Clinical Depression: Symptoms and Treatment

Hinduism Views on Unhappiness and Clinical Depression

2012-01-22T18:10:00.000-08:00

Hindu Science of Mind and Body

Hindus see physical matter as a manifestation or product of consciousness whereas in modern science, consciousness is a product of the physical brain. This has implications for psychology. A western psychiatrist might look for the cause of depression, and find that in depressed people, particular chemicals in the brain are out of balance. He would therefore conclude that the depression is caused by the imbalance of the brain’s chemicals, and that it can be corrected with medication that will balance those chemicals. The Hindu however would be more inclined to conclude that it is the depression which has caused the chemical imbalance. In order to treat the depression, another cause must be sought. Treating that cause of the depression and alleviating it will then result in the balancing of the chemicals. This does not mean that Hindus would necessarily be opposed to taking prescription medications for depression.

Hindus differentiate between mind and consciousness. The mind is a supersubtle material which is used by the consciousness to perceive physical reality. Mind (manas) is the lowest level of the 3-layered consciousness (citta). The practice of yoga aims to calm the mind, which is otherwise in constant flux, thereby enabling the citta to unite with pure being (sat) and leading to the ultimate bliss (ananda). While the body and mind are instruments of knowledge, they need to be quieted in order to arrive at true knowing. The mind is seen as a mediator between subject and object, and it cannot by itself truly experience the object as it is in itself. Hindu spiritual practices therefore attempt to still the mind to enable true knowledge. It is assumed that the rishis (seers) of the tradition successfully attained that true vision.

How to Fight Depression?

In the article “Hinduism and Depression,” Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami confirms that the most popular method of coping with depression in our modern age is the scientific, or simnif, approach. People take drugs to make themselves feel better. Hinduism doesn’t recommend it. However, Hinduism does not oppose in general the idea of the psychotherapy, admitting that talking to a friend, or especially to a professional counselor can help alleviate depression. This psychological method is called mulif.

Hinduism highlights that the common cultural practices such as singing, dancing and playing a musical instrument are also effective ways of combating depressive state of mind. These activities help lift up the physical and spiritual energies, raising the consciousness and learning to avoid the grosser states of mind—doubt, depression, and discouragement.

The method to cure depression is through meditation is called the shumif approach. As Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami admits, “This is the most advanced method, because the hardest time to meditate is when we’re upset, sad or bothered.” So you have to be really good at meditation to successfully meditate your way to a happier mood.

The main goal is to claim the spiritual happiness that is inside of you. Happiness is already part of your inner self, but you need to learn how to experience that part of yourself that is always happy. Hinduism gives inner ways and outer ways to accomplish this. The monistic or meditative way is to turn within in meditation, go deep into the lotus of the heart and experience your inner self, your inner light, and your spiritual energy. That will make you truly happy.

The theistic way for easing depression is the dimfi, or inner place, perspective. You go to the temple and make offerings to the deities. You come in an unhappy state, receive the blessings and go away uplifted and happy. Why? Because you have connected with our inner self through external worship. Actually, you have connected with the same blissful state that can be achieved through meditation. These are two ways to internalize your awareness, to move your awareness into our spiritual being.

Gurudeva gave you a third way: "If you want to attain happiness, make others happy." That is a wonderful statement. Quite often you are unhappy and depressed because you are self-centered. You are in a selfish state of mind, concerned only about your life, your own problems, and your challenges. "Life is not treating us fairly," you think, so you are unhappy. What's the antidote? Do something for other people. Try to make them happy.

Seven tools for fighting depression and unhappiness:

Refine your consciousness and build self-control through education and cultured activities.
Clear the subconscious of negative memories, reactions and grudges through affirmation, self-reflection and sadhana.
Fill yourself with gratitude for life and for all that you have.
Know that happiness and unhappiness are states of mind. They are not the real you. You are the pure awareness that experiences a state of mind; you are not the state of mind itself.
Learn to change your state of mind in meditation, turning awareness within to your spiritual nature, the radiance within you. Direct awareness through controlled breathing.
Tune into your innate happiness through religious devotion.
Become fulfilled and uplifted by doing things for others.

