>>511139468 (OP)36 y/o here with a really fucked up childhood who fought depression, drugs/alcohol abuse and anxiety issues for years and eventually came out a well adjusted family man. I know this struggle and the solution better than most.
First, there is no permanent "just do this one thing and you're cured permanently" type of solution. It's more a matter of becoming very self aware of what kind of activities and lifestyle choices affect your happy chemical balance and managing it consciously. The core of the depression problem in the modern age for easily 99%+ of people is as simple as having become too used to instant gratification for minimal effort. Shit like doom scrolling on /pol/ from the moment you wake up, watching porn, fapping, playing video games, watching movies/tv/anime, eating junk food, consuming nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, or any ting else you enjoy really - shit that you enjoy which requires little to no effort. The surest way to destroy a man is to give him everything he ever wanted.
So how do you break out of this cycle and reset yourself a bit? Well it gets worse before it gets better. You need a little willpower, discipline, some kind of motivation to get strarted. Just enough to push through the initial transition. You need to take some kind of dopamine fast. Restrict yourself from every form of instant/easy gratification you can identify, especially everything I listed above, for about a week minimum.
Plan for other activities to fill your time. Reading non fiction, any and all forms of exercise, errands, small projects, etc. Huge pro tip: always start your day by getting the shit you want to do least out of the way first, then gradually do the things you hate less next. That's also how you can find a balance and maintain not feeling like a depressed sack of shit later but it still takes some discipline and trial and error to figure out what works.
1/2?