well mark b, make sure u keep ur eye out on the signs u know meaning ur heading toward a bout of depression, then maybe try a short-term med for depression (im not a fan of SSRI/SNRIs personally - id say try wellbutrin first, and if that makes u too jittery, try tricyclics....ive had success from nortriptyline)
if u can get away with going unmedicated and 'run to the hills' (aka. go camp out in the woods) by all means, this is healthier!
i, too, am a fan of going and living in the wild wen i can, to relax my mental health
because of my health problems and being dependent on medication for these, plus the current situation - being on MMT and a valium reduction program - im limited from actually camping in the 'woods' (or 'forest' as we call it over here)
however, the hunting lodge i was talking about just happens to b on a 17 acre block bordering on the Kaimanawa Ranges (like theres gates into the bush from the property where my cousin and i hav whacked down trails for the horses to make it easier to gallop once the dogs sniff out game)
so wat we do is sleep in the house and i take my valium periodically during the night, get up early to drive into the closest city (Taupo) to drink my methadone then drive back, hav a quick shower and some homemade toast with manuka honey (again made by us - the manuka is all thru the bush) - then we spend the day hunting and gathering and return back wen it gets dark, wash the horses down and turn them out, prepare the meat weve shot (giving all the guts etc to the dogs - and if we get a stag thats always a bonus as deer velvet is excellent for methamphetamine withdrawal.....so i keep a load of it with me)
then we cook up a fresh leg of venison/rabbit stew/watever meat weve collected, and add plenty of wild watercress
wen i go down to the lodge i never want to come back cos i forget about depression and drug addiction - i dont touch meth (i dont hav time!) which is my biggest set-off for a bout of depression as ive used the stuff on-off for 10yrs now and my brains just burnt out from it
trouble with meth (and again im talking methamphetamine not methadone tho im on that too - thats scripted tho) is that wen ur fighting depression already for other reasons, meth is just going to make u feel worse
i feel great right now, rambling on, high on meth, but hey wait till i crash
im already needing to up my methadone, and im on my last week before i drop my valium by 1mg again (i tend to go into benzo rebound wd by this stage) so im uncomfortable because of that
the odds that im going to b depressed again - and possibly hav suicidal ideations again - wen i come down from the crystal, is fairly likely
so i put it off (coming down i mean)
and the longer i leave it the worse the comedown is
vicious vicious circle
im not a naturally depressed person - naturally anxious yes - but all this fucking with drugs has changed me a fair bit....