Is there any medicine that can give me happy hormones and does not need a doctor's prescription?

3amguy@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 109 points –

Things are becoming more depressing every day and I can't afford for professionals and don't want to jump to the last resort or drugs. Is there a medicine that can make me happy if I take it in proper doses and does not require a doctor's prescription?

109

Vitamin D3 is a good idea, generally the recommendation is 1000 IU a day. Especially now after the winter (assuming you're in the Northern hemisphere) your vitamin D storage is probably depleted (the body needs a certain amount of UV radiation on the skin to produce vitamin D.

Regular exercise has been proven to help against depression and I think it's probably the best and most important thing you can do. While helping your depression it will also help your general health and fitness.

Eat well: lots and lots of veggies, legumes and whole grain products. If unhealthy food makes you happy, don't cut it from your diet completely. Allow yourself to eat sweets etc every once in a while and in moderation, but try to have a very healthy diet as a basis.

These things are probably hard to implement when you're depressed in the first place but I guarantee you they'll help and become easier as you go if you consistently stick to them. It takes about 66 days on average to build new habits. So if you manage to stick to it for about 2-3 months, it will become a lot easier.

Good luck!

Go on hikes through forested trails on a regular basis, no bullshit.

Honestly, morning walks in the park really bring my mood up for the rest of that day.

This kept me sane during 2020/2021. And I didn't believe it till I tried it. Nature is awesome.

All the people saying exercise... I swear that has to vary across people. I went to the gym thrice a week for two years and hated every gd second of it.

It really does seem to very considerably. I know a guy that's addicted to running and will just do it all weekend, because he starts and doesn't want to stop. I've never gotten a buzz from physical activity of any kind.

I've heard of the "runners' high", but even as someone who used to be very athletic, all I ever got was the "runners' 'please fucking kill me right now so I never have to do that again'".

I was going to the gym before getting laid off. Gym helped me with my mental health.

I swear that has to vary across people.

I am sorry it didn't work out for you.

Then you really are the target audience for all these "go active" advice, which is actually great! The thing is, exercises are great for most relatively healthy people (the ones who do not require professional mental help), as they strengthen your body in the same way as savings strengthen your financials. You just can do a little more of anything with it. So - you are not a lost cause, congrats! ) That said, you do not need a gym to stay fit. Not sure where you live, but there are normally public spaces with fitness equipment available in many urban areas. Or you can google some fitness sets that only need a flat surface for you to do. Something like this would be a good start. And remember, that too shall pass.

Depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Sometimes it's fixed through diet/exercise. Sometimes it's fixed through therapy. Sometimes it's fixed through medication. OP is seeking a solution that doesn't involve prescription meds, so everybody is suggesting other possible solutions. While exercise may not have worked for you or me, there are plenty of people who have successful results with it.

In short, yes, it definitely varies across people.

Gym going made me uncontrollably hyper. Beat Saber has worked wonders.

Have you ever tried pistol whip? That game feels so good to play for similar reasons

I just hate how difficult it is lol

Synth Riders is fun but I still have no clue how to play it

Beat Saber 100%. Playing a game ans exercising at the same time, genius.

It probably does vary to a degree, but it also needs to be the right kind of exercise for you. I always hated the gym and thought I just hated exercise, but then I discovered folk dancing. I went from never having enjoyed any sort of athletics to dancing 14 hours a week because I fell in love with it.

I didn’t notice immediate effects, but a month or two after I started, I realized that I was cooking more and staying on top of cleaning and errands much more consistently. Then the pandemic hit and I stopped dancing. I started gradually having less motivation to clean or cook. I haven’t started back up sadly, but I got an active job about a year and a half ago, and it was just like before: not until I was getting regular exercise was I really able to stay on top of things and feel like an adult.

Ditto. Exercising never feels good. I don’t like being sweaty and I don’t like moving around unless I’m going somewhere for a purpose. The only way I’m able to “enjoy” it is if I smoke weed before or numb out on a tv show/movie so that I can pretend I’m not exercising. And then after working out I’m exhausted and need a nap. The entire process sucks. I’ve never been into sports either. Or riding the bike or swimming. Yoga is tolerable, but it’s better when I’m high.

