Depression on the backburner, games on the forefront

sport/training after your first milestones you feel refreshed .

Physical activities preferably in the nature.
Good luck man!

Because i had depressions in the past for a big ammount of my life (without that i ever took medicine against it, that wasn't the right way FOR ME) i advice you to change something at the reasons for them.
Yes, to realize the reason(s), accept them and work at them aren't funny, nice or something you want to do at the begin but it really helps on the long run.
Maybe you do that already, in that case, confratulations. Each step there is better as running away.

And if you don't do it then maybe realize that playing games is cool as a "sometimes" thing but it will, most likely, be a problem if you use it to "flee" from the problems, to forget all the time and don't handle other stuff that is responsible for your depressions.
In that case i wish you the needed energy to realize and change it.

It helped me to be outside, in the nature, each day for at least 30 min., to grab a bit sun (that activate a "be/feel happy hormon"). Prefered in the forests and mountains, of course there not only 30 min. ;o)
And, it helped me a lot, to sort old stuff, partly sort out too ;o), to give stuff away, to lower the ammount of things that i owned. With each part it were as i had lesser weight on my shoulders.
And between reading books and very low ammounts of PC time because i get easy distracted from chats and trillions of possibilities when i sit at the PC (in the past a very big weak point).

Daily walking in the forest for about 30 min- 1 hour helped me a lot. Even better if you have a place with a great view so you can just sit down and meditate a bit.

One more piece of advice about your backlog, don't play games you don't want to play and don't enter giveaways until you beat majority of your games. Delete your "won't play" games if you can. That made "gaming" a lot more fun for me.

Happy you are managing your depression! Hopefully you can stay out of it for as long as possible!

My hobby has always been games for many reasons:

1. That sense of advancement (or accomplishment) which good developers know how to "milk";
2. Most games keep my brain engaged (as opposite to watching soccer, for example, which I also enjoy, but for different reasons).
3. Finally, I really enjoy the stories, the characters, the images and the soundtracks -- and I find the game industry more vibrant than the movie, book or music industry in that regard (granted -- based on what I have easy access to).

Cheers!

Meeting people around the world about gaming stuff, gaming and having a pet has helping me a bit.

How did you surpress it, medicine, ifso which one?

Yay! I'm so happy for you! I have anxiety and ADHD and for a while, I was on Adderall which made me anxious to the point of multiple panic attacks a day. For me, switching meds and adding an anti-anxiety med really helped me. While I've never suffered from depression, I can only imagine the debilitation it caused.

For me, one of the first things I did was just breathe deeply. It felt so good not having pressure on my chest or trouble breathing bc of the anxiety. Walks also helped a bit. I also could finally sit through a game without freaking out about time or w/e.

Very glad to read you're recovering. Before it works, medication can sometimes feel like a waste of time but it's the depression talking ofc and it's great to be proven wrong!

I've had experience with both depression and anxiety, as well as other PTSD disorders and it's been a long road with ups and downs.
I love to cook and to read and I was very happy to get back to it once my mood was a bit more settled.
Nowadays cooking, reading and gaming are my go-to activities when I feel my mood dipping so it really helps but back when I was really deep in depression, just the thought of cooking or reading felt like an insurmountable chore, which is ironic considering they help me so much stay afloat.

Depression really makes your whole world feel like an uphill climb so it's good to get to the top, breathe some fine air, feel the sun and say screw you, depression! ;)

Work.
I mean, I don't really 'enjoy' work, because if you enjoy work too much then its not truly 'work' per se is it? Heh. Nah. When/if I ever get this long time mass of (ex?)depression/anxiety stuff under reasonable control and the baggage even partially worked through, then work. If only so I know I'm able to exist in social spaces enough to earn enough wages to maintain a basic little household. The creeping threat of homelessness once family charity and government benefits run dry has been a looming thing for me. Its weird how my emotional system barely reacts to legitimate threats upon my safety and health, but the idea of responsibility under social scrutiny (as in, new workplace, etc) hits me with a fierce cold chill.

With that bummer out of the way? Probably feeling stuff properly again. I kinda miss having emotional connections to people and media, rather than a gaping disconnection. Or rather, those emotions existing in full, rather than little sparks auto-quarantined in unopenable jars so they don't run amok. Which is kinda annoying because all these efforts to contain the overriding anxiety towards work never works, but just effected everything else, heh. And yet somehow it still lets a lot of the negative stuff through. Intrusive thoughts, crushing lack of dehumanising self-esteem. Why can I just put those in stasis, GDI?

Maybe a pet. Figure it all out, own a tiny cramped place, buy a fuzzbaby that I can smother with affection. Yeah that sounds good.
Now I just have to wait for the damned pandemic to end so I can return to the voluntary work I was doing to try help decondition my anxiety / self-esteem, blurgh. I mean, assuming that I don't have actual depression again. Its hard to tell, because the first time I had it was in my childhood, unmedicated and incredibly fierce. The anxiety was so powerful at most hours of the day that I pretty much lived in a constant haze of severe stomach-churning nausea, which in turn had a deeply conditioning effect on how I interacted with folks and what things I learned on a feral, instinctual level. Though apparently depression can be just that sense of anhedonia and emptiness, which just doesn't seem strong enough to be the torturous 'depression' I'm familiar with. Feels reductive to call it that, when I know how much it hurts people, y'know?

Fuck it, pressing post on this now before I have chance to regret and delete it.
Work, secure myself against homelessness, hug a doge. That's it.