My advice - what helped me ward off depression

Hi, I am fairly new here but really happy I found these forums. I just want to share my advice and a little bit of background on my depression. I have a REALLY COOL and simple discovery that literally knocked my depression out.

Some background - I grew up being physically and mentaly abused as a child (starting at age 5). I started feeling depressed at age 12 and even wanted to commit suicide at that age. I got bullied at school like most kids, but had it bad at home too. I feel like my violent upbringing and how isolated I was from "normal" kids caused me to feel worthless and depressed. I cried all the time when I was 12, even when nothing bad was happening at the moment. I felt guilty and depressed for unknown or very weird reasons that I could not explain.

Now my life has been a lot better - I am 25, I have a 4-year old son and a decent love life. Eevn at this stage, I was still feeling the effects of depression, fear, and anxiety. I realized I have been so busy focusing on everyone else. Now of course I put my child before myself which is a good thing, but on top of that, all I did was worry about other people - their problems and what they thought of me. I became really hard on myself and talked down on myself often. I realized that I never actually focused on me.

Soooo...... I took up a hobby!! I always had an interest in boxing and MMA considering I was always defenseless and weak. I found an affordable boxing club near me and an MMA place near my job. Instead of making me violent and vengeful - my hobby actually humbled me. Boxing and MMA has helped me gain confidence, self-esteem, and friendships. But thats only the first step so keep reading!

Now since I had this new hobby/passion, I realized I had issues focusing at work and at the gym. I also still felt a little depressed here and there, just not as much as I used to due to my confidence boost and doing something I enjoy. I decided to buy a large bottle of fish oil for 2 reasons only - my joints in my left toe and knee and because I read that it helps with focusing/ADHD. Within 3 weeks of taking fish oil and guess what I realized? I literally never felt so free from depression! The funny here is that I was simply taking it for my joints and focusing. Can't tell if I improved at focusing, but my joints were A-1 and boy did it sure as hell fix my longstanding depression. I took it for 4 months and not once did I feel depressed – a record high for me! Now I have not bought another bottle for 2 months now and still feel better. I may take it again though because my overall happiness was still better when I took it compared to now. I tend to get angry and irritable often since I have been on this long hiatus.

I did research just to verify how and if it really is the fish oil that helped me. Weird right? Here I am taking it for A and B reasons and now I gotta slap myself for not knowing that it fights depression rather sooner. I am a research nut and a health enthusiast, so I am kind of mad that it took me long to discover this. I cannot believe I never heard of fish oil fighting depression. Screw those antidepressants that the therapist prescribed me that made me worse. Apparently omega-3 is beneficial in treating depression! People with depression may have low levels of EPA and DHA, which fish oil contains generous amounts of. I do not remember how many MGs I took, but I had a big jar of Nature's Bounty and took it 2-3 times a day. You can't just eat a salmon twice a week and expect results - you need a certain dosage to get you going. I would prefer taking fish oil over simply adding certain foods to your diet because you probably wont get the needed amount to treat depression.

Just thought I would throw this out there, so hopefully you consider this if you are battling depression. Please do your research first. I do not know how well other sources of EPA and DHA work as I have not tried them yet. Also research the dosage because I totally forgot what article I read that stated the best dosage for treating depression. I took a smaller dosage than what they mentioned and it obviously worked, but I am petite.

So basically – find a positive hobby/passion and get a lot of EPA and DHA into your diet. Hope this helps!