I've struggled with depression and anxiety issues for most of my life. Two things have made a huge difference for me:
Actually identifying with my body and taking care of me (it). That's the diet, sleep, exercise combo driven by a positive body image I identify with. The by far worst years of my life (so far) were when I clung to some kind of cyberpunky mind-body dualism and treated my body as a bag of meat whose only purpose is to supply oxygen to the brain in front of a computer.
Self-acceptance. For some people this is a given, seemingly achieved without any conscious thought at all, and I'm quite envious of those people. For others this takes decades or they repress until the bitter end (suicide in one way or another).
Therapy might be helpful and seems to be the default advice for questions like these. I've been sent to a handful of psychologist appointments due to anger issues in elementary school (don't recall any of that). I tried to get mental health help around a decade ago, only got some pills that made me feel even worse (adverse effects: suicide) and couldn't get a follow-up appointment. Real therapy is hard to access because the health system intentionally keeps capacity low (it's expensive). Basically only for people unable to work any more due to mental health issues, not for people that have quality-of-life issues. The US seems to be on the other end of the spectrum from my country in this regard.
Actually identifying with my body and taking care of me (it). That's the diet, sleep, exercise combo driven by a positive body image I identify with. The by far worst years of my life (so far) were when I clung to some kind of cyberpunky mind-body dualism and treated my body as a bag of meat whose only purpose is to supply oxygen to the brain in front of a computer.
Self-acceptance. For some people this is a given, seemingly achieved without any conscious thought at all, and I'm quite envious of those people. For others this takes decades or they repress until the bitter end (suicide in one way or another).
Therapy might be helpful and seems to be the default advice for questions like these. I've been sent to a handful of psychologist appointments due to anger issues in elementary school (don't recall any of that). I tried to get mental health help around a decade ago, only got some pills that made me feel even worse (adverse effects: suicide) and couldn't get a follow-up appointment. Real therapy is hard to access because the health system intentionally keeps capacity low (it's expensive). Basically only for people unable to work any more due to mental health issues, not for people that have quality-of-life issues. The US seems to be on the other end of the spectrum from my country in this regard.