3 more...

Just mentioning this because I see all the others: spicy food. Your brain makes happy chemicals to help with the pain, apparently.

Exercise boosts endorphins.

Physical contact boosts oxytocin.

Sex does both.

Chocolate helps produce serotonin.

Capsaicin-heavy foods will make your body produce adrenaline and endorphins.

Caffeine is a drug but can give you a long hit of dopamine — but overdosing will make anxiety worse, and can fuck with your sleep cycle. It's also rapidly addictive and the withdrawal symptoms include malaise and depressive feelings.

A stable sleep cycle is A#1 for happiness, though. It won't make you happy on its own but screwing it up will make you unhappy on its own, so it's the foundation to build everything else on.

Sex does both.

I wish I had someone for that.

It won't make you happy on its own but screwing it up will make you unhappy on its own, so it's the foundation to build everything else on.

My sleep cycle is currently from 4 am to 11 am. Think I should sleep earlier? I do coding at night and surf social media during the day.

Try to reduce social media. I did and feel much better without the constant input from others.

What the above commenter said is generally good advice, but I would add on limiting your social media intake. Finding an online community to interact with (with voice or video chat kinds of things involved) is a better use of online time. For the coding, you could try moving that to the morning, and socialize in the afternoon/evening, and that will help you get on a more normalized schedule. If your leisure time is spent mostly with other people, it's a lot easier to sign off and go to bed when everyone else does as well.

Edit: Also throw in a multivitamin and 2000-5000IU of Vitamin D3 because nutritional deficiencies can cause psych problems as well as exacerbate or prolong said psych problems.

Medicine won't really help if you're feeling depressed due to external factors. People who feel depressed because of their life situation typically benefit more from therapy both to learn how to cope more effectively and for guidance/support on making life changes. Look for sliding scales or low/no-cost therapy options in your area

Vitamin D

A lot of people, especially those who don't go outside, have a vitamin D deficiency. This is especially prevalent this time of year as winter is just ending.

A lot of depression symptoms can be tied to Vitamin D deficiency. Go out and get a supplement and take it for a week, see how you feel.

Also vitamin K. Had low vit D blood work and doc upped vit D intake until we started to see side effects, still low on blood work. Added vit K, halved vit D intake and blood work is good now.

Seconded. A lot of people don't realize just how piss poor their nutrition is, and how its impacting their mood.

If your emotional distress is related to inflammation then even ibuprofen can give you some relief.

As for solutions outside of pills, exercise has always been the most effective thing for me in improving my happiness.

In terms of mental health, drugs that give any kind of relief should be treated as a shelter from the storm so you can rebuild. This means if you're not rebuilding while you're in shelter, your happiness is only going to last as long as your shelter is standing. Drugs wear off, and it is very easy to just want to keep putting your shelter up ad infinitum. This is where the second problem of drugs for relief comes in. The shelter is sub-standard compared to doing the things to build a lasting happiness. You can get stoned as shit, but if you and your life is still in shambles there's only so much that can do.

All the above being said cannabis can help when you need a break. Psychedelics can help as well and microdosing incurs minimal risk. Neither of these will fix any of your problems, but they can enable you to work on your problems yourself when it was too difficult to before.

Alternatively, if you want to avoid drugs altogether meditation can be an option in some circumstances. This is barely a recommendation because meditation is a skill that you have to practice in optimal form consistently before you'll get anything at all from it. It's impossible to actually know whether you're doing it right until you start to feel relief from it and so many things can make practicing mediation as a beginner almost impossible if you're in crisis. If you attempt mediation with absolutely no expectations other than that you will fail at it until you happen to approach it in a way that works you may eventually get some relief from it. If you get it working consistently, it is far stronger than anything you can get legally without a prescription in terms of providing relief. I can give you some guidance if you're interested in this path. Secondarily, Kava can help a little in that it dulls the pain.

