3 strategies to keep depression at bay

If you're depressed or simply feeling low, these tips may give you the boost you need to pull you up without the need for prescription drugs.

There comes a point when most of us realize: life sometimes isn't much fun. It may have been an eye-opening adventure in our youth, our teens, even our 20s, but, as time passes, the glee of living gets harder to sustain. Most of us cope just fine with this, but for millions of people, the path of life occasionally leads to depression.

The point here is not to give you a diagnosis or treatment – that's for professionals to do. But even if you are taking medication for depression, the following lifestyle tactics may increase the drug's effectiveness.

• In one study, when 86 depressed women were paired with a volunteer friend, 65 per cent of the women felt better.
• In fact, regular social contact worked as effectively as antidepressant medication and psychotherapy.
• Regular contact with a close friend may boost self-confidence and encourage you to make other positive changes that will help to lift depression, such as starting an exercise program.

• Another study found that people who consume diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids, a type of fat found in cold-water fish such as salmon and mackerel, were less likely to suffer from depression than people whose diets were low in this important fat.
• One reason researchers think the rate of depression has skyrocketed is that we get so few omega-3 fatty acids in our diets.
• While pregnant women are advised to eat one portion of oily fish a week, they should avoid eating shark, swordfish and marlin or more than 275 grams (10 ounces) cooked or canned tuna a week because of potentially dangerous mercury levels. Another way to get your omega-3s is from ground flaxseeds.
• Keep a container in the fridge and sprinkle them on everything from ice cream to yogurt to cheese omelettes.

• When non-pet owners played with a dog for just a few minutes a day as part a study, blood levels of the brain chemicals serotonin and oxytocin – both mood elevators – rose.
• You don't need to own a dog to experience these feel-good effects (although dogs are great antidotes to the kind of chronic stress that can result in depression).
• Pet your neighbour's dog, offer to take it for walks, or volunteer at an animal shelter for some furry one-on-one therapy.