Healing Mantras for Depression

Mantras are energy-based sounds. It is a mystical power charged with divine Energy which enables us to connect with the nameless, formless, timeless, space less divine Power that can take any form to appear before an earnest devotee, anywhere or at any time. Mantras were originally conceived in the Vedas, India’s oldest and most revered spiritual text. The word "mantra" is derived from two Sanskrit words, "manas" which means “mind” and "trai" which means “to free from”. So the word “mantra” literally implies “to free from the mind".

Research has proved that Mantras when chanted properly with devotion and faith evokes the production and spreading of curative chemicals in the brain. Mantras are said to be helpful in controlling blood pressure, cholesterol levels, adrenalin level and even normalize heart beat rate. Mantras can remove negativeness like fear, anger, jealousy etc and bring in positives like improved concentration and memory power, control over emotions, improved blood circulation and also activate our body’s natural healing processes. Mantra Chanting therefore brings in a calming effect on our Nervous System helping you to relax and be stress free. Mantras can be used to awaken the Kundalini and stimulate the Chakras. They also can be of great help when doing meditation. Mantra meditation, these days, has gained great popularity as a relaxation technique and stress buster.

The following mantras are considering being the most powerful and effective, when you attempt to combat clinical depression. Write down your intentions before starting your mantra the first time. In this case, you may write that you want to feel uplifted, joyful and full of positive energy every day. State exactly what you want the mantras to do for you.

Repeat this specific mantra to heal depression: "Om Bhoginyei Namaha," pronounced "Om Bhoh-geen-yei Nahm-ah-hah." The direct translation is of the Hindu goddess Shakti, "Salutations to the She who has the experience of perpetual bliss."

Another very powerful healing mantra is: "Ra Ma Da Sa, Sa Say So Hung." Use this mantra to heal depression, activate and balance your chakras (the energy centers of your body), and transform your body into a healthy one mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Translation -
Raa- Sun
Maa- Moon
Daa- Earth
Saa- Impersonal infinity
Saa Say- Totally of infinity
So- Personal sense of merger and identity
Hung- The infinite vibrating and real

Repeat your mantras, as often as you wish, silently, out loud or both. Designate 20 to 30 minutes daily to speak or mentally say your mantras, if you desire to. Many spiritual disciplines perform mantras for 40 days although positive results can happen several days earlier.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.pathsofdevotion.com/hinduism/hinduism_science.html

http://www.ehow.com/way_5630051_mantras-cure-depression.html

http://oneyeartoenlightenment.blogspot.com/2010/11/day-17-depression-and-hinduism.html

http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1227

http://anamikas.hubpages.com/hub/Popular-Sanskrit-Mantras-in-Hindu-Religion

Sad Scale for iPhone

2012-01-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

Understanding that you have signs of depression, and not just bad mood, weak character, or individualistic personality, is very important, and that is the first step on the long way to recovery. It is hard to make the first step and develop the objective insight on your own mental state. The application, available on iPhone, will help you to make it. You can screen yourself with several popular questionnaires and get yourself more or less clear picture of your condition. Needless to say, that this application is not a diagnosis, it is just a food for thoughts and may be stimuli to make appointment with the therapist to check your suspicions.

PPD Scale

Major depression affects five percent of the U.S population. It is believed that 10-15% of women will suffer postpartum depression (PPD) after the birth of a baby. PPD can lead to marital tension, suicide, and infanticide. This application contains the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale which is a simple questionnaire that you can take. The advantage of having this test available on your iPhone is that you will be able to test yourself and store the results for your doctor. The results can be emailed. The program will save the last 30 entries.

Zung Self-Rating Depression scale

The Zung depression questionnaire contains 20 questions. This is a widely used screening tool. The user can take the test over and over. It will store your results so that you can share with your physician. The application will only keep track of one patient at a time. The tool should be used in conjunction with your health care provider. Sometimes patients do not realize that they are getting more depressed or having signs of depression. The goal of the application is to raise awareness of this disease and to help patients seek medical care.

Zung scale cannot take the place of a comprehensive clinical interview for confirming a diagnosis of depression. The Zung scale also provides a simple tool for monitoring changes in depression severity over time in research studies.