Vallerian root, kanna, ashwaganda, etc. might work if you believe strongly that they're working. Avoid depressants like alcohol because although they provide temporary relief they also make things worse when they wear off which can be a terrible cycle.

St Johns Wort can help. It's not as effective as prescription medication, but can help deal with mild 'low mood' type symptoms. It's comparable to the effect of a compression bandage on a joint. It will help with the equivalent of a pulled tendon, but will do next to nothing against the equivalent of a shattered elbow.

It is worth noting that there are 2 sorts of depression. Feeling sad, while unpleasant, is a lot easier to treat. It's generally caused by external stimulus. While this is harder to treat with drugs, it responds a LOT better to lifestyle changes. Basically, you need to figure out 2 things. What is making you sad, and how do you remove that effect. Implementing it can be an absolute bitch, but it's worth the effort.

The other sort of depression is proper "clinical depression". This is a chemical imbalance in the brain. It can be brought on by external stimulus, but it's not dependent on them. With this, your brain starts losing the ability to care. Motivation becomes a lot harder, and so the cost to payoff with positive activities gets worse. Internally, it's like having the chroma on a TV turned down. Everything gets muted and dull. Nothing is worth the effort required to do it. This sort of depression does need proper treatment. It's far more insidious and will grind you down. To beat it you need to change your very brain wiring. This can be done, but generally requires significant external support. If you could beat it alone, you likely wouldn't have become trapped within it.

I've experienced both. Neither are pleasant. Just keep in mind, both distort your thinking. Often, you can't fully trust your own thinking. Situations that seem impossible to cope with will just crumble when actually attacked. However, without enough motivation, you often won't even try.

An just to note, if you get to the point of intrusive, self destructive thoughts, that's when you need to seriously reach out to external help. Even if you think you can cope with them, they can send your mind spiraling downwards.

It is worth noting the theory of a "chemical imbalance in the brain" being the cause of depression is now a theory that is disputed by recent studies, which is relevant from a medicinal and treatment perspective.

The line between medicine and drug is largely arbitrary.

Start with the basics of diet, exercise, water, sleep, social interaction. They're consistent and have very low harm potential. It's also shocking how much each of them contributed to a sense of well being, or how much a lack of any one of them can cause a downward spiral.

Supplements and vitamins also aren't super risky, although they aren't well regulated and many do nothing in their pill form. One or some of the vitamin Bs seem important for me personally, although I'm not 100% certain and I don't know which one(s) and to what degree. But I'll drink a monster energy regularly because they have 200-400% dv. Omegas from fish oils may also be good. L-tyrosine and things like it are commonly discussed in nootropics boards, I can't vouch for them personally.

As far as medications, it's unlikely you'll find an easy and risk-free solution, unfortunately. Even well-studied prescription medications aren't guaranteed to work for your specific needs and have potential to make things worse, which is why in an ideal world everyone would have access to a medical professional that can oversee their use. And often the ones that work aren't immediately obvious, but demonstrate marginal improvement over the longer term. In fact euphoria and hypomania (which in the moment feel like "oh my god this drug is working") may be signs the drug isn't a good fit. Very difficult to gauge on your own.

Online prescription mills are fairly painless if you have a good idea that a specific medication might work for you. I used them to get on a specific antidepressant after doing my own research.

Kanna and St John's wort both have SSRI compounds I believe. Be careful, just because something's a legal plant doesn't mean it can't interact negatively or have harmful effects. But these are probably the closest to what you're asking.

Kratom is legal and can boost mood but has high addictive potential. In my experience not worth it except to get off more addictive substances.

Dex/dxm/dextromethorphan is an active ingredient in some cough suppressants that has antidepressive potential. Can be purchased with no additives at some pharmacies and online. Tripping on this isn't fun at all in my opinion, I'd rather do salvia, but small doses seem to have some mood improving effects that last a few days

Stay away from diphenhydramine (I mention it because it's often spoken of in the same context as Dex). Its use has been linked to dementia.

