Hey, gang. Let’s talk about depression.

To start, I’ll say that I’ve dealt with this particular monster since I was a kid, so I’ve had plenty of time to figure out what it means for me and how to live with it. Luckily, I have a fairly mild condition, and I happen to know its cause. Put simply, my body produces Serotonin, but my brain doesn’t absorb enough. I’ve been able to remedy this imbalance with a low dose of a medication called Citalopram; treatment is different for everyone, though.

A combination of medicine and therapy can help tremendously, so it’s vital to determine what benefits you the most in those regards, but I’ve found some other things that can make a difference as well.

For one, forcing yourself to be optimistic if at all possible. Lying in the dark and fixating on every terrible thing that’s happened to you can feel very appropriate when you’re depressed. Shaking and crying can simply feel right in response to the emotions overwhelming you; and while I admit that it’s healthy to acknowledge how you feel, it’s not healthy to let it consume you.

Resisting that urge is one of the hardest things to do when you’re depressed, but it makes all the difference. The first step up from the floor and toward the light switch should feel like a victory because it shows that you’re willing to fight for your happiness when it’s furthest away.

Once you’ve made it there, do something. It can be pretty much anything — cooking, writing, learning how to knit, taking a walk, hanging out with whoever’s at home, watching a funny show on Netflix, sitting outside and reading — as long as it lifts you out of that hopeless black hole on the floor, even a little bit. Fighting for yourself and your quality of life is the first step.

On a similar note, I’ve found that actively acknowledging the positive things in a day can help to shift your mindset greatly.

A simple way to do this would be to carry a journal and record good things that happen throughout the day, no matter how minor, and review those things at day’s end. (Another method is to sit down at the end of a day and write out, all at once, the good things that have happened). This practice pushes you to focus on how many good things occur throughout the day, which will automatically give you a brighter outlook on the past as you remember it.

Your perception of the last day or week will affect how you see the past — and your life — as a whole, and your outlook is a big part of depression.

The most important act in managing depression, however, is also the most challenging: loving yourself. This illness is arguably one of the most directly hard-hitting when it comes to how you feel about yourself, but that doesn’t mean you can’t fight it.

In fact, I’ve fought self-hate so much that my friends might say I’m annoyingly supportive toward myself. I haven’t always been that way, though, and it took me a long while to get here. It takes time and dedication, but you really can reach a place where you like yourself even during the worst bouts of depression.

Some good steps for cultivating self-love that I’ve found are these: writing letters to yourself, talking to yourself in the mirror, and listing things that you like about yourself (whether out loud or in writing).

When I was feeling unbearably isolated during the height of my depression several years ago, I would write letters to myself as if the person I was talking to were my soul mate.

I would write all of the things that I’d be willing to do for the people I loved most in the world — I’d defend them to bullies, be there for them when they were down, make them hot chocolate when they were sad, buy them flowers when they felt unloved; whatever I needed to do to support them, since I loved them.

I would write that and then read it back, promising all of those things to myself. Think of yourself in the same way that you would think of your best friend, and self-love becomes a lot easier. The same thing can be achieved by taking what you wrote in the letter and saying it to yourself in the mirror — this practice might even be more powerful since you’re looking yourself directly in the face.

Giving yourself pep talks by listing the things that you like about yourself (be they physical, mental, or behavioral) aloud or in writing can also help. Doing this has the same effect as listing the positive moments of your day — it forces you to focus on the good, thus shifting your perspective toward optimism. Again, self-love is the most important part of battling depression because it makes you care for yourself enough to fight in the first place.

I hope that this can help other people with depression as much as it’s helped me over the years because actively fighting the illness can make a drastic difference in your quality of life. I wish you all the best and hope that you find the happiness that you deserve.