I have been on antidepressants for almost eight straight years. I have had so many problems with the side-effects and some even making me worse that I am ready to try something new.

I went off of my medication in August, and for the past month have been exercising every day for, on average, 45 minutes. It might be helping, but I'm still depressed right now. That being said, I have been more depressed than this while on medication, so on a scale of 1 to 10, it's around an 8. I want to take the next step and cut sugar from my diet. I feel like I eat way too much sugar, and would like to see if removing it from my diet will help with my mood. I know that it will cause an initial crash, so I'm really apprehensive. Has anyone tried this, for how long, and how much success have you had? Would anyone be willing to try this with me? Does anyone know of a good face-to-face support group or even a cyber-group that would be good for this, or am I in the right place to start?

I'm in a stressful spot right now - in the middle of a move, starting a new job, writing a thesis, struggling with sciatica, buying a house... I'm sure that I could go on, but I already feel like a whiner. Needless to say, I spend an inordinate amount of time in my bed and staring blankly at walls. I hate depression, but feel like I'm doing alright to keep moving forward. In fact, this is the best I've done in years as far as getting things done while struggling with such low feelings of depression. Usually I get paralyzed by stress, but I've actually been able to keep moving through it. Of course I'm not moving as well as I do when I'm not depressed, but I am moving and I do give myself credit for that.