Psychedelics can help deconstruct old assumptions and mental structures that may be contributing to your depression. I'd describe the experience as rediscovering the magic of existence. Many of them also have antidepressant qualities-- a sort of afterglow that may last a week or a month. Microdosing is said to tap into the afterglow without tripping. LSD and shrooms are fairly well-studied. Mescaline acts similarly and may be easier to find. Morning glory seeds are legal and contain LSA which is similar to LSD. Salvia acts differently than any of these, often leading to bad trips, but is generally legal. None of these are addictive, but may be risky for people with certain mental illnesses.

There are a variety of legal and grey market stims that can improve mood, but they may have harmful effects and addictive potential. You'll find a bunch of them if you browse nootropics boards, but keep in mind anonymous comments are not scientific and may undersell risk and negative effects. Nootropics boards will also discuss other supposedly cognitive enhancing substances. Lions mane is a common one. Some are natural supplements or things your body already produces (though this doesn't guarantee they're safe or pure). Many are addictive, many are probably snake oil. Search a drug/supplement on pubmed before trying it.

Adjacent to nootropics and more dangerous is research chemicals. Half of them are attempts to make "legal" but identical/similar analogues to illegal drugs. Some are novel. Almost none of them have been studied and purity is never guaranteed. I Honestly don't recommend unless you're at a point where it doesn't matter. At one point for me it was "find a happy chemical or commit suicide" and I think that's the only level this kind of experimentation is truly justified. But well-studied psychedelics are preferable.

5-HTP is a mood-regulating supplement, like a mild anti-depressant. I once took it for a year and it actually helped. But for the first week it made me more emotional. Read about it on webMD so you understand it and the risks.

But the real answer is exercise, healthy diet, and maybe vitamin D. Boring answer, I know, but the absolute best one too.

Be careful if you take MDMA or any other serotonin drug while on 5-HTP. This supplement assists the body in making serotonin, and can cause serotonin storm in rare cases when combined with party drugs.

Vitamin D and some exercise is generally helpful for me

Big one for me too. I notice a massive downturn in my mood when I haven't managed to stick to my exercises.

Exercise = endorphins = happy

It's works for me and makes sense that it is how our bodies have evolved to work.

Tesofensine is an antidepressant with weight loss effects that can be purchased online without a prescription for research purposes.

It's fairly expensive, usually running about $250 for a one month supply, but if you need a temporary break from your depression then it might work for you.

However, because it is a research chemical, all of the side effects of the chemical are not known and you would be taking a risk in using it even for a short period of time.

Chances are it is likely safe but there is still a risk and you have to weigh that against your mental health and your finances and the costs and difficulty associated with getting put on a traditional antidepressant prescribed to you by a competent doctor.

I know it sounds obvious but walking or any light cardio will do wonders for your mood. Pilates also.

It's not universal though. I've been regularly doing 60-minute cardio workouts for the last 10 years or so. Not once did I experience the "runner's high". I'm pretty sure I'm an outlier though.

It sounds like you might just be too fit for that to work. I used to do 14 hours of (recreational) dance a week and I would only really get a runners high when I went to a weekend long dance event and was doing cardio for at least 6+ hours.

Or it’s not universal, who knows.

Not OP, but that's a nope from me. I've been trying to break into up jogging, so I'm nowhere near "too fit". Not getting that runner's high during or after any of these sessions. I mostly just feel like I'm dying both during and afterward. Any small positive effect I get from it is being able to check off the boxes in the app I'm using lol.

Hehe, what gives me a "high" after a workout is looking at the recording of my heart rate and seeing the peaks and valleys. I do HIIT so there's a lot of them.

If hard or traditional exercise is a problem motivation-wise or physically, you might want to try something like Pokémon Go. PG uses scammy mobile game tactics, which is normally bad, but it does help with motivation. You can also try ingress (which I can’t speak to), orna (does not use scammy tactics, and is better from a privacy standpoint, but is easier to put down as a result), or something similar. Walking outside is pretty low impact and a good way to get vitamin D. I have a much easier time setting off with a couple of bottles of water, some coffee, and a battery pack for a several hour long walk or just getting out of bed and going for a walk around the block if I know I’ll get something out of it in the short term as well.

