From your own experiences, what seem to be the most effective ways of dealing with and reducing stress?

For me personally i find the best way to deal with stress is to write, write out (depending on what you feel like) good things, things you're looking foward to or write about the things you are stressed about, make a plan.i also do things like tap my fingers together, close my eyes, breathe and just try to calm down and focus on doing one thing at a time.idk.. i hope that in some way : p

Depression is lifelong, though you can get medication to with it. the difference between sadness and depression is that sadness lasts a little bit, depression last a long time and it goes on and off. people usually get depression through experiences they have been through, or genetics.