Aside from medication, what helps you?

Some of us have opted out of the most common treatment, namely prescribed medications. Could we please share a list of alternatives we've tried that make a positive difference in our lives?

I am on medication for now, for depression and anxiety. My aim is to be off of them in the next year or so, and to make that easier, I'm creating new habits now.

I'm trying (and failing) to eat healthily, consistently, and regularly exercising.

Other things I'm doing include taking my multivits daily (at my doctor's recommendation). Every day, I make myself get out of bed and take care of my body's daily needs, otherwise one bad day can quickly become a lot more. My husband and I give each other lots of hugs and affection every day (which doesn't work for everyone, but does for me).

Saying 'no' is one of the best things I ever learned to do. Reading autobiographies of others who have dealt with similar things to me gives me more ideas on how to deal with my own problems. I have a shelf in my small library devoted to autobiographies and self-help (it used to be more, for some reason I got rid of about half my collection).

I find people to talk to, to compare experiences with, to learn from. I have a therapist, I see a psychiatrist, and I have close friends and family who give me ideas and keep me grounded.

pheonixrise wrote:I am on medication for now, for depression and anxiety. My aim is to be off of them in the next year or so, and to make that easier, I'm creating new habits now.

I'm trying (and failing) to eat healthily, consistently, and regularly exercising.

Other things I'm doing include taking my multivits daily (at my doctor's recommendation). Every day, I make myself get out of bed and take care of my body's daily needs, otherwise one bad day can quickly become a lot more. My husband and I give each other lots of hugs and affection every day (which doesn't work for everyone, but does for me).

Saying 'no' is one of the best things I ever learned to do. Reading autobiographies of others who have dealt with similar things to me gives me more ideas on how to deal with my own problems. I have a shelf in my small library devoted to autobiographies and self-help (it used to be more, for some reason I got rid of about half my collection).

I find people to talk to, to compare experiences with, to learn from. I have a therapist, I see a psychiatrist, and I have close friends and family who give me ideas and keep me grounded.

Pheonixrise, thank you so much for replying.

I'll list a few things that I am doing to help myself. Most of them are the same or similar to what you're doing.

I took myself off medication after a few years of disappointing results and worse; the last medication I took seems to have been the trigger for seizures.

I am eating healthy foods. I've gone back to a largely vegetarian diet with emphasis on fresh vegetables and fruits. I'm also trying to avoid wheat, because of certain correspondences between celiac disease and "bipolar".
http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic ... c-disease/

I got a new "talk therapist" (just had first visit - she is amazing).

I'm trying to be more physically active and although I still isolate myself a lot, I get out of the house fairly regularly even if it's just outside in the back yard.

I meditate a few minutes each day.

I try to remember to breathe, not just shallow breathing, but to engage the whole chest and even the belly.

Can't believe I forgot meditation! That can be so useful. I'll keep in mind the breathing, makes sense that it would help.

pheonixrise wrote:Can't believe I forgot meditation! That can be so useful. I'll keep in mind the breathing, makes sense that it would help.

*nods* About breathing, during the worst depressive crisis I ever had, I basically panted for hours...I could not stop. It was something basic and instinctive, but the "hyperventilation" or panting or gasping, whatever I was doing, was actually the only immediate way I had to make myself feel better. It helped. Otherwise I could not have stood the emotional pain. Until recently, I did not understand that this could have been my body's wisdom, the panting, to help myself rebalance.

Around 80% of all mental problems are caused by caffeinism, which is a state of chronic caffeine poisoning by active caffeine uric acids that can also prevent kidneys from removing them from the body. After years of dependence, the body tissues become saturated by these uric acids and their concentration in the blood begin to rise, giving various health problems that are manifested by genetic and other individual factors as a multitude of mental and physical chronic illnesses.

Daily caffeine ingestion binds uric acids to tissues and they begin to return to the blood circulation after cessation, giving a multitude of abstinence symptoms. (This has been verified by individuals who have followed my advice by stopping caffeine use and measuring their blood uric acid concentration with an inexpensive and simple to use tester.) After I ceased all forms of caffeine, my anxiety and depression levels skyrocketed for 4-5 months together with dementia that made me almost completely unable to read and write or internalizing any knowledge. The positive part was that I started to lose physical symptoms, like muscle stiffness and pain, and had generally a strange feeling of getting better all the time despite the terrible mental symptoms.

