6 things I stopped doing to fix my depression 

1. Stopped drugs and alcohol 2. Stopped chasing acute feelings of joy 3. Stopped staying up late 4. Stopped restricting my food intake 5. Stopped allowing myself to be inactive 6. Stopped getting fully invested in fantasy world - tv, videogames etc Might want to listen - each item is qualified

Your ability to relate to people because of your own 'broken' parts is why you're the only doctor I subscribe to... you've removed the hierarchy between doctor and patient. Thank you for your work.

For me the worst thing about being depressed _is pretending that I'm not depressed_

I’m 70 and I’ve been depressed since my childhood. I’ve coped and dragged myself through life. I have bright spots, many in fact. The bright spots have kept me alive but now I no longer care if I live or die. I think I’ve stayed alive to not hurt family. I can’t seem to crawl out of the hole. I keep hoping.

I love hearing someone else being honest about their struggles. It’s good to know we aren’t alone and we do recover.

My 2 sons have mental health issues and my wife sees a therapist. I started watching your videos seeking understanding. I shared your videos with my wife and she says you're very relatable. That's high praise. Thanks for what you are doing. It's quality help. Peace

Nostalgia is one that I’m trying to break myself away from. I get obsessed and it leaves me with an empty hopeless feeling.

Thank you 🙏. I’m a 56 yr old woman who is beyond crippling loneliness and all my time is spent helping others. I phoned the Samaritan yesterday and hung up as I felt so so ashamed . I think people usually assume middle aged women have someone to talk to. Thank you for these tips that help you through

I am the female version of you. You describe your brain and depression just how I have experienced mine for 55 years. I'm going to try 2 things from your video. 1. Accepting, finally, that my brain is wired differently than others and be ok with that fact. 2. Force myself to get out of my house and go for a walk everyday. I really resonated with you when you said you struggle with feeling like doing nothing and needing to do something.

As an academia / neuroscience inclined depressed person, I really feel so much more at ease to know you succeeded despite depression.

I think depression is a completely natural human response to really opening one's eyes to the modern world/society in general and asking some very real questions.

I can’t believe you described my life…. 100% day in & day out… No joy No happiness No friends/family No inner peace No God given talents or abilities No focus No strength No hope

You hit the nail on the head when you talked about not wanting to do anything, but not wanting to do nothing either. This happens to me every day, and as you say, is super frustrating.

I really appreciate that you don’t edit your videos to be cut so that you make no mistakes and that you don’t even seem to breathe! those videos that are very popular by most content creators, to edit them in such a way that makes them speak fast and error free actually creates a bit of anxiety for me. where your videos are very realistic and comfortable and authentic and I super appreciate the ease and realistic setting you create, feeling like you are right here and we’re having a real conversation. The Content is fantastic and super helpful!

7. Stop watching the news.

Serotonin the happy mood chemical is made in the gut.. I didn't know this and have had depression on and off over the years. Then i discovered that i needed to have a healthy gut, ie good intestinal flora , which promotes serotonin, by taking acidophilus capsules . At our mental health centre they warn us against eating foods high in sugar and highly processed food too which can wipe out the good healthy gut bacteria . Also after a course of antibiotics that kill off good as well as bad bacteria , its so important to take acidophilus capsules too. So many people i know over look this basic but vital info

I'm 67 and I'm sure I was born with depression, I've only worked this out recently and why I think this is because looking back over my life I've never felt real happiness like I see other people enjoying their life . There isn't any photo's of myself smiling, you see children laughing, happy over nothing but that was never me, and all my life I felt cheated of not having that , could never understand what is wrong with me 😢 I did eventually find some joy in my children, my pets but also a deep sadness when it ended ( Children become adults, pets die ) I am a very compassionate person and feel genuinely for others who suffer and especially animals therefore I am constantly saddened easily and it is a real struggle to always having to be me and not being able to change that . Thank you for your kindness and helping those who so desperately need someone who really, truly understands 💜