Geriatric Depression Scale
Geriatric Depression Scale this is a depression scale that has 15 questions and allows the user to keep track of the score and also allows the user to email the results to their healthcare provider.
The main goal is to increase awareness of depression and to have patients seek medical care early.

Based on the initial findings, you have a preliminary data; you can show to your health care provider and ask how you can use this tool as part of your tracking your symptoms. Also, you can take a picture of your graph if you prefer and then email it to your health care provider. In order to take pictures of screens please read instructions on our website.

Please seek professional help if you are worried about depression or would like a full medical evaluation.

Screenshots:

System requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 2.2 or later.

Cost: $0.99

Rating: 3 out of 5

Developers’ website: http://www.deeppocketseries.com/Sad_Scale.html

iTunes site: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id308056730

EFT Clinic for iPhone

2012-01-06T18:11:00.000-08:00

What is EFT?

According to the Report of the Surgeon General on Mental Health “many episodes of depression are associated with some sort of acute or chronic adversity”. Since the 1991 launch of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), EFT founder Gary Craig and his many practitioners have worked with hundreds of people with depression. They too have noticed that depression tends to be a result of “acute or chronic adversity.” In EFT terms, however, this is referred to unresolved emotional issues such as such as trauma, guilt, shame, fear, anger and sadness.

Fortunately, EFT offers great potential for these unresolved emotional issues. You can use it to pull out the emotional roots of your depression … and enjoy your life again. The basics of EFT can be learned by anyone and can be self-applied (usually in minutes).

Described as “emotional acupuncture”, EFT draws from the principles of acupuncture (stimulating the meridian points balances the subtle energies in your body), but instead of using needles, you tap a series of acupuncture points with your fingertips. When your energy system is balanced, the negative emotional responses to past trauma, guilt and anger subside. Without the emotional fuel, depression can’t start its engine.

EFT is a powerful new method based on the discovery that emotional trauma contributes greatly to disease. Scientific studies have shown that EFT is able to rapidly reduce the emotional impact of memories and incidents that trigger emotional distress. Once the distress is reduced or removed, the body can often rebalance itself, and accelerate healing. Here’s how you can experience this for yourself.

You can make enormous strides by introducing EFT into your emotional therapy process (whether you are a professional or a client). Instead of taking months or years using conventional “talk therapy,” EFT often does the job for you cleanly and thoroughly in one or two sessions … and we sometimes achieve noticeable results in a few brief rounds of EFT. We label these near-instant results as “one minute wonders.”

Once you have seen how well EFT clears out emotional debris, your next step is to notice how physical ailments start to fade. Headaches, back pains and other discomforts often tend to improve or vanish as emotional issues improve (this is the essence of Mind Body Medicine). Your vision may become clearer and everyday stress may take lower toll on your system.

While EFT is considered as very promising approach of alternative depression treatment, do not consider it as a full valid replacement for traditional therapy and anti-depressants, prescribed by your physician.

EFT Clinic Overview

EFT Clinic is the first quality iphone application that brings the unique healing properties of EFT onto your iphone or ipad. For those new to the technique, EFT Clinic guides you gently through the process of learning EFT with a combination of text, diagrams and video.

Free yourself from difficult emotions wherever you are, be it stress or anxiety, depression, low self esteem, weight loss and much much more. You can even use EFT Clinic to help you stop smoking or tackle insomnia.

EFT Clinic is presented by Sue Beer, co founder of the iEFT centre in London and one of the first certified EFT Masters certified by Gary Craig, the founder of EFT.

There are five sections in the app – Get Started, Learn More, About Us, Free Stuff and Settings.

In the Get Started section, you can learn all the basics of EFT. This section is great for total beginners as well as those who want to brush up on their EFT skills. The information is presented in easy to read, bite size portions, with video accompaniments and diagrams where necessary.

You can broaden your knowledge of EFT in the Learn More section. The information here is divided into two parts – Freedom From and Advanced Techniques. The Freedom From videos will help you with specific issues, such as stopping smoking or losing weight. The Advanced Techniques will teach you some of the therapists tricks of EFT. These videos are great for those who really want to understand the power of this breakthrough technology.

Note that while the main app is free for all, the videos in this section are chargeable.

In the Free Stuff section, you can sign up to receive our free EFT reports, such as ‘How to Tap’ and “When to go and see and EFT practitioner”.