There are lots of medicines that can help, but none of them should be taken without working with professionals.

Please be careful pf taking any medical advice from strangers on the internet that isn't "you need to talk with a licensed professional."

Even suggesting diet and exercise and vitamin D can be harmful advice under the wrong circumstances.

Medicine is drugs.

Try 5-HTP as a supplement if you believe you have low serotonin levels for some reason. It's a precursor to Serotonin so if there is a chemical reason your body is producing insufficient amounts then it can help, alongside L-Tyrosine which is the same thing but for dopamine. CBD supplements, if actually legitimately containing CBD can have some anxiolytic properties.

Otherwise everything else is illegal.

Sorry honey, but under capitalism you're supposed to buy worthless shit to stave off the alienation and misery and uhh like drugs are bad m'kay. Go get into K-Pop or "Gadgets" instead, heard there's some hot spicy influencer drama in these! Lotta ads to watch! And remember: Don't think, just buy product and get excited for the next product.

You might consider an MDMA, DMT or LSD trip to figure out why you're unhappy.

Do not buy drugs on the street, they are shit quality for shitty prices, you will get ripped off. Don't buy from DNMs overseas, customs do not fuck around. In UK/West EU order to home as normal, in US order to non-home mailboxes, in East EU order to dead drops. Make sure to research how to stay safe, what markets to use, how to get Monero and how to use PGP and maybe Tails depending on OpSec risk appetite, I think Dread (ddg it with tor!) has a few guides for this.

EDIT: Make sure to set Tor to safest to disable JavaScript, you won't need it and it only creates threats.

Go for lower dosages and make sure to get powder for MDMA, it should be light brown in colour. Test it! MDMA is part stim, part empathogen.

For DMT: get a proper high end vape tank DMT vape with a 510 off a respected seller on a DNM and buy a proper mod - don't buy the crappy eGO style tanks/"carts". DMT is a pure psych, very shroom-esque but without the shroom common side effects like diarrhea and uncontrollable vomiting and lasts only 15 mins.

For LSD make sure to take some time off work or do it when you won't be disturbed in general, preferably for at least 48 hours, as a trip can last 12-16. I'd go for 100ug - tabs are often under dosed so go if brave go for 120ug, don't buy tabs with overly elaborate art as that can be a sign that more effort went into the marketing than anything else, but make sure to get a test kit to make sure it's not NBOME, that drug is nice as well but it's not LSD and vendors don't dose it properly which can kill you.

Other than psychs: Amphetamine and/or nicotine will make you happy generally, but unless you have ADHD the effect may be too negligible to be worth it.

If your source of unhappiness is anxiety then you can take an anxiolytic like a benzodiazepine. Do not do that.

There's also Alcohol and Opioids but these barely do anything honestly when it comes to actual happiness. I would not do THC in an unhappy state, it's like 75% anxiety and hunger.

Or you can try therapy, but that shit never worked for me, turns out the world is just shit and my life was shit as a result, taking drugs helped/helps me cope with that and I try to improve my material circumstances as much as possible, I've never really had mental health issues though I just had shit mental health due to my material conditions so YMMV and GL, the first step to fixing an issue is identifying there is an issue. Try to identify what the issue is next.

Lot of jargon in this that most of us don’t understand. Dnm? Ddg? Can you explain it more clearly for us general admission ticket holders?

Also, thoughts on shrooms?

DNM - Dark Net Market. A marketplace that is accessible exclusively via onion routing with an .onion domain, via the Tor browser.

Silk Road, Dream, Empire, Wall Street, Nightmare and ASAP were some of the major ones in the past.

DDG - DuckDuckGo. A search engine that is alternative to Google. It can be useful for searching for information regarding this stuff via tor (and is the one in use by default via it's .onion domain in the tor browser).

Shrooms are cool and lots of people love them, but I don't because it never sits well with my body, it always gives me stomach problems ranging from light nausea and stomachache to very gross stuff like vomiting, not something i want to experience in an already vulnerable psychological state.

