I believe I have distilled my best advice down: Life’s about keeping busy with the things that speak to you. So when you know what you want to make, do whatever you need to do to make it. When you don’t know what to make, make anything. Keep making stuff, any stuff, just keep your mind dreaming and your hands busy.

Elaboration: Don’t make depression your personality. Thats part of what makes it hard to climb out of: you dunno who you are without depression. It infuses everything, who you hang out with, what you wear, what you watch, it seems like who you are. So whatever your mental state, even when nothing seems very fun, Make stuff. For as long as you can, however you can. Make stuff! What stuff doesn’t matter. Follow pretty whims. Follow good memories. Follow an aesthetic. Literally part of what has been reviving me lately is altering my clothing and taking hand-me-downs and finding cheap thrift items and random junk I find to create what my ideal aesthetic without depression might be. More ruffles, more pink, more soft sweaters. There’s still some black and some skeleton unicorns and army jackets, But the mean sarcastic t-shirts that no longer represent who I wanna be, The stuff i kept because they were gifts but just make me guilty, The stuff that was holding me back is gone, and I’m building the stuff a future, healthier, version of myself might like. Or she’ll make new stuff. Doesn’t matter. Easy come easy go. Decorate, type, whistle, lego, label, doodle, minecraft, roleplay, whatever, for however long it amuses you, however dimly it amuses you when nothing seems to bring joy, Make. That. Stuff.