Despite my mental health improving massively, I still feel mildly depressed.

[ZenAlex]

Hi. I cured my OCD, my ADHD and anxiety are much better. I don't really feel suicidal and I don't suffer much mentally, but I still feel a tad mildly depressed sometimes, like I don't feel strong emotions or get excited much, sometimes there is a complete flatness in my feelings. I accept it ad am grateful for what I can enjoy, but despite my recovery I never quite feel as alive as I used to.

After you've recovered mostly, how do you get from feeling flat/mildly depressed to feeling alive? I've done so much work over 10 years. 

Things just don't hit much these days. I can feel peaceful and take small levels of satisfaction from things, but it's been over a decade since I really felt excited and alive and emotional.

[Lila9]

That's OK.

It takes a village to heal one person.

The current approach to mental illness is too focused on the individual, ignoring the fact that the individual is intertwined with the collective and is not totally isolated or separate.

This is why I don't believe that one can be fully recovered as long as society is sick. Mental illness can be contagious. Even if someone is healed but lives in an unhealed environment, they may adopt the same dysfunctional patterns in the end or become re-traumatized.

This is why the future approach to treating mental health issues may focus less on the individual and more on the collective, on a systemic level.

Don't feel bad about it. People who sell courses and various self-help programs sometimes imply that the issue is only in your head and that it can be treated with willpower or exercise alone, but this is often wishful thinking.

Keep doing what you can to make yourself feel better.

Maybe incorporate small rituals (such as meditation, journaling, reading, drinking tea or coffee, spending time in the sun, skywatching, birdwatching, and self-care rituals like bathing, dancing, singing, or creating art) and be very present and intentional about them. You can learn more about rituals and how they help with the mental health crisis in books like The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile.

Move your body daily and add beauty to your life to make it feel more meaningful, and if possible surround yourself with healed people.

[Raze]

Read loving kindness by Sharon salzberg and the ultramind solution 

[Ulax]

23 minutes ago, Raze said:

Read loving kindness by Sharon salzberg and the ultramind solution 

Have you been getting good results from the Salzberg book?

[Judy2]

@ZenAlex how's your social life and what activities do you fill your days with? 

[LastThursday]

@ZenAlex I feel you. I've never quite recovered from a protracted depressive episode more than a decade ago. While, likewise, I've done a lot of work on myself I don't think it's possible to get back to where I was before the depression (I could be wrong). I'm not depressed now. 

I do think fulfilment is more important than excitement and emotion generally - I've given that one a lot of thought over time. What's fulfilling though? Mostly, being with people (even for introverts), working towards goals especially collectively, immersing yourself in your interests and things you're good at, helping others in any capacity. I'm sure I could list a hundred other things. In short look for fulfilment, build it up in your life.