Once downloaded, all the content on EFT Clinic is contained on your mobile device. You’ll not need an internet connection to harness the amazing learning potential of this application.

Cost: Free

System Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Developers’ website: http://www.eftapp.com/

iTunes site: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/eft-clinic/id399742383?mt=8

How to consult with your iPhone if you have depression?

2011-12-29T16:39:00.000-08:00

This year, Ezvid Inc. has released the "Do I Have Depression?" application. This application is a psychological questionnaire and basic analysis system for non-medical use only. "Do I Have Depression?" addresses concerns many people may have of themselves and their friends and loved ones. The app will help to distinguish if the medical condition can be determined as clinical depression, or it can be considered as normal mood fluctuations.

Please be sure not to perceive this application as replacement for professional care. It is definitely NOT. If you feel that your personal, or your loved one medical condition is somehow out of the ordinary, please consult with professional therapist. And this app might just help you to make up your mind and turn to the doctor for psychological assistance.

The application asks the user a set of 34 questions based on a rubric developed by clinical professionals, on topics ranging from sleep disturbance, mood destabilization and interpersonal relationships, to eating habits, work productivity, and more.

The questions are the same as those commonly found on accepted psychological questionnaires based on research and used by mental health professionals. As the website suggests, it can be useful to take the test once a week for a while to establish consistency, but it’s worth repeating that if you believe you are suffering from depression, it’s best to walk away from this app and seek help from professional resources.

You cannot imagine of how many people suffer symptoms of depression, but yet they are often unaware of the implications of their symptoms. Sometimes, the cultural, gender, or religious considerations prevent them from accepting that, and consequently, the medical treatment comes too late to make the substantial improvement to the health and wellbeing. Years and years are lost in blues, while the normal life is passing by.

Usage of this application on a sustained basis for at least 6 weeks, when paired with proper note-taking, will shed light on self-diagnosed feelings of sadness, sorrow, worry, guilt, and hopelessness. This is a comprehensive self-test application, however it is not a medical device, so do not rely solely on the outcomes for making decision to seek medical assistance.

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
* Requires iOS 3.0 or later
* Available for $.99 from the iTunes Store.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://prmac.com/release-id-31297.htm

http://www.chipchick.com/2011/09/depression-iphone.html

Mym3 – Validated Depression and Anxiety Monitor on iPhone

2011-12-11T20:49:00.000-08:00

Mym3 is checklist that allows you to screen yourself for potential depression and anxiety symptoms including bipolar and PTSD. You can then have a personalized report shared with you about how your depression is affecting you. This checklist is like a progress report to see how well you’re coping over time.

This mobile version of the checklist is adapted from M-3 Information's existing mymoodmonitor.com Web site. It provides the same, scientifically validated, mental health questionnaire, optimized for smart phones.

There is a very important feature, potential life saver - for people in deep distress and at risk of suicide, mym3 provides a direct, one-button link to call a national suicide hotline.

Interactive applications of this sort, offering users validated medical assessment and feedback in real-time, has the potential to greatly improve the dynamics of healthcare delivery for individuals who might otherwise suffer in silence. The value of this technology to college and military populations, among others, is considerable.

The "mym3 app" is available to iPhone (telephone and data) and iTouch (data only) users through the Apple iTunes applications store, where it is for sale for $2.99. M-3 Information contributes a portion of the proceeds to Mental Health America.

Main Purpose of M-3 Checklist

The M3 website encourages individuals to complete the M3 Screen, a private, self-rated checklist for potential mood and anxiety symptoms. The checklist responses trigger a feedback page indicating each individual’s relative risk for Depression, an Anxiety Disorder, Bipolar Disorder and PTSD. The Screen responses and the resulting M3 analysis of risk may be printed, emailed, or securely accessed online by a designated health care professional, all at the discretion of the user.

The information provided by the M3 expedites and organizes a discussion between doctor and patient of relevant mental health issues at their next office visit, helping to direct the clinician toward a more accurate diagnosis. By providing parallel educational material for patients, the M3 encourages compliance and long-range follow-up of progress.