Here are some of the things I do to help when I am having a depressive episode (in addition to what you already mentioned in your video). 1) avoid silence. I make sure there is music playing or an audiobook so that my own skull chatter has to compete with it for its soapbox. 2) to help with sleeping, especially when I cannot quiet my mind, I *listen* to a movie I have seen a hundred times before. I have a few favorites. I would be willing to bet that many people have a few favorites they have seen many, many times. I listen to it while I am trying to go to sleep, but I don't watch it. It must be dark so I either cover the screen or let it run in another room and use a remote speaker where I sleep. Then I try to visualize the movie while I hear it. It pushes out disturbing thoughts because it takes a lot of my brain to see the movie in my mind. Seeing images in my mind is very close to the sleep state and getting to sleep from there is much easier. 3) I try to find something creative to do when I am awake and not working. Not a video game or any kind of *participative experience*. It has to be something creative like pour painting, 3D modeling and printing , writing or woodworking. It can be hard to bring myself to do it when I am depressed, but it is helpful when I can. This is related to your idea of accomplishments vs, joy-seeking. 4) Do something nice for someone else. Sometimes I don't like myself enough to do something nice for myself, but I still want to help others, and that feels good. I can see in their eyes (or imagine it if I can't see their eyes) that they appreciate me and sometimes that rubs off on me.

Spot on, my man. I've been fighting this for over 40 years now. medication didn't work. Therapy didn't work. One day I just got fed up with the pathos that was my life. The first epiphany for me was that I actually found comfort in the chest pain that came whenever I would start slipping or when things went bad. It's difficult to describe, but it had become my friend. It was the one thing I could count on being there when everything else was gone. Yeah, it's jacked. I consciously made the decision right there to turn that security blanket into a warning light. Whenever I felt it, I would make it an immediate priority to stop what I was thinking, feeling, or encountering and address the issue. It helped and still helps to this day (quite literally this day, which explains why I'm watching this video). Edit: epiphany #2 was, at least in my case, selfishness increased alongside depression. I have no idea if there is any correlation, but the deeper I went, the more I thought about myself. It was like borders started to be drawn, and I became my own island and only cared about what was on that island, nothing more. That isolation kept me locked into my own head and thinking about my own problems, which turned into a demented positive feedback cycle.

You failed that psychology class, but all that matters is you got back up again, and look where you are now. You give people hope. That's not a failed person! I wish you could see yourself the way people who watch your videos see you. You are a really important person.

I`ve been battling depression & anxiety for about 15 years and had some really dark episodes where I thought there was no reason to live anymore (last one 2 years ago) but lately, I`ve been working intensely on my mental health. I`ve changed my lifestyle quite a bit and things that have been most beneficial to me are: - having a healthy environment (living close to nature and spending as much time as possible outside) - having healthy habits: meditation, joga, mindfulness, journaling, reading, rest,... - living authentically to my dreams and desires - following my values and interests - ending toxic relationships (that triggered my depression) - learning about psychology, mental health & mentality - healing unhealthy patterns, traumas, triggers hope this is helpful for anyone, sending you much love!

I CANNOT BELIEVE how you were able to help me with my own depression after watching your video. I am in awe right now! I never looked at my depression as a chronic health condition that needs to be dealt with this way so concisely and matter of fact. I am just realizing that I have never accepted that I have to live with it for the rest of my life. I’ve always hoped it was conditional and that I would be healed from it but wow, I can now accept my fate more graciously now that I have seen how it can be managed. Thank you SO MUCH! from the bottom of my heart.

I had moderate depression for 4 years in my early twenties. Then, without any exogenous or endogenous changes, it went away. Now I'm content and happy with my life.

Dr. Scott is BY FAR the best person or channel on RU-vid- he feels like one of the ONLY ones actually bringing hope to the hopeless! I'm a single Mom and implementing his simple to understand strategies have helped me more than any therapy or medication over many years. He makes changing seem possible, he understands the difference between depression and being or seeming "lazy" at certain times- I'm not a lazy person at all but I do have periods I feel very shut down and this causes shame spirals where I get SO upset with myself. I really hope Dr. Scott realizes how much he's helping so many of us that find him SO DIFFERENT than anyone else in this space and just in general! And he's also honest that there's no magic fix, but that we can slowly, little by little, change our mindset and change our lives. Plus he's just so fun to look at and Listen to!!! All my Love, admiration, and gratitude to you Dr. Scott!! PLEASE keep doing what you're doing! And listening to your own journey and experience in this video helped so much, I will start using these new tips starting tomorrow. Literally the best channel on RU-vid, I've told all my friends and family to subscribe and watch! ❤️🥰💖

