I have battled bouts of depression before and got through it with no medications. There are some that absolutely NEED medications as they have some sort of chemical imbalance and the medications helps tremendously. The problem that I have found with medications, is when left on them, they do more damage than good a lot of times. I was on meds for quiet awhile for both depression and anxiety, and I felt that at first, they did well, but slowly would become ineffective after awhile. So a switch would be made, and the same thing would occur. I know a lot of people that went through the same thing.
After I finally got off the meds, and the effects wore off, I began a self search so to speak. I ended up doing the following and it helps so much.
1. Limit Caffeine intake. I was a caffeine-aholic for years. Now I may drink one per week, if that.
2. Exercise. I keep track of steps every day. My work insurance has an incentive program for those that walk so many steps per year. I lift some and stretch and yoga, but mainly just walk a lot. It helps.
3. Positive Thinking. Now I'm sure OTFers will laugh at this, but I've learned how to separate negative, scary, untrue thoughts from true and positive thoughts. Teaching yourself how to re-think is one of the hardest skills you will ever try to master. It takes time, but understanding that thoughts produce feelings which affects chemical releases into your brain helps in knowing that positive and true thoughts and reactions goes a long way to stem dark depressive thoughts.
4. Rest. You need to find your balance. Not too much and not too little
I still have "rough days", but the deep and dark seasons that last for more than a couple days are long gone. When I went through my divorce, I employed these tactics and while I was sad, I didn't go down that dark path as I had in my teens and 20s.