The M3 is not designed to diagnose illness on its own. Rather, it is meant to elicit symptoms that may indicate a psychiatric illness. Physicians must use the symptoms checklist responses and the risk assessment provided as a basis for formulating a diagnosis and treatment. The M3 website does provide physicians with supplemental information that guides them through this formulation, including relevant follow-up questions to ask. A medication overview chart clearly matches the choices of medications with the symptoms the drugs are intended to treat. There is an outline of each drug’s side effects and potentially harmful drug interactions. Based on this information, doctors can readily determine the most appropriate medication.

How Often?

If you are under ongoing medical or therapeutic treatment, you may need to monitor your progress. Once a treatment has begun, whether psychotherapy or medication, it is recommended to record your progress on a weekly basis for the first month, biweekly for months 2 and 3, and monthly thereafter. Checking in weekly for the entire duration of your therapy will certainly do no harm, but M3 does not endorse monitoring your symptoms more often than once a week.

M-3 Checklist Validation

Since the publication of the validation article in March, 2010 the M-3 Checklist has been taken by people in over 120 countries and all 50 states. The M-3 Checklist was validated in a study performed at the University of North Carolina and reported in the March 2010 issue of the Annals of Family Medicine. The study was based on the responses of 647 patients at the University of North Carolina Family Practice Medicine Clinic. Patients can track their M3 score on Microsoft HealthVault via mymoodmonitor.com

About M-3 Information, LLC

The M3 was developed by a team of mental health, strategic communications, and information management experts, including Robert M. Post, MD, head of the Bipolar Collaborative Network; Bernard M. Snyder, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University and a cognitive behavioral therapist; Michael L. Byer, director of M-3 Information; Larry Culpepper, MD, family practice program at Boston University; Gerald Hurowitz, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and a clinical psychopharmacologist. The free and private screener is available at www.mymoodmonitor.com and is independently funded by M-3 Information without pharmaceutical industry support.

iTunes Program Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mym3/id366238553?mt=8

6 Breathing Therapy Exercises for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Relief

2011-12-03T00:26:00.001-08:00

How Therapeutic Breathing Might Help with Depression and Stress?

When you are feeling tense and your mood is low, your breathing probably will be very shallow and constricted. Shallow breathing can invoke an emotional imbalance. Shallow breathing causes an inadequate supply of oxygen in the blood. Deep breathing will allow you to substantially increase the oxygen supply to your body and brain.

By deepening your breath and keeping the rhythm consistent, you increase the amount of oxygen that is reaching your lungs, blood, organs, and cells. This oxygen, of course, is vital for your physiological systems to operate properly. Deep breathing also relaxes your body and mind so that you can examine your negative thoughts and replace them with more positive ones.

Some of the most popular, healthy breathing practices stem from tai chi, qi gong and yoga. But care should be taken when performing deep breathing exercises, as doing deep-breathing exercises in an incorrect manner can have adverse effects on the body.

Generally, most of us breathe in an improper way and we get used to shallow breathing. This is harmful for the health as carbon dioxide may be ejected too quickly and the nervous system be over-stimulated. Kind of like have your car engine run at 5,000-10,000 revolutions per minute while standing a stop sign. When the slower, deeper, more relaxed breathing works in a smooth and flowing manner, it superbly affects the respiratory system as well as the nervous system and triggers the reflexive breathing’s relaxation response (also known as the parasympathetic response) bringing more calm and potential tranquility to life.

Under extreme or long-term conditions of anxiety and nervousness, the sympathetic nervous system can be harmed. Most of us don’t know that persistent stress results in a depletion of nutrients and brings in mental instability. Here, the parasympathetic nervous system comes to the rescue and helps neutralize this harmful mechanism. Through the practice of these deep breathing exercises, the nervous system can be brought into balance in a timelier manner.

Most of us fail to follow our commitment toward exercising and following other healthy routines. But one thing that can easily be put into practice is breathing deeply and repeatedly. Make it a point to incorporate deep but grounded breaths in your regular routines. It has even been proven scientifically that doing proper deep breathing exercises is capable of managing depression, blood pressure stress, nervousness, and trauma recovery. It has been noted often that when these properly balanced deep-breathing techniques were incorporated with traditional medical treatments, these treatments worked more effectively.