Wow, you've just described everything I've been through my entire life. What you have put in this format is something I've discovered through trial & error. I'm 64 years old and it took me a few decades to realize all of the same things. You are 100% right as far as my severe depression disorder. It's so great to hear you describe this & give functional solutions to everyday living. I have to admit that sometimes I stop doing some of those 6 things and yes I fall right back into the darkness of just existing. You've given me a little push today to start paying more attention to those 6 things. Thanks so much.

Depression is awful. I’ve had depression on and off since 1997. I try to accept it’s just part of my life and I just have to get through it each time. Still feels horrendous each time

When you said how sorry you are that we are like this, it was like a dam burst, you made me cry but they were healing tears, that the doctor doesn’t just understand the mechanics but actually KNOWS - you are very special person and I thank you deeply for helping us

I have to make these same choices. It is my healthy brain 🧠 diet. My list includes 1. Time in nature. 2. I need to pray regularly 3. I need to reach out to friends and not be a recluse 4. I need music 5. I need to help someone each day. 6. I need to eat healthy food 7. I need to go to bed early and get up early. 8. I need to move. 9. I need to get dressed everyday and look nice. 10. I like to be fresh and clean.

Wow. Feels like something finally “clicked” for me hearing this. I’ve been spending months watching productivity channels, obsessing about my mental health, feeling “different” and “broken” and suddenly you just put it in a way that makes sense

Good to hear advice from someone who feels like I do--not just "feeling depressed", but living with depression.

I found many of the things you said not to do on my own by trial, error and desperation . It is wonderful to hear a confirmation! You are a breath of fresh air!

Coming out of freeze mode, I realized that while not chasing joy, I also was not achieving the 'must do now's'. This morning I tried to think of a few good times or things that have happened in my life. Every one that came to mind was tinged and overtaken by a connected failure or slight, or rejection. That got me out of bed and to work on my to-do list. Once active, my ruminating and severe anxiety/depression went away. It came back on every break I took. I, too, have been a lifelong sufferer of depression. At my age, my time left is rather short. I am adament that, like you, I find my way to a largely balanced mindset and life.

What a wonderful human being you are!! You are humble and you exude a genuine concern for others. God bless you, friend. Curt

Another for me is stop watching True Crime stories, too much exposure to negative narratives

I’ve battled depression for 42 years. Antidepressants have saved my life. I can be off them for a few years but then have to take them for a few days to weeks to function and not become psychotic. I was in therapy for 16 years. I had plenty of childhood trauma, was a single parent, suffered divorce and death of a child, alcohol abuse off and on. The challenges never end. I’m in my 70s now and the biggest challenge is overcoming inertia and staying optimistic. Eating well and getting enough sleep are critical. You also have to manage your money well and avoid alcohol and unprescribed drugs. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to live alone and don’t want to think about it.

Thank you for helping me make sense of my very broken world. I am 50. I've been fighting depression since I was 19. Lost my husband of 20 years in May of 2021. About 90% of my time is in a swirling black hole of suck. 9% is flatlined but I get 1% of daily laughter in there and I'm working on raising it to 2%. Thank you for making enough sense that I listen to your whole video. Whichever one I may stumble across. Please keep at it and thank you.

Alcohol and cigarettes addiction actually destroyed my life. I could remember several years ago after divorce with my wife which brought me into my disastrous journey on Alcohol and cigarettes. I suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Got diagnosed with cptsd. Not until a friend recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 8 years totally clean. Much respect to mother nature the great magic shrooms.

Wow. This video popped up out of nowhere and I’m so glad I watched it. I’ve struggled with alcohol and depression most of my adult life (I recently turned 64). I’ve been on a serious sober journey for the past 3 1/2 years but have had no luck with permanent sobriety yet. I’ve recently connected my alcohol use to depression so hearing you speak was a life saver. You’ve gained a new follower. I’m anxious to hear more of what you have to say as I’m tired of living this life of ups and downs. Thank you.

Just discovered this video. I've listened twice because of clear resonance with my experience of my life. I thank you so much for this courage, honestly, effort to help others through sharing how things are and have been for you. I've been too brilliant for my brain-balance to handle. It has gotten me some good places but the general effect has been frustration, feeling alienated from others when really my feelings of alienation were often not actually justifiable. This tremendous frustration and feeling too different. I spent 2 professional careers helping clients. My most rewarding times of peace and calm were when I was connected alone or in a team, helping people. But now I'm retired and that achievement being more durable than joy has been true but has also now kind of worn-off after years of retirement. Anyway, I really just wanted to thank you so much. Yes, being stuck in one's own too-unique mind can be hellish. I've experienced your feelings of hellish suffering. I will now particularly keep your talk in mind with respect to looking after myself....HAVING to look after myself because my brain, too, cannot handle certain apparently 'normal' life experiences. Yes, it's a choice. Congratulations of the choices you've made, and are making. Good man. The world benefits from people like you, very much. KEEP FOLLOWING YOUR STAR.

I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression disorders. I tried Everything!! The thing that has helped me the most is learning how to sit with it. Then encouraging myself to do things. I seriously had to learn to sit with myself first. I didn’t die.😊

After I considered suicide for the first time while in the forth grade, I've been in and out of counseling for a good chunk of my life, (I'm now 47) with no real solutions or help given that was effective. Your videos have made more sense and have been more effective than anything that I've ever heard any therapist, psychiatrist or psychologist say to date. Words don't exist to express how thankful I am for your willingness to get this information out. God bless.

I appreciate how real and vulnerable you are… just found your channel, and at 62yo, relate to everything you’re talking about! Thank you for this work you’re doing and the raw honest help you provide. 🙏🏼💙

Thank you for being candid enough to share the depression you endured - and particularly what you stopped doing to aid your healing. I am at the point in healing from CPTSD due to narcissistic abuse to know that there's things I need to stop doing to aid in my healing and "raise the baseline" as you said. Thank you! I greatly appreciate people like you who so willingly help others. Thank you! 😊

Having ADHD with emotional dysregulation, I can relate to all of this. And your number 6 isn't weird at all. I don't watch TV or play videogames as much either, especially episodic TV. I don't like to be emotionally invested in fictional characters long term. I like movies. And I was telling myself this week that I need to use things that I can achieve as a dopamine booster rather than resorting to youtube and the like. Thank you for sharing. I truly appreciate it.

Wow. The first doctor I have ever encountered who is one of us. You understand. ❤

Yes I have to do this, did not realise how much until listening to this video. I am moving forward and I am so glad I found your channel. Thank you so much. 😊

Possibly the most enlightening seminar on depression I've ever engaged in. Thank you, friend. x

You are the only person that describes what I have been going through my whole life. Thank you so much for sharing. Like you, when I’m depressed I have to do something productive. I have stopped social media or kept it to a minimum. I looked at other people’s lives then I felt so defeated. I’m in the process of making my own family by choosing who I let into my life. It’s an ongoing process!

Wow, thank you Scott for summing this up. I am a 58 yo male and suffered almost all of my life under depression until some 10 years ago when i also did a few adjustments and with time and age i realized how one can literally grow & "wise out" of that condition. Alot of what you said i have also resonated with.... I might however have taken it to different levels such as detoxing my environment in dumping things like toxic people and social media - Not watching any "fear porn" news on TV (or dumping TV in general). Getting very physical is an elementary part of improving - I hit the weights 3-4 x a week, go to self defense courses. I gave up smoking & alcohol such as any other drugs i loved to use such as Marijuana .. I started to paint in my idle times at home in the cold season, gave up processed foods and cook everything from scratch... Meditate almost every morning..There`s a lot one can do and i want to encourage anyone out there and say, your fate is not sealed with this situation as long as you find the point to finally lift your ass out of it and do things step by step. Love & good luck to all!!!

