The reason why you're depressed is because nothing in your life is going right.

There's not a single aspect of your life that is improving. So if you want to get out of depression, pick one area in your life that is easiest to control, and easiest for you to improve on.

You don't have a job? Finding a job may not be the easiest thing in the world. So if you are just focused on that, “Oh I want a job, I don't have money and I'm looking for a job. It's been months and months and my will is destroyed because I'm not finding a job, and now I'm depressed,” forget about that.

Yes, keep trying to find a job, but now since you're depressed, you don't have the will to do anything because your focus was on finding a job. Now you just can't move. You don't have the desire to do anything.

If you want to get out of this state—perhaps a suicidal state—find the thing that is easiest for you to control, and improve on that thing.

Improve, get a haircut, shave, work on your physique. It takes nothing. It doesn't even take money.

You don't have to go to the gym to improve your physique. Watch some YouTube videos, find some exercises, pick the easiest one out of those, and start doing them.

Get moving, go for walks, long walks, and talk to people.

And once you see at least one aspect of your life improving day on day, it will release dopamine in your brain which will get you out of depression because depression is nothing but the lack of dopamine in your brain.

The chemical imbalance in your brain is such that there is no release of dopamine and that feels like depression. That is literally what depression is.

Fix the chemical imbalance in your brain. Get the dopamine flowing. And that happens when you see success. And to see success, you have to pick the easiest thing for you to succeed in and go from there.

That is the way to get out of depression. Take this as a micro-lesson that can change your life.

Role of Imagination in Depression

I also think that people who lack imagination are more prone to depression.

Are you able to imagine your future? Do you daydream? Are you able to visualize the future in which you are successful?

Whatever it may be that you're working on, you should be able to visualize yourself as successful in that area. If you're working on your physique, you should be able to visualize yourself with a good physique.

You should be daydreaming. There is so much value in daydreaming.

Now it doesn't mean you only keep daydreaming and take no action at all. If all day long you're watching Netflix and whenever you're free you are daydreaming about being a rockstar, that's not going to happen.

There is value in imagination, visualization, and affirmations. If you want to know what affirmations are, you can search affirmations and Scott Adams on the internet (or read this post) and you will find what affirmations are.

Here we are talking about imagination and visualization because imagination can also release dopamine in your brain.

If you don't have any friends, what do you need to have friends? You need skills. If you have skills, you become an interesting person. If you are an interesting person, people are attracted to you. They want to talk to you and you make friends that way. You want to learn guitar because you need some skills. You want to be able to speak different languages because you want skills.

So imagining yourself having those skills can also release some amount of dopamine in your brain. And when you get the dopamine release in your brain, that makes you feel good and that's the opposite of depression.

That's the first step to getting out of depression. Just daydreaming, imagination!

And now you know that imagination is making you feel good. So what if you start taking baby steps towards it? What if you spare some time every day and consistently work towards it?

Then it's just math. If you're working on something day after day, improvement is bound to come. And the more the improvement comes, the stronger the momentum gets.

And then just to get that dopamine hit, you will do that activity.

You must have heard people who go to the gym every day, they say they're addicted to working out. Why? Working out gets them closer to their imagined successful self and that releases dopamine every time they work out, and that gets them addicted.

You can get addicted to any productive activity, but it all starts with imagination, the ability to imagine yourself successful.

Start daydreaming in that sense if you're not doing it.