Top 6 Home Remedies for Depression

Written by Sam 

• SAM
• 1 min ago

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Being depressed can make you feel helpless. You’re not. Along with therapy and sometimes medication, there’s a lot you can do on your own to fight back. Changing your behavior — your physical activity, lifestyle, and even your way of thinking — are all natural depression treatments.

These tips can help you feel better — starting right now.

Here is top 6 Home Remedies for Depression

Get enough sleep:

Depression can make it hard to get enough shut-eye, and too little sleep can make depression worse.

What can you do? Start by making some changes to your lifestyle. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Try not to nap. Take all the distractions out of your bedroom — no computer and no TV. In time, you may find your sleep improves.

Increase B-vitamins:

Vitamin B (namely B-12, but others as well) play an important role in the brain, producing chemicals that majorly impact mood (serotonin, dopamine, and epinephrine.) If you lack this all important vitamin, you may be shorting your mind as well as your body.

Older adults, those with digestive disorders, and folks who are vegetarians may find that they have a hard time getting enough of B-vitamins (it is found in many meats.) You can either take supplements or add more B vitamin rich food to your diet, such as:

-Fish (Mackerel, 3 oz. serving): 269% DV*
-Cheese (Swiss, 1 oz. serving):16% DV
-Shellfish (cooked clams, 3 oz. serving): 1401% DV
-Spinach (1 cup cooked): 22% DV
-Bell peppers (1 cup raw): 13.50% DV
-Turkey (4 oz. serving) 32% DV

*DV stands for daily value, and is based off of a 2,000 calorie a day diet. The percentage value represents how much of a recommended amount of something you are getting. So if milk had 30% DV for calcium, you would be getting 30% of the total calcium you need for the day.

More Magnesium:

We underestimate the importance of magnesium! It is the 4th most abundant mineral in the body that is supplemented through diet, and is a cofactor in over 300 enzyme systems that regulate a wide range of biomechanical functions in the body.

Without it we wouldn’t produce energy, we couldn’t synthesize DNA or RNA, or regulate our heartbeats, and we can’t keep the chemicals in our brain stable. Our modern diets often times nix foods that have magnesium, and stress also depletes it (and who doesn’t get stressed?) No living organism is able to produce it. We need to eat it, to put it bluntly. So take a supplement, or follow the best route-add magnesium rich foods to your diet.

Try eating…

-1 ounce of dry roasted almonds or cashews: 20% DV
-1/2 cup of cooked black beans: 15% DV
-1 medium banana: 8% DV
-1/2 cup of boiled spinach: 20% DV
-1 cup of soymilk: 15% DV

When it doubt, go for the nuts and dark leafy greens.

Exercise:

So this is no great secret, and you’ve probably heard it before (and many of you have probably brushed it off) but exercise is fundamental to mood. I don’t mean go for a 30 minute jog every day, even just a fifteen minute walk through the neighborhood does wonders. Exercise releases endorphins in the brain, and endorphins are what make us feel good and happy.

I ignored this advice for a long, long, time until a particularly bad bout of depression landed me in the hospital for two weeks. After that I lay in bed, hardly eating, barely talking, and staring off into space, until I got a dog. I needed this dog, you see, because I would not leave the house otherwise. With an energetic puppy on my hands, I had no choice but to haul my sorry self out the door and move about. And it was incredible. To this day if I start to sink into the couch my dog is bouncing off the walls and forcing me to get up, and afterwards I always feel better. It’s tough to do, but worth it.

Meditate or try guided imagery:

Meditation’s effects on mood are well documented. Settling your mind can lift your mood, in addition to a whole host of other health benefits.

Talk it out:

See a therapist, psychiatrist, or life coach (link is external) and express how you feel. Sometimes just finding someone you trust who will help you work through your feelings can make all the difference in the world.

If all else fails and you need anti-depressants, don’t beat yourself up. Sometimes you can do everything right, and if your imbalance is biochemical, you may need the drugs. But don’t forget to nurture the rest of you too.

Depression, like most physical and mental illnesses, is multifactorial and requires a global investigation of your whole health — not just your mind and body, but your relationships, your work, your financial picture, how you express yourself creatively, how you satisfy yourself sexually, your environment, and whether you’re letting your Inner self shine.