I had a really good, rigid routine going for a solid 3 years that helped me in so many ways to manage my response to my anxiety. But I found that when my stress “bucket” was full, it killed the routine gradually over time, which then caused a domino affect where I lost all the positives that the routine brought to me. Right now, I’m working to get that routine back. It is taking as much work as it did to begin the routine, if not more! I have subscribed to your channel and am now going to search for a video on burnout recovery. I miss my routine. I miss my morning workouts. I miss my confidence and I miss my strength. Thank you for what you do.

I can’t thank you enough Scott. Your work, approach, tone, empathy, it all means so much. So honest and effective. A true lifesaver. Thank you 🙏🏼

A few extra points I would like to add to your list: Avoid watching the news; Avoid toxic people or toxic relationships.

Talking about your past struggles is a major goal for continuous self care. Thank you for sharing your story.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. They have helped me tremendously and I refer back to it when I'm slipping into another depressive episode.

Your honesty about your own struggles is what will change people lives! I am SO grateful I have found your channel 😊

I'm not into video games but I noticed reality TV shows puts me in a spiral of depression so yep had to cut that out completely! Thanks so much for all your amazing videos!! Me and my 13 yo daughter watch them and we've learned so much in dealing with our own mental health issues ❤

All of the above, I can understand. I'm in a severe episode of my MDD and anxiety disorder. I recognized the "fantasy" world you talk about in 2011. I was binge watching Gray's Anatomy and it made me spiral down. That was the first time I realized that I was effected by said "fantasy world." I do have to be mindful of books I choose also. TFS

Dr. Eilers. Thank you so much for this video. This is the first thing that has given me hope in a very long time. I deeply appreciate your humility and your total honesty. Without without going into a lot of detail, I have been at the worst point of depression in my entire life, to the place of thinking about suicide daily. One of the biggest things that connects with me is that your comments are rooted in a deep acceptance of what you have to deal with, and that acceptance is what enables you to take the steps that you need to take to be whole, even though, as you said, much of the time you don’t feel like taking them. But the alternative is so much worse. Thank you so much again.

Hi, Dr. Scott! I’m an INFP, so chilling is the name of the game for me. 😊 I’m 49 and single, never married, no kids. In recent years, I started driving myself harder with a goal to finally achieve my long-time dream of financial freedom. In 2017, I started an on-cam RU-vid channel. I stopped in 2019 when it was no longer sustainable to continue. A HUGE part of my stress and anxiety now has to do with pressure to achieve the goal still. Trying to work out a faceless channel since 2023 while thriving on little social interaction. Thoughts of aging alone with no family support triggers depression, so driving myself towards the goal helps to address that somehow - that and possibly staying single for the rest of my life. Ultimately, financial freedom will finance my retirement to leave my birth country and start with a clean slate elsewhere. Just too much trauma and bad memories here since childhood. God-willing this 2024 is the year I finally leave wage slavery. Wish me well! Thank you for all the uplifting and relatable content, Dr. Scott. I so appreciate you! ❤

OMG. I completely understand #6. Either 3 or 4 years ago, I broke down crying in my therapist office because of having to accept that magic is not real. Not that I actually believed it was, more the acceptance of the world I live in, which will never be like the worlds I read about. I’m a 46-year-old woman. Kinda ridiculous. So yes, I understand #6.

Psychedelics are just an exceptional mental health breakthrough. It's quite fascinating how effective they are against depression and anxiety. Saved my life.

I am so glad that I found your channel and your videos. I’ve never had anyone describe EXACTLY what I’m going through. I feel so seen, and it’s so helpful. Thank you so much!

Wow, did this ever hit the nail on the head for me!😮 I can't thank you enough for posting this encouraging video. I will be making every single one of these changes starting today!! May you be richly blessed for your caring, candor and for sharing your personal struggles with us! ❤

I have been struggling with depression for 20 years. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. While ADHD medication has changed my life, I have adopted almost exactly the same principals that you mentioned. I didn’t drink much, but stopped almost all drinking, when I finally realized how detrimental it is for anyone with depression. I think you are spot on with that people with tendency towards depression need to take extra care of themselves. You can’t choose the cards you’re dealt. I would add one more topic: mindfulness. It has done wonders for me. Also cutting down on nearly all digital leisure content and social media. This frees up so much mental space and provides you with more time for true accomplishment.

