If you are having a very bad depression day, stop and ask yourself: have you recently eaten food? It is understandable if you have not eaten food, because opening the cupboard is hard. Here are some ideas for extremely low-effort snacks. Who knows? Stabilizing your blood sugar might help stabilize your mood. (A bit. But every bit helps.)

OPENING  THE CUPBOARD IS HARD DEPRESSION SNACKS

 

 

*Apples and peanut butter. (I know, I know. You will have to find a cutting board and a clean knife. But I believe in you.)

 

*Frozen burrito. Open the wrapper. Zap it in the microwave. (I know you can do it! You have the power!)

 

*Popcorn with chili lime or cayenne pepper or nutritional yeast sprinkled on top. (Or butter, obvs. But it’s popcorn, so that goes without saying.)

 

*Handful o’ nuts.

 

*Yogurt and fruit. Scoop some yogurt in a bowl, throw in some fruit. If you are a vegan, you can use a weird coconut or pili nut yogurt. (What is a pili nut? Nobody knows.) Throw some nuts on top and you technically have a lunch.

 

*Chips and salsa and guacamole. Some people think corn chips are junk food. I think adding in salsa (technically a vegetable, right?) and avocado (the transcendent food of the gods that will make all your problems go away, according to the Internet) make it a wonderful snack.

 

*Hummus. I always open hummus, eat a blob of it, then forget it in the back of the fridge. Also, once, when I was twenty, I used like five cans of garbanzo beans to make hummus in a blender. Then I ate a serving and left it in the back of my fridge. I gave some to my sister and it traumatized her so profoundly that she did not touch hummus for five years.

 

*Microwaved quesadilla. A couple of corn tortillas with a square of pre-sliced cheese. You can add in avocado and salsa if you are feeling like a superhero.

 

*Rice in a rice cooker. (Dump it in, plug it in, wait 20 minutes.) Rice can be boring by itself, but it is nice with salt and butter when it is steamy and warm.

 

*Microwaved sweet potato with canned black beans and cumin and cinnamon (if you can find your spices. They are probably in the back of the cupboard.)

 

*Stale pinata candy. I do not actually recommend this snack. But in the service of honesty, it is what I am most likely to eat when I am in a slug-person depression fog. Which is why I made this list of other ideas.

 

The problem with this list of snacks is that to have food in your fridge/pantry, you have to have gone grocery shopping. But maybe when you are feeling semi-okay you can go grocery shopping, and then you’ll have something on hand for when you feel really bad. Your emotionally well self can help take care of your future depressed self.

 

 

 

 

 

Also, you don’t have to eat “healthy” food if it is not necessary to make you feel good. My husband lived for many years on Doritos and chocolate milk, and he is one of the most emotionally stable people I have ever met. It’s just that there are studies that show nutritious food is good for mental health. So if it is possible for you, it is something to try.

 

 

Doritos snack suggestion and illustration contributed by a child who was climbing on my back while I attempted to assemble this web page.

This sweet potato looks really happy considering that is about to get eaten. Maybe it has some emotional problems of its own.

The hummus of doom.

When Mystical Creatures Attack! is a novel about an idealistic teacher who has a nervous breakdown and corresponds with her former students from an inpatient psychiatric facility.