Whenever I'm having a depressive episode and my mind starts to go to bad, dark places, I sit down on the floor of my room and hug my plush Twilight Sparkle my mom bought me (since she's just the right size to hug in comparison to my other plushies) and just have a good cry until I've calmed down. Silly as it is, I imagine her being there and telling me everything is alright and just counseling me until I feel better.

I once went to therapy for a lot of emotional abuse from my family, and the therapist didn't help at all. She honestly told me I needed to change myself to better suit my abusers rather than tell them they needed to stop with the abuse. After I canceled my appointments with her, I started watching happy, optimistic cartoons and playing cute video games to escape, and I feel much better than I did from the therapy visits. I'm too poor to afford medication, so I've been combating my depression and anxiety with non-stressful media that can take my mind away from everything for a while. It's not much, but it does help.