After 6yr+ of depression (many years severe as per previous description). I have had 20-40 very close calls - barely made it out alive.
In my struggles, I have found the following:
1) Running *EASILY* really helps, but running hard can make it worse - add to that the fact that the typical runner's "easy" run is really not that easy and it is tricky. I will run at around 100bpm and find that almost always, other than on the very worst of days, helps hugely. But tempo runs and hard workouts are utterly counterproductive.
2) If you can keep it easy, more miles helps more - just like upping the dose. 100mpw at 100bpm is an incredible medication for depression. Of course, this is only true until you overdo it - too many 200M weeks taught me that.
3) A running streak is incredibly helpful - I had months when all I could do was try and survive the day to be alive for another try the next day. Yet I still ran. Yes, getting out the door can be horrendously difficult. And I was fortunate enough to have the time to battle for literally hours to get out the door. Weeping, sobbing, emptiness, weariness, despair. Yet it was part of my survival and I made it my #1 priority each day. Life saving. Literally.
4) Sleep - depression can make it very hard to sleep. If you can, sleep. As much as you can. Lack of sleep makes everything more difficult. Getting enough can make all the difference in surviving.
5) Diet - eating crap numbs the pain, but long term makes everything much, much worse. I gradually got healthier and healthier and ended up 100% raw began (vegan + honey). Made a huge, huge difference.
6) Solid food vacation / gut clearing - depression has as much to do with the gut as with the brain. I did 3 extended juice fasts (and ran through them - just have tons of OJ for calories) last year. Despite having no fiber going in I crapped out all through them. Clearing all the old dried up, fecal waste stuck in the digestive tract was the #1 thing that helped me breakthrough - the worst seems to be behind me now. I cannot emphasise enough the difference this made. I did 35, 50 and 21 days in 3 chunks during 2017. Day 19 was my first breakthrough - life changing. From darkness to euphoria in about 48hr. After 6+yr of Hell, that was something astonishing.
7) Do not take on more than you can handle. A lot of us who have endured long term depression/trauma have damaged our pre-frontal cortexes. That means that we are now less able to handle stress than we were before. It's like pulling a hamstring - you cannot run on it without making it worse. So we have to avoid stress like the plague to give the brain a chance to heal. Easier said than done, I know. But do not do things that drain/stress you because of expectations (from others, or yourself) - you will simply make it harder to live further down the line. You need to recover.
8) Find what soothes and settles you, no matter how silly. Cuddling my dog saved my life more than once. Switching off from life with Netflix saved my life more than once. When it was so bad that I could not concentrate on even a 20min show, there was a period of a few months when Candy Crush saved my life more than once. Escapism may not help long term, but sometimes you just have to survive the day.
9) Meditation is helpful, if not the panacea that some claim. Try the Headspace app if you haven't already.
10) If you have faith, embrace it. I know most don't - that's fine. Just saying that for me, trusting God even in the midst of the worst of circumstances was incredibly important. My faith was often all I had to cling on to.
Best wishes to each and every one of you dealing with this most horrific of conditions.