things that helped depression for me were
marijuana and LSD: helped me at my pre-yogic state see myself from a third-person perspective. you cannot really both BE depressed and BE witnessing your depression from a witness standpoint.
sports and fitness: sports can be a great boost to your mood, especially weight-lifting for me. it is actually known to increase good hormones and is a great emotional cleanser.
good diet: eat well, feel well. i think a lot of depression nowadays comes from eating poor diets. especially eating a poor diet and KNOWING that you are. creates quite a rift.
many others, but those have been main ones for me. you have to watch things like writing poetry and art in my opinion because it really just fuels the ego. a good book for you might be The Power of Now by Tolle. depression, like any other egoic state, cannot take you over if you are stable in the witness state. yogani's deep meditation cultivates the witness and Tolle's book (and yogani's self-inquiry book) offer how to cultivate the witness during the day also.
i suffered depression all throughout my teens. it wasnt until i started breaking all the conditioning of my ego. for me that was done through psychedelic drugs like marijuana and lsd. of course if you are not ready for them or comfortable they are not necessary - the point is that they broke my ego apart and forced to me really look at myself from the witness standpoint. you can cultivate this through ayp which i think is key. stick to ayp!
