Adente

Hey MLP forums! So, due to my interactions with my friends and just random people on here, it seems sadly that a fair number of users on here suffer from varying degrees of depression. It also saddens me that many of my friends tell me that their medications help very little or not at all. So I decided to help somehow. I went out and did some research and found a technique that just requires six simple steps that curbs depression much more effectively than medications, and people who use these methods are less likely to regress back into depression. 1) Omega 3 vs. Omega 6 fatty acids. These are two acids that are present in our brain. A balance of them, usually between 1:1 or 1:2 ratio is ideal for a healthy, happy brain. However, the average American has a ratio of 1 Omega 3 to every 9 Omega 6 acids. The reason is that Omega 3 acids are found in healthier, "Mediterranean style" diets of things such as fish and olives. Omega 6 acids are found in unhealthy friend foods and animal fat, and fast food is brimming with Omega 6. This imbalance can put people at risk for depression more. The solution? If you are eating too much fried or fast food, try a more Mediterranean diet. If you cannot afford or don't have the means to change your diet, simply using a cheap over the counter natural Omega 3 supplement will suffice as well. 2) Avoid Rumination. Rumination is also known as solitary dwelling. If left alone, the human brain, especially one at risk of depression, tends to focus on negative experiences and memories, facilitating a slide into depression. To avoid this sort of rumination, find an activity to engage in, or interact with someone. (face to face, not on social media or online) Just doing something you enjoy like going for a run or reading a good book is enough to prevent the brain from engaging in rumination, although face to face interactions are the best way to beat it. The thing to avoid is just laying around either on social media or doing nothing at all. 3) Exercise. People who take a brisk 30 minute walk 3 times a week are much less likely to suffer from depression than completely sedimentary people. Ideally a person would exercise for 60 minutes a day, but this isn't always feasible with people's schedules. The point is to get out, get your heart pumping and your blood moving and do something regularly. It doesn't have to be too physically demanding, such as a brisk walk, it just needs to get your heart rate up a bit and get you vertical and moving. Anaerobic exercise such as weightlifting is much less effective than aerobic exercise, but it can work in a pinch. If you must do anaerobic exercises, try and do more reps with less weight and do circuits to get a more aerobic element in your exercise. 4) Sunlight exposure: People who are out in the sun more tend to be happier. The reason for this is because a deficiency of natural light exposure throws off the body's internal clock and can cause chemical imbalances in the brain that can lead to depression. This is why many people feel "gray" in the winter, because there is less sunlight. And people are less likely to be outside when it is sunny and below freezing as opposed to sunny and balmy outside obviously, so what sunlight there is isn't enjoyed by people. The solution is simply to be outside often. This could coincide with your working out from step 3, because even the natural light on a gray, overcast day is much brighter and healthy than indoor lighting. 5) Sleep. Much in the same way that lack of sunlight exposure can throw off the body's internal clock, so can a lack of sleep. Now, I know that a lot of students in college and high school, or those working jobs feel that they don't have enough sleep time, and I completely sympathize with you there. But simply increasing your sleep time each night by as little as half and hour to an hour consistently can do wonders for your mood. The key word is consistent. If you know you can't consistently get more sleep, don't try to. If all you can get every night is 6 hours, take the 6 hours instead of having one night of 5, then one of 8, then one of 4. The consistent 6 hours is much healthier. 6) Social Support. Obviously this is the hardest and most ambiguous step, since many depressed people feel isolated, lonely, and cut off from all social support. This is not the case. There are people ready and willing to help you who want to help you. Maybe they're friends on here, they could be your family, your acquaintances, whatever. Trust me, they're out there. They will support and help you to improve and feel better, and if you follow the five steps before this one, you will find step 6 becomes easier to accomplish as time goes on. So, hope that helps everyone suffering from depression or just feeling a little gray! Feel free to ask questions or comment your thoughts! Good luck to all of you! (Side note: I didn't want to put this in life advice, because I'm not seeking advice personally, but if a mod deems that this is better suited to be placed there, then go right ahead.)

@@Seaweed, @, Hey guys, just wanted to say thank you for your service! To answer the thread's question, I am not in the military, but I have been accepted to the Naval Academy, and I may attend there for college, in which case I would be serving in the military upon graduation.

Well, there's nothing really special going on around me while I sleep, because while on the job I just sleep in a small cabin with two other camp counselors, nothing remarkable. I suppose the only environmental thing could be how little sleep I get, because we work on average 16 hours workdays, so I don't get much sleep, and what I do get is very restless.