It is so so refreshing to take in all of what you said. I am a 47yo male with a great career, amazing friends and family, an otherwise positive outlook on life yet that depression since I was born will still sometimes show up. I’ve learned to not be afraid of it, not judge it and I remember that it too will pass. It took a long time to get here, a very long time. But everything you said is so spot on. 👍🏼

Thank you. You really put things in perspective for me, im 51 and have struggled with anxiety and depression for most of my life. This is the first time I can relate.

These videos among a few others do help, especially when therapy is not available. I have fleeting thoughts myself that I had actually died and that this reality was the afterlife and I was in so much denial about death that I was “creating “ this reality. The clouds have not lifted for almost two years and waking up every day to find i have to battle another day is the most difficult part. Please keep making content because while they may not help in the moment they register and they provoke you to make small changes and in the long run you will inevitably make progress. Thank you for helping those who don’t have options and know that you are making a difference.

Timestamps help me study/remember 0:00 Intro (Self-Disclosure) 3:25 Intro (Preamble) 4:40 #1 Drugs and Alcohol (Escapism through Patterns of Abuse) 7:08 #2 Chasing Acute Feelings of Joy (Quick Fixes instead of Long-term Achievements) 9:44 #3 Staying up Late (Behavioural Insomnia) 10:57 Tired Mind = Emotionally Dysregulated Mind + Two Choices 12:42 #4 Restricting Food Intake (Denying your brain the necessary nutrition) 14:18 #5 Allowing yourself to be inactive/isolated indoors (Under-stimulating the Brain) 15:41 #6 Getting Really Invested in Fantasy Worlds (Comparing Real Life to an Unachievable Standard) 15:50 Outro

It's great to hear that you have recovered and can use that information to help others ! I used to volunteer on a help line and used to hear callers saying "I wish my psychiatrist understood me !"

Lol! Glad to find you here! My whole life has also been a mental health research project. I got off of prescribed narcotics 10 years ago, got 2 master's in counseling, now I am a clinical mental health therapist. It is to help others, yes- but also to help me. I have struggled with severe depression, anxiety, mood swings, bipolar 2. No one has really been able to help me that much so I decided to learn as much as I can. I am still learning everyday. I am not 90% better. I would say 70% better. I just discovered your videos this morning and subscribed. Excited to see more. PS: Agree with you about achievement vs: joy! This has saved me! I have short term goals, long term goals, and a life plan. This always gives me something to reflect on, to feel proud about and to continue working towards.

I’m in my 7th decade on the planet. I have depression episodes. They are cyclical. I’ve lived long enough to know that the episode will cycle out. As a person of Christian faith, I have Biblical tools to lean on also. Warmest regards, fellow depression sufferers. Hang on and then hang on more until the cloud lifts.

The 6th one is so powerful and relatable! I’ve struggled with it my entire life and can’t seem to describe why i feel good and bad at the same time trying to find an escapism in fantasy worlds, esp. in movies and kpop and idols. Thank you for your sincere sharing, Dr. Scott. What you’re doing now is exactly what I aspire to do - being the person I needed in the past for others. Hope that makes sense to you. Please keep making good content for us. Also, please keep taking excellent care of yourself too. Much love and respect.

Your description of what it feels like living with chronic depression is so spot-on. It's therapeutic just listening to it has a therapeutic effect in itself.

Words cannot express what you have done for my mental health. The first video I watched was you telling your story and it could have been my story. I took notes. When you speak I hear what you're saying and I understand and I haven't been able to do that with others for a while. Keep your wisdom coming. You've changed my daily living that's going on for far too long

Thank you, so much for this Podcast!!! You are so much help & relatable!!! I've experienced, so much of trying to escape from myself, with my last depression. Which was the worst & longest! I've just really, started coming out of it, the last few weeks. You are so, informative & more helpful than any of the Psych meds. Your showing us, the tools to deal for the next round!!!

Thank you for this terrific video, Dr. Eilers. I've been struggling with depression since the death of my husband from alcoholism in March. Your advice about not chasing acute feelings of joy and instead focusing on doing stuff and creating stuff is really resonating with me. The bits of joy I experience tend to be very short-lived, but when I can focus on writing the memoir and handbook for bereaved widows of alcoholics that I'm working on, it's more satisfying and it lasts longer. There's something I can go back to and see that I made progress and am getting closer to what I want to have done. Also the part about not staying up late is good advice. Depression always seems worse late at night so just avoiding being awake in that time is helpful. Thanks again for this video and your previous videos. The fact that you've gone through all this stuff yourself makes a difference.

I think this is the best video over depression I've ever watched. I totally recognize the difference between being totally sober and occasional drinking as well as the difference between long term success vs short term hedonism. When you achieve something it's still with you while hedonistic behavior is not with you anymore, as soon as the effect is gone.

I really appreciate the time, energy and focus you manage to put together in order to share these videos. They not only contribute to reduce the stigma around depression, but also are a very practical set of guidelines that can really help people manage their day to day life and, hopefully, be able to have a more productive and joyful life. So, thank you so much. Please keep it up.

I dig your vibe and relate. I'm 40 and have also struggled much of my life with depression. I've been much overall for the last four years since i took up meditation and mindfulness practices and psilocybin mushroom therapy. But as of late, I'm no longer doing any of that and sinking back into a lonely darker place. Thanks for your hard work on making and sharing this content, ive subscribed and will try and find the light again

I appreciate your authenticity and message coming from personal, successful practices and introspection. I've heard these forms of advice over the years (I'm 75), but hearing them all in one place, from a different perspective, and so easy to digest, was extremely worthwhile. You've given me my homework. I'll start with developing healthy sleep habits, because that is what's negatively impacting me the most.

Dr. Scott, this video grabbed me like no other. Your description of your earlier years, especially college, is a painful reminder of myself😢! I hope to read your book soon and I look forward to all your podcasts. Feeling more gratitude to you than you can imagine. ❤

Wow. Spot on. Number 6 is interesting. I appreciate this so much. Thank you for your honestly and vulnerability. I too have gotten much better but really struggled over the past 5 years. Thank you for this.

Thanks for these videos. You are one of the only RU-vid doctors I can relate with and have good videos that get the point through.

Thank you for being so open with us! Over decades of depression, anxiety and insomnia, I have arrived at a very similar lifestyle.

I have never come across a video like this before. It is so simple and direct! I have been suffering and fighting depression for years but during the last three years I realised I had hit rock bottom believing there was no way out. You have described me to me. Thank you for this valuable advice!!!!! 😂 ❤

Dr. this is genius! Other doctors would always give me meds for depression, but nothing worked. Through trial and error, I did all those things on my own, that you just described, and it worked. I do need to get outside more. I wish some doctor would have said this to me back in the day instead of my waisted years figuring it out on my own. Thank you 😊 l think this advice will help many people 🙏

Your videos are helping me be more forgiving of the many times over my very busy, high achieving professional career as a professor/writer that I've had to cancel on conferences and workshops I'd been looking forward to....why? Because of mercurial, suddenly-appearing and mind-freezing anxiety attacks and/or instant onset of depressive moments-days that can't always be easily predicted. I've really beaten up on myself for not always being "consistent," and embarrassed that others (event planners, colleagues, etc) will think I'm a flake who doesn't care. I appreciate that your videos help validate that I am someone who like you is high maintenance, complex, and has to struggle through so many ups and downs, and that I'm not the only dedicated, busy and productive professional person experiencing this and most of all, that I'm not the failure I often label myself to be. For all of my high-achieving - which is so important, because as for you, I also find that doing for others, connecting outside myself with others (teaching, giving readings and lectures, etc) is hugely therapeutic and rewarding and brings me joy and uplift even in the darkest moments) - but sometimes I have to unexpectedly and frustratingly step back and focus completely on self-care. Thank you again for your astute, insightful and compassionate video content which I also find so validating and helpful in these short pieces you post - there is so little in our daily lives that speaks to all of this and the struggle can get so lonely. You are building a crucial mental health discourse and schema for so many of us to use in our daily and hourly challenges.

You know yourself so well and are so good at managing yourself. This is what I need to do. I was severely depressed when I found you and you have helped me to get out of that. I just wanted to go to sleep forever and you made me aware that I don't know what's on the other side of that. Like I am not going to forever experience the comfort of lying in bed. I'm back and trying now to deal with things.

