depression

How do you fight with depression?

gessert wrote:How do you fight with depression?

Depression is something you treat with life style hygiene, medications, diets and if all else fails - brain shocks.

Did you skip therapy on purpose or is it included in "life style hygiene"?

In my experience, fighting depression starts with acknowledging that yes, it is here and no, it isn't going away without help. This took me a year. When finally I was taken to a therapist (wish I could say I "went") she said I need to be medicated first because my state was just too severe. So meds entered, and a while later therapy was added.

This is literally the first time I hear of managing depression with "diets" by the way.

Oliveira wrote:Did you skip therapy on purpose or is it included in "life style hygiene"?

In my experience, fighting depression starts with acknowledging that yes, it is here and no, it isn't going away without help. This took me a year. When finally I was taken to a therapist (wish I could say I "went") she said I need to be medicated first because my state was just too severe. So meds entered, and a while later therapy was added.

This is literally the first time I hear of managing depression with "diets" by the way.

A lot of people feel depressed due to the kind of food they eat. It makes them worse, or better. In some causes, it's actually the cause.
Problems with insulin and/or thyroid hormones can be triggered by the kind of food you eat, and this causes depression. Common amongst overweight people.

Excessive use of stimulant food like caffeine and simple carbohydrates also fuels stress and other changes in the brain. Depressed people usually feel lethargic and like they need more stimulation, but it's actually the other way around, usually - they just never rest properly, so stimulation is bad. Relaxation is good.

And also, an upset GI tract is likely to interfere with mood severely, too (and vice-versa! )
People who can't digest certain foods (like celiacs) often feel depressed. Careful about stuff that is hard to digest, causes allergies/irritability, constipation, etc..

People can also take dietery supplements to treat depression, when they can't get certain nutrients from their diet. Magnesium for example, is a must for any human being to regulate certain nervous system functions. It works very well as a NDMA blocker (very toxic excitatory neurotransmitter quite present amongst depressed people) and regulates mood overall. We humans need to get it from fresh vegetables, mostly, but it's almost all lost by the time they reach our tables.

Increased intake in fatty foods (with a good quality of fat, such as flax seed, olive oil and fish fat) is also beneficial in most cases. Fried stuff is bad, though, as it degrades the fat.

Good to mention, though: Serotonin deficiency, which is common in stressed/depressed individuals, causes a craving for carbohydrates. They hypothesize carbs create a spike on serotonin... But then it comes a small crash afterwards.

Might be a good idea to eat mostly protein during the day, and the save your carbs mostly for the night time. Ensures proper sleep and rest in some. But eating legumes, vegetables, fruits, etc., is best. Some people also swear by dairy. Tryptophan high foods are great.

So yeah, a correct diet, that does not exceed some nutrients and lack others can make a huge difference and it can help reduce medication use.

Many studies point out exercise improves depression. Well, personally, I find that my well being is better with exercise, but not anxiety and stress. I actually feel more stressed when I do cardio too much. My neurologist and psychiatrist say it is because a person actually needs to reach a certain level of athletic performance before the opioid release reaches a beneficial ammount in the brain. Yeah, I'm long ways away from getting a runners high. 30 minutes and I'm beat. Apparently the average person needs 1 hour and a half of cardio to get benefits regarding neurogenesis and opioid release. However, (nor)adrenaline and cortisol can be increased for the first few weeks and then normalized. Again, I never experienced that, just the increase.

/*not anti-psych rant
And I didn't include therapy because I don't think it actually holds evidence against depression. Borderline unethical really to recommend therapy.

I think it's a teaching experience at best (and you can learn all of it faster and better by yourself), or placebo effect. A lot of people seem to enjoy talking to someone, though, and this seems to exert some effect. This is, in my opinion, placebo effect too, so I wouldn't recommend it to everyone.

Also, before recommending anything of the sort I like lifting weights and programming in PHP when I'm stressed. I can't call this therapy and recommend it to people, because it's something I like and works for me, not a sure tried and tested method that can resolve physical depression. This applies to psychotherapy as well, in general, so due to it's randomness, I don't recommend it as first line treatment.


***Actually, funny to mention: EMDR therapy was born when a therapist realized she felt better from anxiety when she moved her eyes, while walking around lost in the woods or something. So A LOT of therapies sprung out os just theories people had and they think it will apply to others as well.

So yeah, I think recommending therapy can be even hazardous considering the therapist might not be competent (or humble) enough to suggest other first-line treatments such as medication.

not anti-psych rant*\


And by life style hygiene I meant some of that, but other stuff crucial to depression, too:

Most depressed people are overstimulated in all the wrong ways, and understimulated in the right things.

Sleeping mainly during night and exposing yourself to sunlight a lot during the day, having moderate physicial activity, avoiding social stressors (obnoxious relatives/people and stressful jobs come in to mind usually), avoiding too many partying, drug intake (alcohol, street drugs, marijuana, etc.), learning breathing exercises so you can correct your autonomic breathing, fixing other health issues, etc..

Depression usually goes away when you just put yourself in a little "life cast" and live like caveman granny for a little while.

But I do believe for severe depession, medication is a must. Even for mild depression, it's what works best. Check with a psychiatrist what kinds of medication work.