By Jo Ann LeQuang

Depression affects millions and it can impact more than just your mood. Depression can cause you to miss work, lose out on opportunities to be with friends, cause excessive sleep, weaken your immune system, and make you feel rotten. Depressed people do not do the same things happy people do: depressed people may smoke and drink more, eat junk food rather than healthful foods, and isolate themselves. They sleep a lot and their thinking can start to get distorted. The trouble with being depressed is that it seems like there is no way out except medications. There may be some natural things you can do to beat back depression. If you have a friend or spouse to support you, enlist their aid right now to keep you on track. I call that person your “assistant.” Here are 10 ways to fight depression without having to see the doctor and fill a prescription.