You do an incredibly spot on description of the torture of chronic profound depression!

All these tips and everything you said was really, really good. I’m very high maintenance, emotionally, as well. My husband, along with my psychiatrist suggested I keep a regular sleep schedule which has helped tremendously. I have decided to stop drinking alcohol completely too. Thank you for this video. I appreciated it. I will subscribe to your channel from now on.

I’m so glad I found your channel. You’re speaking straight to me. Thank you!

Hey Dr Scott! Thank you for being real and sharing your reality with us. I’m a firefighter/medic with PTSD and ADHD and all that comes with it. It’s great to see other professionals talking about their mental health struggles. I’m in school now to be a Clinical Hypnotherapist. The skills I am learning have been helpful in dealing with my anxiety. I’ve also been sober for 7 months now. I’m proud of you!

Wow, Scott, the way you formulate that fantasy worlds trap is uncanny. I am somewhat prone to depression, and often have a hard time explaining to friends/family why I would not watch certain movies, shows etc. They trigger rumination at best, and major depressive episodes at worst. Just as surely as stimulants or alcohol or carbs-heavy/intermittent diet. Many decades ago, I have very painfully discovered these lessons about managing depression myself, by trial and error. It feels great to hear someone who has independently come to the same conclusions. Thank you for sharing your findings for the benefit of those who seem to be wired the same way!

It is so refreshing to hear someone addressing anhedonia at all, much less from personal experience. I have struggled with depression/anhedonia my whole life as well and have been intensely frustrated at the lack of resources. I've even had to teach the word to a few therapists, yet it is so pervasive. So, thank you, thank you, thank you. These videos are so valuable.

This was an excellent video. I love that you say that you're not an "easy going person" and you're realistic and honest about who you are and what does and doesn't come easily to you. I can totally relate to that and it is refreshing to hear someone else say it! It helps me to see that it is OK to be that way because, well, it's reality! It is really such a key thing too because it is a way of managing your expectations for yourself, and for emotionally vulnerable folks like us this is important. Many times I have felt bitter that things that are easy for others are not easy for me, so I feel encouraged by hearing that someone else has accepted their own innate challenges - you are showing me how to do it for myself.

Oh. You... You... Yooooouuuu have summed up my whole mindset. Number six especially. I don't do drugs or alcohol, but I can spend weeks, literally weeks, in some kind of fantasy to escape reality and feelings of being a continued failure at life. Especially now as I recover from a lower back injury and surgery. I'm 60 years old and have had a lot of trauma. Your videos have really helped me put things into perspective simply, including years of therapy. Thank you for all you do!

I'm currently going through a depressive episode and this video is really helpful. I like how you've approached this from a practical angle because often only the emotional side gets looked at. The getting lost in a TV show/fantasy world' jumped out at me because I totally know what you mean - you start watching a show to feel better/less lonely, it works but then your depression worsens as you watch episode after episode and realise you're actually sitting at home alone and your life isn't anything like the characters. I've recently been rewatching Friends on Netflix plus way too many Friends analysis RU-vid videos and have felt so many mixed nostalgic, sad and happy feelings about it. Last night I had a nightmare about it and before clicking on this video was feeling the lowest I've felt in months, then I see you mention it. So thank you for that. I'd never fully made the excessive video watching connection to depression. I'm extremely lonely and isolated due to many painful losses and desperately need to find new groups to join as the loneliness feels like it's killing me sometimes.

Appreciate your transparency. To differentiate between "patterns of abuse" and full-blown addiction is a paradigm shift for me.

I am feeling pretty grateful right now. It's like you are a fly on my wall! You really speak the truth, and I'm so glad the algorithm brought me to you!

Many years ago I struggled through a miserable depression and suspect it’s still simmering in the depths somewhere. However I watched the video for what I considered to be a situational depression AKA life in 2023. Your 6 tips are quite applicable and I’m going to use all of them, but I’m also going to include the news under fantasy material. What I need is a total social media break too. This has got me actually excited - and I haven’t felt that way in a long time! I’m a new subscriber now - thanks for helping reframe a functional treatment protocol as learning to live a wholesome, healthy, balanced life.