You might consider an MDMA, DMT or LSD trip to figure out why you're unhappy.

No, I don't want to get into drugs. I know things are hard for me but it will only make things work. Some comments here told me the same, recommending mushrooms, and other recreational drugs but I know it will only make things worse.

One day other people having the same problems as me will find this thread and I don't want them to take the wrong way.

Try 5-HTP as a supplement if you believe you have low serotonin levels for some reason.

I will find out what this is. Thanks for your comment.

I would say weed but im not sure thats helping, on contrary.

I want to say, try taking the sun, just go seat in a park with chill music or a book.

If you are an overthinker, try to focus only on things that you can change or have an impact.
If you cant, stop to think about it, its either "to late", or useless.
Ruminations are not good.

Im really bad on theses advices, but when i do that, thats working.
My feelings often drives me,

Identify the bad feeling, understand it, accept it, embrasse it (even external factors that you cant change), and go next.
Life is a slut in a way yeah, but you can be "the slut" too,

Medicine would be drugs. Unless you mean in the broad sense of the term.

For me I require a reason behind my happiness, maybe it's my autism I'm not sure, however without a foundation leading to smiles the smiles are lackluster. Just forcing myself to go outside, sit in a nice park, etc. helps place me into opportunities where I can notice things that make me happy bit by bit.
These little things add up. Being at a small time gig, of a band I haven't heard of, being around people who like the same things helps a lot.

I've wanted to see my favourite musicians, and I managed to through perseverance (Corey Taylor is an amazing human being, his outlook definitely rubbed off on me). I wanted to go to Europe, and everyone I knew kept saying "one day", so I decided that "one day" for me was going to be the next. Packed some things and went that weekend to Amsterdam, by myself, and met 3-4 people and we all hung out together for four days and we had such a connection we enjoyed ourselves so much.

If you have an inkling of places or things that would make you happy, perhaps try forcing the first step into it. It's easier said than done, though good luck man.

There's probably no non-spooky chemical that will make a significant dent. People are recommending, like, chocolate, but I'm certain the main effect is eating your feelings, with substances causing a rounding error.

However, I can predict pretty well what therapist homework would be, or at least what it always was for me. Basically just clean living stuff, and not giving in to the urge to avoid doing things. There's CBT too, and resources to do it on your own, although it can get confusing without a helping hand. So, yeah, I suggest self-administering therapy. IANAT.

Whenever cognitive behavioral therapy is mentioned with an initialism there's this risk of losing it to immature giggling when you substitute that other meaning for "CBT"...

Perika St. John's Wort (or any kind of standardized StJW formula) isolates the antidepressant part of the herb and makes sure you get the same dose in every pill. It's nonprescription as an herbal supplement, but it's one of the few herbal supplements with scientific backing.

Do note that St. John's Wort can mess with other medications you may take and can make them downright ineffective. A big one that comes to mind is birth control, but there are many others.

Always check with a medical professional and/or look up more information about supplement interactions before adding them into your regimen!

I don't know about that kind of medicine, but resolve your repressed anger and depression will disappear.

That's common, and why therapy works in a lot of cases, but not universal. Sometimes a chemical imbalance is only balanced with chemicals.

this might sound like a joke but this is pretty true. my anger issues were also the peak of me being known as a basket case by everyone I knew, i was so openly depressed back then. but once everything resolved, I felt a lot better and to this day even though I can be stoic at times I've not quite felt depressed like I used to severely be. yes I can be sad sometimes but it's nothing like the disdain I felt for years.

but resolve your repressed anger

how to do that?

Check out Dr. K on youtube. HealthygamerGG is a channel ran by a psychiatrist that focusses on educating men and their mental health problems. It's not a replacement for therapy, it may help you in the right direction.

Thanks, I will check that out.

Sorry for seeing the comments now, but it's never too late hopefully.

Therapy helped me. Looking back first important step was noticing that I am angry. It is strange how hidden and unrecognizable anger can be.