When a person does not have a healthy breathing pattern, they either do not take in enough oxygen or do not expel enough carbon dioxide; or they shallow breathe and try to compensate by high-chest breathing that invites vasoconstriction and keeps the CO2 levels too low. These in turn lead to mental fog, exhaustion, and diminished tissue function.

Register your Breathe

Before you can address your breathing habits, you need to become aware of them. Stop and take a moment to listen and observe your breathing. Are you taking long, slow breaths? Or, are you breathing in a short and almost rushed manner? Do you breathe mostly in the upper part of your chest, or does your belly move in a deep rhythmical motion with each breath?

When our breathing is short and shallow in nature, and mostly located in the upper part of our chest, it's the type of breathe associated with the fight or flight response. When we breathe in this way, we are inadvertently signaling to our body that it is being threatened. And, the natural response of the body to such stimuli is to increase stress and anxiety levels.

Breathing Exercises

There are multiple researches and approaches on how to let your breathing to improve your mood, release your stress and anxiety, and allow functioning better in daily life. We will provide several examples of the exercises, which are easy to follow and do not require special knowledge, techniques, or physical training. Read each description carefully, and note all the requirements to the fine details. Try to follow the guidelines as close as possible for best results. Be patient, and do not expect magic results immediately, as your body might need time to accept the instructions. Be patient and persistent, and you will definitely see positive results in your well-being.

Exercise 1: To become aware of your breathing pattern

The following exercise will enable you to become more aware of your own breathing pattern:

1. Lie on the floor in a corpse pose in a quiet place. Lie down on your back with your legs straight and slightly apart, your arms at your sides and not touching your body, palms up, and eyes closed.

2. Focus your attention on your breathing.

3. Place your hand on your body where it rises and falls. If this spot is on your chest, your breathing is too shallow and you're not fully using your lungs.

4. Place your hands on your abdomen and feel how it rises and falls. Does your chest move with your abdomen? If not, focus on allowing them to rise and fall together.

5. Concentrate on breathing deeply through your nose, filling your entire lungs so that your chest and abdomen rise and fall with each breath.

6. As you breathe, check your body for tension. If you discover any part of your body under tension, concentrate on those tight or rigid muscles and let the tension flow away.

By practicing this exercise, you will become more aware of your breathing patterns and habits.

Exercise 2: To deepen your breathing

1. Lie down on the floor with your knees bent and feet apart. Your back should be flat on the floor.

2. Mentally examine each part of your body. Is there any tension in any part of your body? If yes, let it flow away.

3. Rest one hand on your stomach and the other hand on your chest.

4. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, taking the breath into your stomach so that your hand feels it rise. Your chest should move slightly along with your abdomen.

5. Practice step 4 until it feels comfortable to be breathing air into your abdomen. Once you achieve this comfort, inhale deeply and then blow the air out gently through your mouth.

6. Deep-breathe for five to ten minutes once or twice each day.

After you have become comfortable with this technique, you can practice the exercise for up to twenty minutes at a time, whenever you feel the need to relax and focus your energy.

Exercise 3: To combat depression

A simple, effective technique for combating mild depression is to increase the depth of your breathing. Close your eyes and focus your full attention on breathing deeply. This relaxes your body and will open your mind to experience positive thoughts and creative images. If you increase the depth of your breath so that you are taking no more than four breaths a minute, within five minutes this exercise will change the way you feel. Try it.

Exercise 4: To let go of your depression and feel energized

This exercise lets you to get rid of your depression and feel energized.

1. Sit on a chair with your back straight and feet flat on the floor.

2. Reach straight up with both hands.

3. Inhale deeply. Hold your breath and while holding your breath, squeeze your fists so that the muscles in your arms tighten.

4. Exhale slowly. Keeping your arms tense, lower your fists to your chest, as if you're pulling down on rubber bands.

5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 a few times.

6. On the final repetition, cross your arms over your chest. Rest your fingers on the upper outside spots of your chest, with your wrists crossed in the middle.

7. Drop your chin to your chest.

8. Inhale four short breaths without exhaling.

9. Hold your breath.

10. Exhale slowly through your mouth.

Repeat steps 8-10 for a few minutes, concentrating on the rhythm of your breath.