My incurable, grave depression, GAD and panic syndrome disappeared in less than a week, some 4-5 months after cessation. After that, they have reappeared always when those damn caffeine acids melt from the tissues to blood circulation. Elevating acid level causes hypertension, sweating of hands and feet and anxiety. When the level is stable and high, it causes hypomania, and finally, when the levels start to sink, comes depression. (I have verified this by measuring my blood uric aid concentration myself.)

I have been without caffeine since Feb. 14, 2008, and I am still cleaning my body from the toxins. Unfortunately for me, I learned how to do it fast and safe just last this year after three years of trial and error. You can read about the fully natural, extremely fast, cheap and safe cure for mental and physical problems at my blog. Median clearing time for depression, anxiety, panics etc is about 1-2 days.

I can guarantee that if you do this cleaning protocol by the book, without slipping, your mental problems will be gone in about 80% of all cases, and alleviated greatly in the rest, and they will stay away after your body is cleaned from all the toxins. To give you some perspective, I suffered from my symptoms from early eighties before I stopped listening to quacks who only push drugs and want to keep you as a paying customer for the rest of your life. Now I feel like under 20 again ... pretty cool as I just turned 57

http://brainlaunderette.blogspot.com/p/ ... dence.html

What helps depends on what the underlying problem(s) are. Dietary changes has helped me quite a bit, as well as nutritional supplements to support mitochondrial function, and melatonin for better sleep. As for a major nutritional factor, you can look up www.truehope.com for micronutrient support. All the research you read from journals on "micronutrients" were done using the Empowerplus supplement fron Truehope. Some I know use more than just melatonin since sleep is so critical and poor sleep can even be a cause of the mood problems or even psychosis and you can read about that on the http://itsnotmental.blogspot.com/ and as for the dietary changes, there is a lot on both the gluten file - www.theglutenfile.com and look up "gluten free and beyond" since other food issues can be involved. You can also take a look at the food sensitivity journal www.foodsensitivityjournal.com

Oh, and I would be remiss to not mention taking care of the gut.

But what is needed with one person may not be needed for another. One person needed to do a CBT workbook in order to get her mind in a right spot to be able to take the dietary steps needed. That's fine. Some do not. And for others, it is hormones that are needed, whether that be thyroid issues or estrogen or progesterone or growth hormone or whatever. But good luck trying to get doctors to take us seriously. Take a look at this one on them not taking responsibility.

The only thing so far that works for my panic attacks is cigarettes, that sounds terrible, but iId rather have a smoke than spend half an hour jumping at shadows I make in my mind.

I'm currently on three medications for my Bipolar Disorder. I fully think that certain conditions need medication but I also agree that other coping mechanisms are just as useful. I do like this thread. I may not have agree with everything you guys have said, but I accept others viewpoints very easily.

Someone mentioned meditation. I do find that very helpful. One of the most calming periods of my life was spent meditating every morning & doing yoga. It really helps to make the mind-body connection & calm the nerves & neurons in the brain. I fully endorse it.

Another thing that helps me is just knowing that other people have my disorder, are going through the same suffering & then, at the end, have triumphed over it. So, I love reading memoirs of people with depression, BPD & Bipolar Disorder.

Faceless wrote:The only thing so far that works for my panic attacks is cigarettes, that sounds terrible, but iId rather have a smoke than spend half an hour jumping at shadows I make in my mind.

My husband is the same. He's now at the point where he'll only get a couple singles at the shops if he's having a bad day, instead of a half pack a day.

qmies wrote:My incurable, grave depression, GAD and panic syndrome disappeared in less than a week, some 4-5 months after cessation.

So glad that you were able to recover fully from all of that with such a simple dietary change! If only that worked for us all.

EarlGreyDregs wrote:Another thing that helps me is just knowing that other people have my disorder, are going through the same suffering & then, at the end, have triumphed over it. So, I love reading memoirs of people with depression, BPD & Bipolar Disorder.

I do this too, but hadn't even thought of it as being part of what helps until now.