Step One: Find the Right Doctor

Some depressives are lucky enough to find a good psychiatrist in their first visit to a head doctor. Some aren't. Good traits to look for is someone who is conservative with meds (not trying a new antipsychotic every week); well-informed on new developments of treatment; treats you as a person (with unique personality traits and philosophies that had to be considered), not as a set of symptoms.

Step Two: Find the Right Cocktail

It may take several waves of the magic wand before you and your doctor agree on the right medications, so don't get discouraged if the first one doesn't work.

Step Three: Exercise!

Working out--any exercise that gets my heart rate up. Take a walk, dance in front of your bed room mirror, aerobics, yoga... get off your butt and do something. You will feel better and look better too.

Some researchers say that exercise acts like antidepressants in increasing the activity of serotonin and/or norepinephrine in your brain; working out releases endorphins and other hormones that reduce pain, induce euphoria, have a calming effect, and combat stress.

Step Four: Eat Well

Diet affects your mood.

Here are the bad boys: nicotine' caffeine, alcohol, white flour and processed food (what you live on when you have preschoolers who won't touch tofu and spinach); and sugar.

Here are the good guys: protein (eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, meat, fish, chicken, seeds, nuts); complex starches (whole grains, beans, potatoes); vegetables (broccoli, spinach, squash); vitamins (vitamin B-complex, vitamins E and C, and a multivitamin); minerals (magnesium, calcium, and zinc); omega-3 fatty acids.

Step Five: Sleep!

Regular sleep is crucial to an effective treatment of depression, and a must for maintaining a stable mood. Keep a mood/sleep journal to track how your zzzzs affects your thoughts. Alterations in sleep affect circadian rhythms, our internal biological clocks, which govern fluctuations in body temperature and the secretion of several hormones.

Step Six: Light Up

Changes in the amounts of daylight a person gets also alters circadian rhythms, which is why light treatment is so effective, especially for those who suffer from SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

Step Seven: Support and Friendships

Join a support group, make phone calls, send e-mails, and visit friends and relatives who also suffer from depression.

Step Eight: Get Involved

Positive psychologists like University of Pennsylvania's Martin Seligman and Dan Baker, Ph.D., director of the Life Enhancement Program at Canyon Ranch, believe a sense of purpose--committing oneself to a noble mission--and acts of altruism are strong antidotes to depression.

Step Nine: A Gratitude Journal

Based on her research findings, University of California psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky believes that keeping a gratitude journaltaking the time to consciously count your blessingsis one of the most effective happiness boosters. According to psychologist Robert Emmons at the University of California at Davis, gratitude exercises improves physical health, as wellincluding raising energy levels and relieving pain.

Step Ten: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Personal Therapy

In addition to seeing a shrink for personal therapy, many benefit immensely from cognitive-behavioral work they do on their own. Try reading books like "Ten Days to Self-Esteem" by David D. Burns, M.D. He lists ten ways of distorted thinking, and fifteen techniques to untwist the distortions. For example, if you think, "I fail at everything," you can use the "Examine the Evidence" method to recall some things (like eating) at which you excel.

Step Eleven: Prayer and Meditation

Sometimes it's easier than other times. It can be done in many forms--as mantras ("Jesus, be with me!") during a run, or a quiet ten minutes in your bedroom with a lit candle and a Bible verse, or singing "Alleluia!" with a congregation of Catholics at church on Sunday, or meditating in lotus pose at a yoga class, or just as a vague consciousness of the divine presence as you're folding the laundry.

Step Twelve: Time

When steps one through eleven have failed--and you've done everything you can think of but still want to be done with this life--then simply wait, and let time do what it does best: heal.