I thought this was a support sub? Speaking as someone who works with medically fragile individuals and has extensive experience with those with mental health, your advice is more likely to trigger catatonia or dissociation, both of which can be life threatening if ongoing and your brain fails to break the cycle, than it is to lead to improvement of any kind. A person who struggles with cyclical or chronic depression and/or anxiety cannot "just" anything. The conditions are characterized by an inability of the brain to identify between what input is life threatening and what isn't. Failure to correctly manage symptoms results in frequent or continuous sympathetic nervous responses (fight or flight or freeze) which can and will cause continuous neurologic damage to the brain and spinal cord. I don't know of any gifts on this earth that are worth a person with an anxiety disorder willfully forcing their body to produce cortisol or trigger a depressive response. And any family who claims to care enough to give a gift legitimately are likely to value OP's health over a thank you note.

And positive actions don't negate depression. That's a common ableist misconception, but unfortunately patients on the depressive or anxiety spectrum are unlikely to produce dopamine at a normal rate in response to normal triggers. Brains just don't work like that. If they did, mental health problems wouldn't be a thing and I would definitely be out of a job.

Note: i am a care aid, not a doctor, but am provided the same diagnostic and prognosis information as the nurses and therapists responsible for primary care