally the recommendation is 1000 IU a day. Especially now after the winter (assuming you’re in the Northern hemisphere) your vitamin D storage is probably depleted (the body needs a certain amount of UV radiation on the skin to produce vitamin D.

Regular exercise has been proven to help against depression and I think it’s probably the best and most important thing you can do. While helping your depression it will also help your general health and fitness.

Eat well: lots and lots of veggies, legumes and whole grain products. If unhealthy food makes you happy, don’t cut it from your diet completely. Allow yourself to eat sweets etc every once in a while and in moderation, but try to have a very healthy diet as a basis.

These things are probably hard to implement when you’re depressed in the first place but I guarantee you they’ll help and become easier as you go if you consistently stick to them. It takes about 66 days on average to build new habits. So if you manage to stick to it for about 2-3 months, it will become a lot easier.

Good luck!

Yes and no (and a disclaimer: I’m only a nurse). There are several herbs that work similarly to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). The issue being that they therefore have the same risks as SSRIs: the two big ones being serotonin syndrome (all your vital signs shoot up until it kills you) and less dangerously but not really less unpleasantly, mania and/or psychosis if that’s something your genetics have predisposed you do. These are both a lot less likely with herbs than medications because they’re much weaker, but it’s still possible, and especially if you take them WITH an SSRI. There are also some recreational drugs (shrooms, lsd, MDMA) that can cause serotonin syndrome when you take too much or take them with other serotonin boosting medications. I don’t recommend you play with this kind of thing without medical supervision. I actually had one of our severe bipolar cases come back to us high as tits because they swapped their mood stabilizer for a serotonergic herb, it was a mess.

Anyway the big three are St John’s Wort, Ashwaganda, and Moringa. L-tryptophan is also known to boost serotonin, but that’s just because it’s one of the building blocks your body needs to make it. Melatonin can also help your serotonin because it and serotonin turn into each other as part of the cycle of your circadian rhythm but be careful not to take too much of it because you’ll start having extremely bizarre nightmares.

But like I said, you’re better off talking to a doctor about this before you find out you’ve been bipolar II this entire time when the herbs you bought on Amazon turn it into bipolar I and you spend a month in a psych ward thinking your you’re the second coming of Christ and putting chess pieces in your ass to fight the demons.

Just mentioning this because I see all the others: spicy food. Your brain makes happy chemicals to help with the pain, apparently.

Go on hikes through forested trails on a regular basis, no bullshit.

All the people saying exercise… I swear that has to vary across people. I went to the gym thrice a week for two years and hated every gd second of it.

Exercise boosts endorphins.

Physical contact boosts oxytocin.

Sex does both.

Chocolate helps produce serotonin.

Capsaicin-heavy foods will make your body produce adrenaline and endorphins.

Caffeine is a drug but can give you a long hit of dopamine — but overdosing will make anxiety worse, and can fuck with your sleep cycle. It’s also rapidly addictive and the withdrawal symptoms include malaise and depressive feelings.

A stable sleep cycle is A#1 for happiness, though. It won’t make you happy on its own but screwing it up will make you unhappy on its own, so it’s the foundation to build everything else on.

Exercise, sauna, and completing small projects can help.

Medicine won’t really help if you’re feeling depressed due to external factors. People who feel depressed because of their life situation typically benefit more from therapy both to learn how to cope more effectively and for guidance/support on making life changes. Look for sliding scales or low/no-cost therapy options in your area

Cats

In terms of mental health, drugs that give any kind of relief should be treated as a shelter from the storm so you can rebuild. This means if you’re not rebuilding while you’re in shelter, your happiness is only going to last as long as your shelter is standing. Drugs wear off, and it is very easy to just want to keep putting your shelter up ad infinitum. This is where the second problem of drugs for relief comes in. The shelter is sub-standard compared to doing the things to build a lasting happiness. You can get stoned as shit, but if you and your life is still in shambles there’s only so much that can do.

All the above being said cannabis can help when you need a break. Psychedelics can help as well and microdosing incurs minimal risk. Neither of these will fix any of your problems, but they can enable you to work on your problems yourself when it was too difficult to before.

Alternatively, if you want to avoid drugs altogether meditation can be an option in some circumstances. This is barely a recommendation because meditation is a skill that you have to practice in optimal form consistently before you’ll get anything at all from it. It’s impossible to actually know whether you’re doing it right until you start to feel relief from it and so many things can make practicing mediation as a beginner almost impossible if you’re in crisis. If you attempt mediation with absolutely no expectations other than that you will fail at it until you happen to approach it in a way that works you may eventually get some relief from it. If you get it working consistently, it is far stronger than anything you can get legally without a prescription in terms of providing relief. I can give you some guidance if you’re interested in this path. Secondarily, Kava can help a little in that it dulls the pain.

Vallerian root, kanna, ashwaganda, etc. might work if you believe strongly that they’re working. Avoid depressants like alcohol because although they provide temporary relief they also make things worse when they wear off which can be a terrible cycle.

5-HTP is a mood-regulating supplement, like a mild anti-depressant. I once took it for a year and it actually helped. But for the first week it made me more emotional. Read about it on webMD so you understand it and the risks.

But the real answer is exercise, healthy diet, and maybe vitamin D. Boring answer, I know, but the absolute best one too.

Vitamin D and some exercise is generally helpful for me

I know it sounds obvious but walking or any light cardio will do wonders for your mood. Pilates also.

If hard or traditional exercise is a problem motivation-wise or physically, you might want to try something like Pokémon Go. PG uses scammy mobile game tactics, which is normally bad, but it does help with motivation. You can also try ingress (which I can’t speak to), orna (does not use scammy tactics, and is better from a privacy standpoint, but is easier to put down as a result), or something similar. Walking outside is pretty low impact and a good way to get vitamin D. I have a much easier time setting off with a couple of bottles of water, some coffee, and a battery pack for a several hour long walk or just getting out of bed and going for a walk around the block if I know I’ll get something out of it in the short term as well.

There are lots of medicines that can help, but none of them should be taken without working with professionals.

Please be careful pf taking any medical advice from strangers on the internet that isn’t “you need to talk with a licensed professional.”

Even suggesting diet and exercise and vitamin D can be harmful advice under the wrong circumstances.