I have experienced depression, anxiety, bereavement, rage, and possibly PTSD all within the last 10 years or so.
Depression was like...what they say on most medical websites. Low mood, outward anger, fatigue, restlessness, lack of appetite, sobbing for hours on end, suicide ideation, etc. Not in a special snowflake way...like, there was no mistaking these symptoms because they took over my life. Seeing the words just written there doesn't do justice to the amount of physical and emotional torment an episode can create. It lasted about 6 weeks before leaving me in a cloud of melancholy for several more years. I'm not sure I have totally recovered even at present.
Anyway, the only reason I didn't kill myself was because I was in Japan at the time and couldn't obtain a gun and couldn't read jars to determine what was poisonous. The knives in the dormitory I stayed at were too dull. Etc. The only thing that helped me was simply to develop an inner "parent" that would get me to do the things I was too depressed to do. "You have to eat at LEAST half this sandwich". "You HAVE to do your laundry today". "You must go to work today, or you won't be able to afford to escape this horrible island".
Sometimes someone will tell you to "befriend" your depression...well, I did that too. I used it to come to new insights about myself and my life, to explore the more emotional side of life, to contemplate on love and compassion, to plumb the depths. It was a trip in its own right. I realized that this depression was there as a response to abuses past, and that it was simply a part of nature running its course. In its own way, it was beautiful...too bad most people will never understand that and would be offended at the suggestion that depression could have its own beauty.
I experienced intense existential anxiety during my depression, where I was afraid to make any moves in life since they'd only fuck my life up even worse. For about 2.5 years I was hysterically terrified to the point of paralysis and only moved when life pushed me to do so. I don't claim this is the best coping strategy, but I was already struggling with depression, come on. Breathing exercises didn't help because it wasn't the kind of anxiety where you get an attack--I was just seriously afraid of life and making decisions in it.
Another issue I dealt with, prior to this, was thyroid disease. I can't even describe how physically awful this was, but I'll tell you it lasted for years, and it had the effect of making me preternaturally angry. Angry as in, if I'd been in a developed country, I'd have been arrested for disorderly conduct or something. After I got robbed, this got about 100 times worse. I used to carry a knife around waiting...just WAITING for someone to look at me funny so I could kill them. I mean that too. I was a literal sociopath, I am not exaggerating. The depression took much of that away, but due to recent issues, there's been a lot more anger.
So currently, I take tentpoles to a bunch of old boxes I have in storage. I sword fight them when the anger gets too much (I have bruises all over my hands and sore arms as I type this because of it). I do shaking meditations and breathing exercises when I finish fighting. I exercise. I can't let myself go back to what I was in Cambodia. That's for sure. I may never be able to hold a job--but at least I'll be able to say I overcame myself.
Bereavement, I mean, I didn't even know what to do, let's not discuss it. It ended up with a horrible lawsuit against me that I lost catastrophically and now I will not receive an inheritance...how the hell do you cope with that even? I told you about sword fighting boxes already. I'm just going to walk away when the summer is over. My mom says I'm "running away", but I think there's a point when you've just got to cut your losses and walk away from a toxic situation.
PTSD...I don't think I have PTSD. My mother thinks I have PTSD (which is why she put me out on the streets, my problem to deal with not hers) but I don't have flashbacks or any other symptoms. I'm simply a person bitter with many reasons to be depressed and angry, and I'm disillusioned with life, with far too many traumatic events in my past. Consequently, I don't know how to cope with PTSD as I don't believe it's mine.
One other thing that helps me cope--don't laugh--is tantra. I don't have any partners, so I just do the breathing exercises and physical fitness regimens and meditations and stuff. Also, the jade egg. I don't have a choice. The nature of my depressive episode basically means I'm going to kill myself if I don't persist with these practices...I won't get into the details here, but I'm basically doing this at some sort of internal gunpoint. It's my religion, and it brings me closer to God.
I forgot to mention one thing, which is therapy. I can't typically afford it, but I'm currently in the UK trying to get a degree. And I get free health care as a student, and affordable care with the NHS. So, I've been trying to apply that this summer and see what they can do since I've had so much trauma and am so angry and so unmotivated in life. My most recent session, the councillor said that I could improve my life by doing one small task a day--eg, clean off the table, clean up rubbish, wash all the dishes, nothing too ambitious--and it would restore a sense of empowerment and accomplishment. I've been doing that for 10 days, and damned if she isn't right.
So, tantra, jade eggs, sword-fighting boxes, meditation, small accomplishments, and accepting depression as a teacher and developing an inner parent. Pretty much that.
Was that too weird? Idk, hope it answers the question. Hope it helps someone. Can elaborate more if necessary, I'm just kind of hungry and spaced out right now.