Exercise 5: To relieve anxiety

This is a skill that must be practiced. Try this daily for 10-20 minutes as well as during periods of anxiety.

1. Place one hand on your upper abdomen, right below your right cage.

2. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose into the “bottom” of your lungs.

3. Pause for a moment, and then exhale slowly.

4. Take 10 slow abdominal breaths, keeping your breaths smooth and regular. It may help to slow your breathing by counting to four (1 – 2 – 3 – 4) as you exhale. Pause briefly at the end of each inhalation and exhalation. If you begin to feel lightheaded, take a 20 second break before resuming your breathing exercise.

5. Five minutes of abdominal breathing done correctly will have a profound effect on reducing anxiety and early symptoms of panic.

Exercise 6: To relax and relieve your stress

The following exercise requires a partner and is effective in relaxing and energizing you.

1. Lie on your back. Have your partner put one hand on your abdomen and one hand on your chest.

2. Inhale and exhale as in deep, relaxed breathing, but each inhale is taken in two stages abdomen, then chest. Imagine that you are breathing into your partner's hand as you fill your belly with air. When your abdomen feels full, continue breathing into your chest. Watch your partner's hands as it rises.

3. Exhale fully through the chest and belly simultaneously.

4. Repeat. It is important to keep a rhythmic rolling effect between abdomen and chest. Breathe at your natural pace, however.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.holisticonline.com/remedies/depression/dep_breathing.htm

http://www.yogatherapyweb.com/yoga-for-depression-and-anxiety/natural-ways-combat-depression/yoga-breathing-for-depression-and-str

http://www.psychiatry.msu.edu/CBT%20Worksheets.pdf

http://www.breathing-exercises.com/Deep_breathing.html

http://www.coedu.usf.edu/zalaquett/help_screens/breath.htm

Cold Showers as efficient therapy for depression

2011-11-20T23:32:00.001-08:00

Depression can be a really devastating psychological disease, and treatments may range from antidepressants with substantial side effects to electric shock therapy for critical patients conditions, resent researches suggest that a simple cold shower might sometimes cure, and even prevent, debilitating mood disorders.

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine Research

As the name implies, cold showers therapy is done by subjecting the patient body to cold temperatures of the running water, creating a physiological response in the body and subsequently the brain. A recent study at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine established that depressed patients who were treated with cold showers showed a significant improvement in mood.

The treatments consisted of cold showers that were 20°C for 2 to 3 minutes, performed once or twice daily over several months. The evidence suggested that exposure to cold activates the sympathetic nervous system, increases the blood level of beta-endorphin and noradrenaline, and increases synaptic release of noradrenaline in the brain. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, the cold shower sent electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, which resulted in the anti-depressive effect.

How it works?

Cold therapy helps with depression by creating the same type of physiological stressors that have been experienced by primates through millions of years of evolution, such as brief changes in body temperature produced by a cold swim. It’s theorized that lack of this type of thermal exercise may impede adequate functioning of the brain.

As the temperature of a human body drops below the level required for health, various reactions occur to protect the core--that is, the abdominal organs and brain--from damage, even at the expense of the extremities. The brain is literally insulated against extreme cold, and it will begin to suffer symptoms of damage only at the point of advanced hypothermia, long after muscular symptoms such as shivering first appear. This assumes that the core temperature is not dropping very rapidly, as when a person is submerged in cold water.

The average healthy temperature of a human body is 36.1 to 37.5° C, or 96.9 to 99.5° F. Hypothermia is defined as any temperature below 35° C or 96° F. This is the beginning of stage 1 hypothermia. Brain function becomes noticeably impaired only during stage 2, which begins at around 33°C or 93°F. The person may exhibit confusion. Many of the symptoms, which may appear as potentially neurological (including lack of coordination, stumbling and labored speech) are in fact muscular in nature. As part of the body's effort to protect the internal organs, the vasomotor response constricts blood vessels in and near the skin. Consequently, the individual’s hands, face, and legs lose function, although the brain is largely unaffected.

Temperature jolts to brain may have a similar effect as the phenomenon of homeopathy, whereby small doses of something harmful may actually promote healing by stimulating the body’s repair and recovery systems. Electric shock and deep brain stimulation treatments operate on a somewhat similar principal, only with frightening potential side effects, such as memory loss and cognitive impairment.

