The warmest of welcomes to you at a time in your life where you're looking to try something different in the way of managing depression.
As a 54yo gal who's managed periods in depression since my late teens, I'd have to say what's come to work for me involves a bit of a mixed bag of ideas and strategies. I suppose a lot depends on the cause of the depression. There can be strategies to manage the physical aspects of a depression (the lack of energy, chemical deficiencies, condition/s that may be contributing to the depression etc), the mental aspects (inner dialogue, belief systems, perspectives etc) and the natural aspects. I've found the natural side, for me, involves the idea that I have the natural ability to feel what's depressing. So, the question then becomes 'What is it that I'm actually feeling or naturally feeling?'. Am I feeling a depressing lack of dopamine, people in my life who bring me down, a lack of inspiration, a sense of hopelessness, a lack of chemical energy and so on. There have been a number of times where I've been led to question 'What the hell am I feeling? All I know is that it's depressing'.
Sometimes I think a number of factors can be overlooked when someone's suffering in a depression. For example, we could be seeing a therapist for a depressing number of mental challenges, perhaps without realising a new physical challenge has come into play. If something like sleep apnea or a thyroid or B12 deficiency has come into play, no amount of psychological therapy is going to alleviate what is now also physically/chemically depressing. We'll still feel depressed. There could be some detective work needed in the way of how we could be suffering in some physical ways.
Another thing worth investigating involves finding people who can relate to how we sense or feel. What I mean by that is if we can find people who tend to feel through their nervous system, they'll be able to relate to the stress we sense in life. If we can find people who are able to feel their inner dialogue, they may be able to help us manage how we sense our inner dialogue. People who can see and feel through their imagination can be helpful too. They can help us see and feel differently through our imagination. If we're a sensitive person, coming to our senses in new ways could be the ticket. A sensitive person can be led to believe there's a lot 'wrong' with them, when in actual fact it can become about better understanding how they sense in unique ways (including some of the ways that can lead them to suffer).
