Depressed?

Before people consider taking pills to swallow in order to magically get rid of their symptoms of depression, it seems they rarely take a serious look at their lifestyle. Note that depression is a serious issue and there are circumstances where it may be best to treat cases with medication (further, if you are considering taking your own life, you should to seek professional help immediately), but never should it be the case that one disregards or minimizes the immense effects of starting (or maintaining) a healthy lifestyle. I believe everyone can benefit from this page -- here are the things that have worked to make and keep life bright n smiley for me.
If these work out for you, or you think I'm a moron, or you've got more pressing issues to suggest, then send me an email: pdabrows--at--uiuc-dot-edu. Otherwise..

1. Drink Water
More than you can imagine. 8-12 glasses a day, if possible. Do you have to pee a lot? Sure, at first, then your body gets accustomed to functioning with a proper water supply.

2. Eat Well
5 meals a day of healthy food, each portion about the size of two fists. Stick with lots of protein. Unsaturated fat doesn't matter too much, but sugars and satuated fats do. Be sure to fill up on vegetables and fruit. If you're fat, try fewer meals or stick with extra-lean foods.
Do not eat any hydrogenated oils. Never go out to a fast food place for a crappy meal.

3. Move Around -- Outside
Break a sweat every day for at least a good few minutes. In the morning is better. Get lots of sunlight, it'll help your sleep cycle function properly..

4. Sleep Smart
This does not mean you sleep 10 hours, or even necessarily 8. Short is good, you just need to find out when you're in a light sleep. If you're not rested when you wake even though you got 'a full night', try sleeping 20 minutes less the next night. Once you find an appropriate length (good times for me are something like 5:00, 6:20, or 7:40 hours, for example), your sleep will not have to be long for you to wake up feeling rested in the morning. A nap in the afternoon is fine, but, again, short is good -- less than 45 minutes or you'll fall into heavier sleep and waking up will hurt a lot.

5. Learn How to Fight
If you can't rile yourself up, you're gonna be in trouble. If you can't figure out the right time to rile yourself up, you're still gonna be in trouble. Be sure to use this wisely, and not keep yourself going for too long, otherwise that stress buildup will knock you around.

6. Remove the Biggest Problems
Take that fight and aim it at the biggest problems in your life, if you feel you have something significant in your way. Remember that you can always succeed as long as you've set the right goal, are getting the proper information, and can rile yourself up when action is required. Take control or find help. This applies to everything including abusive relationships, drug addictions, or sitting in front of the TV/computer all day (or in other words, if 'inexplicable' depression is your big problem. In this case, be sure to take a lot of notice to the next point).

7. Find Something To Do
Without big problems to focus on, you need to give yourself some smaller problems. Find a job and stick with at least one serious hobby. Your job should have only one or two major projects required of you. Give yourself time to practice a hobby significantly for at least an hour each day. Further, focus on thinking about getting these things done successfully when you aren't actually doing them.

8. Forget About Failures
No one cares if you think you're a failure or if you've made mistakes. Move forward, because remembering the bad is only going to bring you back down. Write these things down and hide them away. If you need to remember what happened before, re-read what you've got and take a look to see if what's ahead of you avoids the same old situations.

9. Smile
As much as possible, even if you hate it.
source: http://www.ews.uiuc.edu/~pdabrows/how_to_cure_depression.html

10. Joke around a lot (added by me)
Say unbelievable, funny things, no matter how impossible they sound. It gives a good laugh, and that's better than a smile. Example: I am going to follow the above nine principles consistently.