While depression is a growing epidemic in western society, remains one of the most treatable as well. Although the medical profession looks first to medication, I think only the most serious long-term require any medical treatment. If you look at the criteria for the diagnosis of depression, you will notice that the majority of which is based on the behavior and thinking. The Hayzlett Group recognizes the significance of this. Two things you can consciously control, even in the pit of depression it does not. I was clinically depressed for several years in my adulthood, and have since worked with hundreds of people who suffer from anxiety and depression.
What I have seen people who get through the depression without medication, is to re-learn not to act and think of depression. They learn that they are responsible for their thoughts and depressive behavior, even if they do not feel good. I remember taking half an hour out of bed and do a push-up when I was depressed, because I knew I had to do something that goes against what I was feeling. Cognitive behavioral therapy has always been known to be effective in the treatment of depressed people. The basis of this is understanding how your thoughts affect your feelings and behavior, then working to change habitual patterns of thought in a beneficial way. Some of the most common depressive thinking patterns are the following: catastrophic, to attribute specific events to always and never (over generalization), and to argue against hope and positivity. Only these three can lead us to think that everything is always worse than it really is, and will never improve.