Asklemmy

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!

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

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.

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

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.

Cats

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.

If your emotional distress is related to inflammation then even ibuprofen can give you some relief.

As for solutions outside of pills, exercise has always been the most effective thing for me in improving my happiness.

Medicine is drugs.

Try 5-HTP as a supplement if you believe you have low serotonin levels for some reason. It's a precursor to Serotonin so if there is a chemical reason your body is producing insufficient amounts then it can help, alongside L-Tyrosine which is the same thing but for dopamine. CBD supplements, if actually legitimately containing CBD can have some anxiolytic properties.

Otherwise everything else is illegal.

Sorry honey, but under capitalism you're supposed to buy worthless shit to stave off the alienation and misery and uhh like drugs are bad m'kay. Go get into K-Pop or "Gadgets" instead, heard there's some hot spicy influencer drama in these! Lotta ads to watch! And remember: Don't think, just buy product and get excited for the next product.

You might consider an MDMA, DMT or LSD trip to figure out why you're unhappy.

Do not buy drugs on the street, they are shit quality for shitty prices, you will get ripped off. Don't buy from DNMs overseas, customs do not fuck around. In UK/West EU order to home as normal, in US order to non-home mailboxes, in East EU order to dead drops. Make sure to research how to stay safe, what markets to use, how to get Monero and how to use PGP and maybe Tails depending on OpSec risk appetite, I think Dread (ddg it with tor!) has a few guides for this.

EDIT: Make sure to set Tor to safest to disable JavaScript, you won't need it and it only creates threats.

Go for lower dosages and make sure to get powder for MDMA, it should be light brown in colour. Test it! MDMA is part stim, part empathogen.

For DMT: get a proper high end vape tank DMT vape with a 510 off a respected seller on a DNM and buy a proper mod - don't buy the crappy eGO style tanks/"carts". DMT is a pure psych, very shroom-esque but without the shroom common side effects like diarrhea and uncontrollable vomiting and lasts only 15 mins.

For LSD make sure to take some time off work or do it when you won't be disturbed in general, preferably for at least 48 hours, as a trip can last 12-16. I'd go for 100ug - tabs are often under dosed so go if brave go for 120ug, don't buy tabs with overly elaborate art as that can be a sign that more effort went into the marketing than anything else, but make sure to get a test kit to make sure it's not NBOME, that drug is nice as well but it's not LSD and vendors don't dose it properly which can kill you.

Other than psychs: Amphetamine and/or nicotine will make you happy generally, but unless you have ADHD the effect may be too negligible to be worth it.

If your source of unhappiness is anxiety then you can take an anxiolytic like a benzodiazepine. Do not do that.

There's also Alcohol and Opioids but these barely do anything honestly when it comes to actual happiness. I would not do THC in an unhappy state, it's like 75% anxiety and hunger.

Or you can try therapy, but that shit never worked for me, turns out the world is just shit and my life was shit as a result, taking drugs helped/helps me cope with that and I try to improve my material circumstances as much as possible, I've never really had mental health issues though I just had shit mental health due to my material conditions so YMMV and GL, the first step to fixing an issue is identifying there is an issue. Try to identify what the issue is next.

I would say weed but im not sure thats helping, on contrary.

I want to say, try taking the sun, just go seat in a park with chill music or a book.

If you are an overthinker, try to focus only on things that you can change or have an impact.
If you cant, stop to think about it, its either "to late", or useless.
Ruminations are not good.

Im really bad on theses advices, but when i do that, thats working.
My feelings often drives me,

Identify the bad feeling, understand it, accept it, embrasse it (even external factors that you cant change), and go next.
Life is a slut in a way yeah, but you can be "the slut" too,

I don't know about that kind of medicine, but resolve your repressed anger and depression will disappear.

I dunno about drugs, if you're in the UK I can maybe signpost to some affordable counselling options. Relationships are a good place to get happy chemicals

Tesofensine is an antidepressant with weight loss effects that can be purchased online without a prescription for research purposes.

It's fairly expensive, usually running about $250 for a one month supply, but if you need a temporary break from your depression then it might work for you.

However, because it is a research chemical, all of the side effects of the chemical are not known and you would be taking a risk in using it even for a short period of time.

Chances are it is likely safe but there is still a risk and you have to weigh that against your mental health and your finances and the costs and difficulty associated with getting put on a traditional antidepressant prescribed to you by a competent doctor.

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.

Perika St. John's Wort (or any kind of standardized StJW formula) isolates the antidepressant part of the herb and makes sure you get the same dose in every pill. It's nonprescription as an herbal supplement, but it's one of the few herbal supplements with scientific backing.

D3 with K2 supplement can help.

If you want something that's legal (but probably shouldn't be) I recommend kratom. Look for something that says Super Green. The less you take the more energy and vitality it gives you, the more you take the more it feels like an opiate.

If you rule out doctor's medicine, you'd without a doubt be talking about someone or something to console in. The last time you were happy, what were you doing?

Someone I think on mander.xyz was saying that regular 90-second cold showers seemed anecdotally to be maybe competitive with medication in terms of how well it combatted depression

You could try sam-e if you are in a country that isn’t prescription only (many don’t require one).

Imo meds alone won’t do a ton of good, if you’re battling depression or constant blahness you should also be trying to steadily make improvements in your habits and life situation. When you are not feeling too down try to make a list of things that might make daily life more pleasant and try to work some of that stuff into life. Things like sitting in the sun or watching the sky aren’t too trivial. If nothing sounds pleasant (because depression) imo you have to go the regimented route where you add things to your life that you think would improve anyone’s situation like eating healthy, exercising regularly, and picking up a new hobby.

There's probably no non-spooky chemical that will make a significant dent. People are recommending, like, chocolate, but I'm certain the main effect is eating your feelings, with substances causing a rounding error.

However, I can predict pretty well what therapist homework would be, or at least what it always was for me. Basically just clean living stuff, and not giving in to the urge to avoid doing things. There's CBT too, and resources to do it on your own, although it can get confusing without a helping hand. So, yeah, I suggest self-administering therapy. IANAT.

Albizzia julibrissin flower tea, once per day to nourish the heart and the spirit.

Read up on St John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum)