How I did it: Work, friends and real-world interaction. I first became 'depressed' during my time at University, which ended over a year ago. Towards the end I became ridiculously miserable, locked in my bedroom living 36-hour days. I was unemployed, alone and completely isolated. It was, at times, the most miserable experience of my life. In despair, I ran home to my parents.

Getting shit turned around really started with getting work. Having crap qualifications and no real experience, I went for the most basic, entry-level, no-responsibility work I could find; a Christmas temp gig at the Royal Mail. I did that and found that I loved it; everything, from the heavy lifting and 12-hour shifts to the social lunch breaks and clowning around. I've now had steady work for 6 months and enjoy pretty much every day; good people, good work, enough money to both survive and save.

With money came the ability to pay rent, which relived a lot of the stress. I also put aside a lot of money for drinking with friends most weekends, another huge emotional boon.

The other part of recovery, and this might seem a little weird from somebody on the internet, was to get the fuck off the internet. I hate the internet; it's a black hole which invisibly sucks your life away. These days I only really get online a couple of times a week to check my email and other basic functions, and I am MUCH happier like that. The internet is a drain, emotionally and practically.

So like I said; get a job you can enjoy, get friends and a social life, get offline. I hope that works for you, I hope you don't resort to pills and drugs and hypnosis and all the other crap.

Lessons & tips: The fun part of work isn't just where you get to mess around with your co-workers, the fun part is also the actual work. My current job involves carrying/dragging boxes back and forth across a large office complex and asking people to sign for them. If I didn't enjoy that task, I'd hate this job. I'd probably be depressed. So if you're not working then try to find work, and if you're working a job you hate then that's probably why you're depressed; take the risk, quit and try to find something you can enjoy. Office work, to me, looks dreadful; manual labour seems far more rewarding and satisfying.

Getting a social life isn't easy, but then I'm not saying you need to do much. Pretty much every other weekend either I'll text my drinking buddy or he'll text me and we'll end up shit-faced on the town. Much like getting work doesn't necessarily mean sucking corporate dick in a cubicle, getting a social life doesn't necessarily mean house parties and shopping trips, it can just mean the occasional piss-up.

Getting offline ain't easy if you're as hopelessly unmotivated as I often am, but I honestly feel that having the constant gaping void of the internet in my life was one of the top reasons for my depression. Close that void; go to Network Options and deactivate the internet, unplug your ethernet cable or wireless modem and put it in a box. Take a month off. Take two. I usually go 2-3 weeks offline before I get drawn back in to finish something I started; it's not perfect, but it's a start.

Best o' luck.

Jan 21, 2009, 03:28PM PST | 3 comments | 7 cheers