Depression and the “what, why and how”

Have you been asking yourself lately what is going on with you?

You don´t feel much of joy anymore, you are lucking appetite (for food and/ or sexual), you are fatigued most of the time, you can´t sleep or you sleep way too much, you don´t feel like talking to anyone and you keep distance from social events, every little thing irritates you, you are constantly angry, you feel like there is no future for you and there is no point in walking this earth. In other words, you feel like you are in a dark hole and everything around you is grey or black.

Well, you might be suffering some type of depression. We have been hearing for decades the theory about the chemical imbalance in our brains that are responsible for depression and we have reached astronomic numbers of people depending on antidepressants and tranquillizers among all ages (especially young people and children). So you might be surprised to hear that this theory, which has brought millions to a Big Pharma, is just that, A THEORY.

The Harvard Medical School acknowledges that while brain chemicals may play a role in your mood, it is not accurate to suggest that one being too high or too low on those chemicals is at the root of depression. They state:

“Research suggests that depression doesn't spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, medications, and medical problems.

It's believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression … There are millions, even billions, of chemical reactions that make up the dynamic system that is responsible for your mood, perceptions, and how you experience life.”

It might be possible that people who are depressed may have an imbalance of certain chemicals in their brain. But to speculate that that imbalance is the cause of their symptoms is overly simplistic. Depression can be trigger by many different types of stressors that can be internal (emotional trauma, mental schemes, etc.) or external (Ambiental pollution, electromagnetic pollution, the food you ingest, heavy metals you are exposed to etc.). Once again, we need to be conscious about the fact that humans are the whole of mind, body and soul affected by the environment they are living in and to find the core of a problem you need to analyse all that in an integrative way and adopt a holistic approach in the treatment.

Depression is a symptom of imbalance in our physical and/or mental being.

It can be a symptom of a hormonal imbalance (low progesterone, estrogen dominance, thyroid problems, etc.), lack of mineral and/ or vitamins (magnesium, B vitamins, D vitamins, Zink, etc.), reaction to some medication, allergic reaction to some food, reaction to a long term pain from an injury or simply an adaptive reaction to a traumatic life event (a loss of loved one, social exclusion, not having a life purpose, economic difficulties, abuse, etc.).

We all get low at some point in our lives. We may lose our sleep, appetite, and may not feel like socializing and meeting people. This behaviour change is a normal humane reaction to a stressful situation and normally goes away in a couple of days.

But if symptoms such as low mood, hopelessness, changes in appetite, sleep patterns, loss of interests in hobbies, anhedonia, feelings of guilt persist for more than 2 weeks, and negatively affect every aspect of our life to the extent of not being able to function socially, domestically and occupationally, then it is no more a normal reaction and you might be suffering clinical depression.

Depression can be recognized via long-term (2 consecutive weeks or more) symptoms. Symptoms of depression include:

• Feeling sad, anxious, or “hollow”

• Feeling hopeless or having a gloomy outlook

• Feeling irritable

• Feeling guilty

• Feeling worthless

• Feeling helpless

• Losing interest or pleasure in things that used to be enjoyable

• Loss of energy

• Feeling tired all the time

• Oversleeping

• Appetite changes

• Weight changes

• Finding it hard to concentrate

• Memory problems

• Moving more slowly

• Talking more slowly

• Feeling restless

• Feeling like you cannot sit still

• Problems making decisions

• Sleeping problems

• Finding it hard to awaken

• Unexplained aches, pains, headaches, or cramps that treatment does not help

• Digestive problems without a physical cause that treatment does not help

• Thoughts of death/suicide

• Suicide attempts

When the heart is disappointed, the soul cries.

So what can you do to get out of the dark tunnel?

First of all, you need to realize that there are solutions and you should not feel ashamed to ask for help. Seek support from loved ones and friends.

Fortunately, there are many alternatives to drugs for treating depression, including nutritional interventions, light therapy, exercise and more, but if you are having thought of suicide you need the seek help from professionals like a counsellor, a holistic psychiatrist or another natural health practitioner who is going to understand and respect the integrative and holistic way of treating your problem. Make sure that you put yourself in the hand of a specialist who is going to make all the necessary clinical testing (Biomarkers of inflammation, metabolism, nutrients, core tests, etc.; check also article "ABC of testing for hormonal balance part 1 and part 2").

You cannot make long-term plans for lifestyle changes when you are in the middle of a crisis. If you’re in a place where you feel you can begin to make positive changes, here are some of the top alternative treatments for depression to consider:

1. Exercise. Those who didn’t exercise were 44 per cent more likely to become depressed compared to those who did so for at least one to two hours a week. (1) But don´t overwork your body and create physical stress (mild walks, especially in nature, mild yoga and stretching, swimming, dancing). Correct your posture (incorporate an expansive posture: straight column, shoulders towards behind).

2. Light therapy. Light therapy alone and placebo were both more effective than Prozac for the treatment of moderate to severe depression in an eight-week-long study. (2)

3. Omega-3 fats, which have been shown to lead to improvements in major depressive disorder. (3) Make sure you're getting enough omega-3s in your diet, either from wild Alaskan salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel and anchovies, or a high-quality animal-based omega-3 supplement.

4. Optimize your vitamin D levels, another factor linked to depression. (4)

5. Magnesium. Magnesium supplements led to improvements in mild-to-moderate depression in adults, with beneficial effects occurring within two weeks of treatment. (5)

6. B vitamins. Low levels of B vitamins are common in patients with depression, while vitamin B supplements have been shown to improve symptoms. (6)

7. Mindfulness and meditation (7) and the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). In a study of 30 moderately to severely depressed college students, the depressed students were given four 90-minute EFT sessions. Students who received EFT showed significantly less depression than the control group when evaluated three weeks later. (8)

8. Cognitive behavioural therapy, which works as well as antidepressants and may reduce your risk of relapse even after it’s stopped. (9)

• Review your thoughts and beliefs, question them and look for realistic options.

• Break the routine and change the air.

• Incorporate pleasurable activities between a week.

• Design your future the way you'd like.

• Focus on what you have and not so much on what you don´t have.

• Respect your uniqueness and leave the comparison. Relax within your being.

• Deal with a big problem breaking it into small ones and try to solve those smaller ones one at a time and organizing them by priorities.

• Learn to say NO (you can´t be a pleaser and not cover your primary needs like eating, sleeping, resting, pleasure etc.).

“Boredom, life-to-life tiredness or lack of sense of life can give way to sadness and even depression”.

9. Find some artistic expression activities:

• Painting

• Singing

• Learning and/ or playing instrument.

• Knitting

• Clay, plastilina modelling, etc.

10. Limit sugar. Those consuming more than 67 grams of sugar per day were 23 percent more likely to develop anxiety or depression over the course of five years than those whose sugar consumption was less than 40 grams per day. (10)

Our lifestyle, the way we interpret reality and the appearance of a trigger event are factors involved in if a person is depressed and continues to be depressed.