Congratulations on keeping your depression in check. Like you I’m 57 and experienced major depression after a series of traumatic life events which caused me to take time off from work. Then my (58) year old sister got insanely jealous my dad was helping me financially for the first time ever and ostracized me from my family five years and this is when the suicidal ideation presented, I was terrified, I isolated and couldn’t believe my entire family believed my sisters lies.

During the worst of it I went to Northwestern University’s Intensive Outpatient program. 4 days per week for 3 hours for 3 months. The group teaching subject that helped me the most was DBT Therapy or also called Distress Tolerance.

It was almost immediate that when I read accepting your situation versus fighting against It lessons suffering. There are many useful mindfulness exercises which when encorported DO elevate the pain. It takes practice but taught in a group forum you meet new people and incorporte very useful tools to combat the depression that tries to take our lives away.

Distress tolerance and radical acceptance reduce pain from depression significantly but you must be diligent in incorporating these easy exercises throughout your day.

I’m taking the class again it helped so much. Behavior Health Centers associated with major medical centers typically offer free or greatly reduced pricing.

Like you I must exercise more also.