I think it’s a combination of multiplicative factors. Very, very roughly:
Prescribed medication and supplements: 2x improvement
Understanding my own mind and adapting my life around that (including meditation, CBT, etc): 1.5x improvement
Work and personal life improvements (not stressed about getting an academic job, doing rewarding work, having great friends and a great relationship): 2x improvement
To illustrate quantitatively (with normal weekly wellbeing on a +10 to −10 scale) with pretty made-up numbers, it feels like an average week used to be like: 1 days: +4; 4 days: +1; 1 day: −1; 1 day: −6.
Now it feels like I’m much more stable, around +2 to +7. Negative days are pretty rare; removing them from my life makes a huge difference to my wellbeing.
I agree this isn’t the typical outcome for someone with depressive symptoms. I was lucky that I would continue to have high “self-efficacy” even when my mood was low, so I was able to put in effort to make my mood better. I’ve also been very lucky in other ways: I’ve been responsive to medication, and my personal and work life have both gone very well.
I think it’s a combination of multiplicative factors. Very, very roughly:
Prescribed medication and supplements: 2x improvement
Understanding my own mind and adapting my life around that (including meditation, CBT, etc): 1.5x improvement
Work and personal life improvements (not stressed about getting an academic job, doing rewarding work, having great friends and a great relationship): 2x improvement
To illustrate quantitatively (with normal weekly wellbeing on a +10 to −10 scale) with pretty made-up numbers, it feels like an average week used to be like: 1 days: +4; 4 days: +1; 1 day: −1; 1 day: −6.
Now it feels like I’m much more stable, around +2 to +7. Negative days are pretty rare; removing them from my life makes a huge difference to my wellbeing.
I agree this isn’t the typical outcome for someone with depressive symptoms. I was lucky that I would continue to have high “self-efficacy” even when my mood was low, so I was able to put in effort to make my mood better. I’ve also been very lucky in other ways: I’ve been responsive to medication, and my personal and work life have both gone very well.