I've suffered from depression for the last 7 years. I've seen therapists and psychiatrists. I've tried many different types of anti depressants, anti anxiety and anti bi polar meds. I was even hospitalized in a mental hospital for 3 days back in 2005. I've suffered from terrible emotional pain and suicide fantasies for years but I have a new frame of mind now and my depression has been under control for several weeks.

Several weeks may not seem impressive but I was falling into a depressed state of mind daily for years and I have broken that cycle. I want to tell other people who suffer from depression how I accomplished this.

First, I began to realize that my periods of depression came like clockwork. My depressed and painful frame of mind would happen on a regular basis. I decided to keep a journal and enter my thoughts and moods every day. If a day started out OK and ended up with me in a depressed state of mind, I wrote down the thoughts that seemed to make me fall into a depression.

Once I was able to figure out which thoughts were the catalyst for sending me into depression, I analyzed those thoughts. I figured out that those thoughts were not even true. They were just thoughts of self pity, feeling sorry for myself, worrying about things that I don't even need to worry about.

I've discovered several patterns of thought that send me crashing toward depression and over the years those thoughts have become a habit. Now, when I catch myself having one of those thoughts I stop the thought immediately and turn it around. I don't dismiss the thought. I rationalize with myself and tell myself that the thought isn't true and it really isn't.

If you suffer from depression, medication and therapists can help but ultimately you have to pull yourself out of it. You are the only one who can do it. There is no magic pill or magic therapist.