You should consider actual castration. It is much better for the longer term. It does not require harsh drugs to work. Also if you do take anti-depressants or drugs of any kind you will have less drugs going in you that can interact.

The idea of castration may also be frowned upon because it's a one-time deal. One surgery, one fee.

Medication over and over and over required more fees, more refills, more $$$$$$$$$$ for the drug companies and prescribers.

Hmm... I think I have the answer: castration and a single malt. I don't know if it makes life longer, but it certainly improves it!

The right balance of $ and distillery is the key to nirvana....

I have a bottle of BruichLaddich Islay (10 year old) and a bottle of Bowmore Islay (12 years old) that if consumed slowly should last for the rest of my life as I am not much of a drinker. Alas, The Glenlivet is already gone. --FLO--

Hahaha, I used to worry I might be a pedophile because I found myself looking at way too much shota, but then I had a chance to be around actual kids and found myself just behaving like a Labrador retriever and was a very happy puppy. I realized eventually that I was looking at the shota for the same reason that women scream over pictures of naked or near-naked babies. I stopped feeling weird about the shota at that point. You get pretty hooked on going, "Yeah! I'm a dragon! Rarrr! HEY! You just stepped on my tail again! Yeah, it's right there! Arrrr, now you're pulling it! Help!" Yeah, I'm attracted to kids, alright, but I'm too busy acting like a dork to do anything about it lol.

Turn me into a dog, neuter me, and give me a kid to help raise, so it's not weird if I lick his fingers and snuggle at his feet at night. That's all I ask out of life, to be a nutless pooch. Ah, well.

Sooooo, I have a little experience at battling depression, and what I used was "the mind follows the body" approach, which might or might not work for you. Work out intensively, concentrating on cardio and flexibility. Don't do too much strength-training because it can actually elevate your blood-pressure. Follow a carefully planned, minimalist diet. Try to sleep about 5-7 hours a night (8 is too much and counter-productive), and ALWAYS wake up at the same time in the morning...get into the habit of, instead of lying in bed moaning and groaning and going "just a little longer" to swing your legs out of bed like you're in a war zone and there's an air-raid going on with bombs dropping all around you. MOVE. You get the best cortisol health if you have somewhat (but not overly) high peak-to-valley ranges, meaning you wake up in the morning with your eyes wide as a startled snake with klaxons screaming in your head, and you're diving into bed at night like it's your final salvation, saying "Anyone who comes between me and sleep is a dead man."

Another thing you ought to consider is meditation. Meditate a lot. Do it for hours every evening, and actually follow guided meditations, on CD, by trained, medically certified professionals. Take it very seriously. This can calm your mind immensely and help you collect yourself.

You should get a simple but satisfying hobby. If you have deodar cedars in your area, try pawing through the mulch under them for clusters of seedlings. Dig them up, and take them home to grow them in pots next to a window somewhere, and find them "foster parents" in your area who have a place in their yard for a nice tree. The deodar cedar is a sacred plant to the peoples of the Himalayas. You can recognize them because their "cones" look like these gigantic green fruits that break down into this amazing, rich mulch. That's one suggested hobby, but anything that involves creating something beautiful and magnificent with your hands and having something to take care of is magical for your mental health.

Consider getting a rescue dog. Really, it's a very satisfying experience to see a scared pooch transform, under your tender care, into a happy puppy. By the way, it's a myth that letting the dog share your bed creates "dominance issues." On the contrary, dogs are den animals, and you're likely to build up "pack cohesiveness" by letting the animal cuddle next to you during the night. Fur is actually very therapeutic to stroke your fingers through, and dogs actually have a higher average body temperature than humans and tend to be very very warm. The drawback is that you eventually have to deal with the end-of-life issues of the animal, which can be emotionally exhausting and stressful, so there is a trade-off there you'd have to come to grips with.

Of course, that's the great thing about deodar cedars. They live longer than you do! LOL.

Anyway, depression is quite manageable, for most people, if you are determined. Best of luck to you.

I found that the depression I experienced had nothing to do with being castrated. It did have a lot to do with feeling guilty about being a pedophile. That took a long time to get over, even after surgical castration.

At the moment my depressions are much better since I take Abilify. Still taking triptoreline.

it's really hard on the body to be without hormones. You may want to consider low dose estrogen with a bio-identical progesterone or if you want to really minimize any feminization, try tamoxifen and progesterone. Progesterone is great for relieving anxiety and depression but use the real stuff and not MPA/Provera which has the opposite effect.