Second part is discovering why I was angry. As soon as we discover why are we angry, we stop being angry. When ai asked my shrink how does that work, he said "I don't know, but it works". And it really does.

Now when someone says "I am angery and I know why I am angre" I am sure they have no idea.

And I haven't found other way to resolve that, than psychoanalysis as therapy.

I don't feel angry, all I could feel is hopelessness about the future. I have no plans, no job and my girlfriend is going to break up with me but I don't know when exactly she will and I don't even have a clue what is the reason. I don't hate anybody, on the other side I just don't feel loving anyone, especially me. I wish I could have wings and fly across somewhere. That should clear my mind.

D3 with K2 supplement can help.

If you want something that's legal (but probably shouldn't be) I recommend kratom. Look for something that says Super Green. The less you take the more energy and vitality it gives you, the more you take the more it feels like an opiate.

Some additional advice:

Chasing happiness as an adult is difficult. It's better to seek being satisfied instead.

I dunno about drugs, if you're in the UK I can maybe signpost to some affordable counselling options. Relationships are a good place to get happy chemicals

I am not residing in UK, but thanks for the offer.

Wish you all the best then.

Do checkout options for social and support groups, it only takes one good person to make a difference in our lives

it only takes one good person to make a difference in our lives

I wish it was her dawg. I wish it was her.

If you rule out doctor's medicine, you'd without a doubt be talking about someone or something to console in. The last time you were happy, what were you doing?

Exercise and therapeutic carbohydrate restriction are both shone to be mood regulators.

Not taking in carbohydrates is surprisingly correlated with good days for me. Carbohydrate days I feel unmotivated.

You could try sam-e if you are in a country that isn’t prescription only (many don’t require one).

Imo meds alone won’t do a ton of good, if you’re battling depression or constant blahness you should also be trying to steadily make improvements in your habits and life situation. When you are not feeling too down try to make a list of things that might make daily life more pleasant and try to work some of that stuff into life. Things like sitting in the sun or watching the sky aren’t too trivial. If nothing sounds pleasant (because depression) imo you have to go the regimented route where you add things to your life that you think would improve anyone’s situation like eating healthy, exercising regularly, and picking up a new hobby.

I have constant anxiety and low dopamine. I take Ephedrine, and it's worked miracles for me. It even helps me concentrate throughout the day.

I prefer Primatine, but Bronkaid also works. Both can be bought over the counter with an ID

This is a drug, which OP said they're avoiding. It's also potentially dangerous.

Medicine is drugs, dummy. And ephedrine is safer than ibuprofen, so do a little research before you drop a dumb comment

Wow, did you miss the point. Yes, I was pointing out that ephedrine--a medication--is a drug.

And no, it is not as safe as you make it out to be. I have both "done my research" and spoken with a couple of physicians about it.

What medications aren't drugs? Please, give me a list.

And your anecdotal "research" doesn't really mean shit against the mountain of evidence towards ephedrine's safety. It's one of the longest studied stimulants on the planet.

Yeah, that's why I made fun of you suggesting I do my own research.

You have completely misunderstood this entire conversation. I just said that medications are drugs. Are you high? Is that why you can't figure out basic statements?

If so, that's fine, you're welcome to be high, but you might want to stop commenting on the internet.

You're a moron with no point, holy shit lol

Someone I think on mander.xyz was saying that regular 90-second cold showers seemed anecdotally to be maybe competitive with medication in terms of how well it combatted depression

Read up on St John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

Worth mentioning it stops some medications from working so OP should check that out.

Interesting that you were downvoted for this. Another commenter above mentioned it and didn't seem to get downvoted. I'm pretty ignorant of this substance. Would anyone care to elaborate in as scientific of a way possible on what this is and has the potential to do?

I was looking for this recommendation and would have made it myself if I didn't find yours. My therapist specifically recommended it as a natural antidepressant. Honestly, it hasn't worked well for me as my body seems to rebel against any antidepressant attempt; however I'm shocked to see this so heavily downvoted.

Albizzia julibrissin flower tea, once per day to nourish the heart and the spirit.