How to Heal from Depression
At one time or another, everyone has been depressed. For this reason, it would not seem to be a mysterious malady, but it is. The latest studies on popular antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil indicate that about 50 percent of patients get little or no benefit. These are people with mild to moderate depression, which account for approximately 70 percent of depression cases.
Is there a way to help them and to get millions of other depressed people off the pill?
This is now an urgent question. Doctors keep writing prescriptions, but back in the research lab, the findings are discouraging. It turns out that antidepressants don’t correct imbalanced brain chemistry. And there’s no real proof that the brain chemistry of depressed people is any different that of people who aren’t depressed. All of this is bad news for big pharma, but it opens the way for other approaches. So let’s start from scratch.
If you met a young person with awful table manners, what would you think? It’s natural to suppose that this behavior started in childhood and turned into a habit. What if the same is true for depression? Most patients who complain of depression cannot say when it started. They talk about depression running in the family. This indicates that depression has three components:
1. An early outside cause.
2. A response to that cause.
3. A longstanding habit.
Let’s rid our minds of calling depression a disease, just for a moment. Severe, chronic depression can be approached like other mental disorders. But you aren’t ill if you get depressed after a bad divorce. We commonly say things like “She’s out of her mind with grief” when someone loses a beloved spouse, but grief is natural, and the depression that comes with it is also natural. What this tells me is that depression is a natural response that can go terribly wrong.
The bottom line here is that other people and outside events cannot cause us to be depressed. We allow ourselves to be depressed. If you have a serious chemical imbalance, regular exercise, a healthy diet, and daily meditation can be of great help.
SOURCE:
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-to-Heal-from-Depression
Shiny Happy People
My life experiences are that alcohol origin depression presents as “outward” depression whereas psychotic depression (ie: Robin Williams) is inward and generally undetected to the public. You indicate the solution is from within, but some people just need to be shown the way. A family feels extreme pain when a member takes their life via undetected depression. A terrible loss.
Robin Williams was bi-polar 1 but the alcohol abuse acted as a catalyst for it. Many creative genius types suffer from bi-polar disease. In most cases, the medicine is dismissed in favor of alcohol because the meds reduce the highs of the disease and the alcohol fuses it. The consequences of avoiding the meds and indulging in alcohol and/or other recreational drugs is deadly! As I stated before, diet, meditation and daily exercise help to greatly improve this condition but most importantly you need to clean house. “Cleaning House” means ridding yourself of all of the negative people in your life as their energy is as dangerous as the alcohol! Listen to people when they say “why are you friends with that girl or guy.” They can feel the negative energy and when more than a few people make that comment including your own family=cut the ties immediately. Improving your surroundings=environment is crucial. Living around nature, animals, and enjoying the outdoors is most healthy. The friend factor is key however. Get rid of each and every negative contact regardless of how long you know them. History is what prevented me from doing it for too long. Just end it and you will be so much healthier for it! š
I was affected by Robin Williams’ death as I posted a blog entry on him the night that he killed himself accompanied by “The End” by The Doors. That really freaked me out because I almost never make reference to him.
Silver Linings Playbook