@@~Sugar Sprinkles~, Well, I do know what you're talking about for the environment affecting dreams. During the summers when I work as a summer camp lifeguard, I always have awful dreams of a camper drowning on my watch and being unable to save them. My cabin mates tell me that I mumble a lot and mime swimming motions while I'm having those sorts of nightmares. So I guess yeah, I have dreams that are affected by my job and environment.

Not a problem at all. And if you are receiving a statue, please do it with this very reflective and thoughtful pose!

You are a freaking champion dude, are you aware of that?

Elementary school was super fun, and we had a lot of recess! High School has been an amazing 4 years and a total blast, so I guess by default that leaves Middle School, which was kinda bad because we all were hitting puberty and figuring out how popularity worked, and we were all super awkward through Junior High.

What do you mean by that? I find it hard to believe that I'll get preferential treatment for being a white male, that's anti-diversity! If anything, its a crutch in trying to get into good colleges or win awards and accolades locally.

I am ENTJ. I have a strong preference for extroversion over introversion, a moderate preference for intuition over sensing, a distinctive preference for thinking over feeling, and a moderate preference for judging over perceiving. I think its about right, especially the extroverted part.

I take a bit of offense to both those statements. First off, both genders have pros and cons, but there's very articulate posts that already cover that, so I'll direct you to those. Golden Shield puts it best, so read his post to know my opinion. I'll instead confront you on the "White Privilege" quip. I know its not directly related to this thread, so I'll keep it to a minimum, but I've worked very hard and long for the opportunities I have, and didn't just have them given to me because I am white. My friends who are able to check the minority boxes on college applications and other forms openly admit that they have it easier than me. White Privilege certainly existed well up into the late 90s, but not so much anymore.

I don't remember this one... Then again, I was blacked out drunk by the end of the first quarter, since I couldn't stop taking celebratory drinks every time the Broncos messed up. (Which led itself to way too much drinking very quickly!)

I don't think that any footage of that game can get uploaded to any porn site, because they all have strict policies against rape footage! ....And that's all I have to say on the matter. GO HAWKS!!!!!!

That acronym is just ridiculous now! Look, I'm fine with LGBT. (The acronym, not the community, because I personally believe the LGBT community is a harmful thing that removes emphasis on your individual personality and instead overemphasizes sexuality/gender/whatever-the-heck-they're-including-now, but that's not the point.) Anything longer just gets ridiculous! I think LGBT covers enough, and if you try to be "all-inclusive", you're just going to have a horribly long string of letters that still won't include everyone/everything/whatever some people identify as now, and some will still get angry. There's no point in expanding the acronym.

Well, I always prided myself on being regular and not out of the ordinary, which in a weird way could make me the strangest person here, for being normal and not trying to be strange..?

Talk about a one sided conversation! I mean, asking people what their opinion of bullying is like asking what someone's opinion is of genocide! Nobody is going to say they are okay with or like it. On that note, I don't like physical bullying. Punching the crap out of someone is a bad thing. But now just not wanting to hang out with someone is considered "bullying". I'm sorry, but that's garbage. If you are acting weird and ostracizing everyone with your behavior, don't go around with a chip on your shoulder claiming you're "bullied". You have no right to have people want to hang out with you, you have to be a likable person, so don't act like you're entitled to have everyone like you and hang out with you, and cry "bully" if they avoid you.

@@BronySurveyGuy, Well, to be fair, a lot of the hardcore Bronies featured in mockumentaries, usually the ones at the cons, could easily me misconstrued as having some mental deficiency. Matter of fact, in my AP Psychology course, we watched the MLP documentary and had to observe, identify, and suggest possible sources for the various psychological and personality disorders we observed in the people from the documentary. To be fair, this fandom does have a far higher proportion of mental health issues than the general populace, because the fandom appeals to outcasts. To answer, however, no, I have no mental shortcomings/diseases/disorders, and am 100% healthy and typical.

I drink sometimes, and have smoked weed a handful of times, but I'm not really into drugs at all. I just drink at parties because that's how you have fun! I have a naturally high tolerance, so I rarely black out or throw up. I'm certainly not a druggie.

I don't know, I never really felt like I needed help "going". Life's good and I don't have any complaints really, so I don't need support to keep living. I guess if I had to pick I'd say friends, soccer, lifeguarding, and a few other things I can't think of.

Either "White and Nerdy" or "The Saga Begins" (The Star Wars parody)

Nope, never was put in any special ed classes. Quite the opposite, actually, since I've been in many AP and Honors classes. My school doesn't even have them, since I go to a college prep school that grooms us for Ivy League or comparable Universities. EDIT @@TheMarkz0ne, You should make a poll for this question.