Recently I’ve had a lot on my mind, and I haven’t been myself. I’ve ■■■■■■ up big time and now I might be paying for it and it’s really bumming me out. I’m getting really paranoid (albeit with good reason) and depressed over some ■■■■ that’s happened recently and I don’t feel like I can talk about it with anyone but my therapist who I only see once a week. This is not a high point for me, and I rarely actually struggle with my mental illness. I’m not used to being this out of control of my life and therefore my grip on my head has slipped a bit too. Anybody have any good methods for relieving anxiety and depression? (Other than meds, I can’t take any pills.)
This is something you can do right now:
Thank you for this 
Don’t know if this helps but I often put headphones on and listen to music in a darkened room if things are getting bad.
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That’s always helped me. Listening to music by myself and also drawing helps me
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I’m sorry things are difficult right now. One nonmedical way I treat myself is through neurofeedback. There might be a doctor near you who does it. Basically, I strap a sensor to my forehead, and do an activity (for me, it’s watching a movie). It measures my brain waves and helps train me to maintain higher brain functions during times of stress.
Some immediate fixes during times of crisis:
Try to levitate something with your mind. It won’t frustrate you, because you already know it’s not possible, but focusing intensely on one fixed point will help drown out the others and calm you down.
Put an ice pack on your head. If your problem is racing thoughts, put it on your forehead. If your problem is panic or anxiety, put it on the back of your head. This will decrease blood flow to that area of the brain, thus reducing the hyperactivity there. It will make you literally chill out.
Find a calming hobby with easy steps that you have to focus entirely on. For me, this is usually baking or playing a puzzle game. Focusing on the individual steps will drown out the excessive noise in your head.
This is how I managed to get by for almost seven years before I finally was ready to try medication.
Thanks so much, these are all really good ideas 
and I’m definitely gonna look into if there are any doctors that do that in my area
I will warn in advance that it is very expensive, and most insurance doesn’t cover it. Like $100 or more per session. There is a board game that uses similar technology called MindFlex. You can buy it on Amazon for $99. With the game, you wear a sensor that is connected to a tiny fan that levitates a ball. When your brainwaves are higher, the fan goes faster and the ball floats higher. The object of the game is to get the ball through an obstacle course.
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could you ask your therapist for more regular contact? and also post here more often,
could you also express your feelings through poetry or art bc that can also help
Maybe I’ll try the game first haha I’m a bit broke
I could but the $20 copays add up and I don’t make enough money to pay my bills and see my therapist more than once a week 
it’s a shame that it’s so hard to make a livable wage. I do love art and I write as well so I’ll do those things to help
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