Here are a number of things you can do yourself, to improve your depression symptoms:
Keep in mind that often (but not always) there is an underlying cause for your depression. You might not like yourself or aspects of your life. The below advice addresses the symptoms and can reduce them, but if you don't address the causes, it's not likely to go away. That's the whole point of therapy. With professional guidance, figuring out the causes and then addressing them one by one. If you want to skip that step, you'll have to compensate for it somehow. You should review your life and see if there are any obvious causes for your sadness and find ways to remove them or make them more bearable.
For all of the below advice, use technology to your advantage. Take your phone and set repeating alarm clock reminders, with labels of what to do. Train yourself to either snooze or reschedule the reminders if you can't take action right away, but never to ignore them. The intention is to condition yourself, to build habits, so you will start healing yourself without having to think about it.
Sleep: There is a complex relationship between sleep and depression.
Go outside: If you haven't been outside much lately, you might just need some sunlight.
Meditate: Depressions can be significantly reduced by meditating. The best types Of Meditations For Depression Relief.
Exercise: The effect of exercise on depressions If you have access to a gym, then start lifting weights. If you don't have access to a gym (or you don't like lifting), start running. If you can't run, then start walking. Just start small. 10 minutes three times a week is fine. You don't have to run fast, just run and then slowly build it up over time. Exercising does several things: It releases endorphins, it takes your mind of your negative thoughts and it will improve your overall health.
You are not your depression: For some people (often those that have been depressed for a long time), their depression has become a part of who they are and they assume a victim role. But that is a big problem, you have to will yourself into someone that sees themselves as a person that is actively fighting their disease, that no longer identifies with it, or else you will unconsciously obstruct your own healing process. As Eckhart Tolle expressed it in A New Earth (note that this is an internal process, how you view yourself, not how others view you):
A very common role is the one of victim, and the form of attention it seeks is sympathy or pity or others' interest in my problems, "me and my story." Seeing oneself as a victim is an element in many egoic patterns, such as complaining, being offended, outraged, and so on. Of course, once I am identified with a story in which I assigned myself the role of victim, I don't want it to end, and so, as every therapist knows, the ego does not want an end to its "problems" because they are part of its identity.
Jordan Peterson: How To Deal With Depression (50 minutes). Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist, that's specialized in mythology. This is a compilation of several of his lectures focusing specifically on depression (if this resonates, let me know what you need: I can give advice on motivation, purpose, dating, or friends).
Books: These are the highest rated self help books for depression:
Phone Apps: Two popular free apps commonly used that help fighting depressions, are Wysa and MoodTools. These will track your mood, give you advice or even listen to your problems. The most popular meditation app is: Calm - Meditate, Sleep, Relax
There are several active subreddits, where you can post any additional questions you have:
Here are a number of things you can do yourself, to improve your self esteem:
Reading material: These are the most popular books to improve your self esteem:
Read the reviews and decide which one you like most, order the book and just start working through it.
5 hour training video on what you are
Sleep: How Sleep Impacts Your Self-Esteem, a second source: How to Boost Your Self-esteem by Sleeping More.
Exercise: Self Esteem and exercise, a second source: How Does Exercise Affect Your Self-Esteem?.
There exist a large amount of self help articles out there, but many will try to sell you their self help books. Here are a few that don't do that:
Here is some information on what causes self esteem issues, in case you're wondering how you ended up with it.
Finally, there are two subreddits that you can join and where you can ask specific questions to people that have faced the same problems you are facing today:
Low self esteem often causes depression. So it would be a good idea to rule that out as well. Here's a simple test that will help you determine if that's has happened to you (you get the answer directly and it doesn't take more than 5 minutes to take). Answer how you've felt in the last week. Let me know if you scored high on this test and I'll give you advice on how to combat your depression as well.