The study's author, Nikolai Shevchuk, believes the biological explanation revolves around a part of the brainstem known, appropriately enough, as the locus ceruleus, or "blue spot."

"The possible antidepressant effect may also have to do with the mild electroshock delivered to the brain by a cold shower, because of the unusually high density of cold receptors in the skin," he added, explaining that these nerve endings are 3-10 times higher in density than those registering warmth.

Shevchuk proposes that depression may be caused by two factors. The first is a genetic makeup that predisposes an individual to the disorder. Prior research has documented that depression can run in families, but since some sufferers report no prior family history and many people develop depression later in life, genes don't appear to explain all cases. He suspects a lifestyle lacking sufficient physiological stress, such as brief changes in body temperature, may also be a contributing factor.

Kundalini Yoga Viewpoint

Interesting enough, that the new findings of the Western researchers support the recommendations, which have been practiced for long by Eastern practitioners. Gurudev Khar Khalsa, a Sat Nam Rasayan healer and Kundalini Yoga teacher confirms that cold showers can be very efficient tool to combat, and even prevent depression.

Cold showers have the following positive effects:

* Brings blood to the capillaries, therefore increasing circulation throughout the body.

* Cleans the circulatory system.

* Reduces blood pressure on internal organs.

* Provides flushing for the organs and provides a new supply of blood.

* Strengthens the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.

* Contracts the muscles to eliminate toxins and poisonous wastes.

* Strengthens the mucous membranes, which help resist hay fever, allergies, colds, coughs.

Many health problems are reduced or even eliminated over time by providing proper circulation of the blood to the affected area using the cold shower massage.

"Ishnan" is the term used in the old days when people in India referred to cold showers (very cold showers). "Ishnan" is the point at which the body, by its own virtue, creates the temperature that it can beat off the coldness of the water. This happens when the capillaries open with the onset of the cold water. They close again during the course of the cold shower and it is at that point that all the blood rushes back to flush the organs and the glands. This process allows the glands to renew their secretions and "youth" (i.e. young glands) again returns to the body."

Cold shower guidelines and restrictions

The proposed treatment procedure would last several weeks to several months. It would consist of one or two cold showers a day at 20 ° C (68 ° F) for 2 to 3 minutes, proceeded by a 5 minute gradual adaptation to lessen the shock.
Many practitioners recommend 2 or more cold showers a day. This is particularly essential if you are working on shifting a physical or emotional problem. The majority recommend at least 3 a day. First thing in the morning, when you get home from work and before you go to bed. Other therapists suggest that for some people cold shower and other water procedures y not be suitable immediately before bedtime and just after awakening. For these people, they are commended during the day, when the body is active. The reason is that cold water quickly affects the central nervous system, eliminating fatigue so these people will have difficulties to fall asleep.
Shower in cold water until your body temperature rises and no longer feels cold, but toasty and warm. Make sure the bathroom is heated. Never get out of a cold shower into a cold room.
If you find it difficult to start with the recommended procedure, start small and gradually work up to the recommended procedure duration of 2 minutes. Start with 15 – 30 seconds, and begin with your feet then move to your knees and legs. Gradually introduce the cold water to all parts of your body. Some practitioners say it’s not absolutely necessary to get your head wet, just your face and back of neck (an important energy location).
Little and often is far more effective than eight minutes at once. Be mindful if you are feeling weak, listen to your body and start with small steps.
Cold showers should not be taken during a women's time of menstruation. A woman needs extra rest and gentleness during her menses. Taking a cold shower is too much for the reproductive system during menstruation. Also, cold showers are not recommended for women after the 7-th month of pregnancy.
Cold showers are not recommended for men immediately after ejaculation. At the moment, the male body is focused on making new sperm cells and semen, so cold showers can be a bit too stressful.
One more potential restriction is related to the people with eating disorders and substantially underweight. This usually goes along with having a low body temperature and a general metabolic weakness which might prevent your body from generating enough heat to withstand the cold temperatures.
Cold showers may be dangerous immediately after a vigorous workout. It is better to start with hot and finish with cold to avoid muscle cramping.
If you use contrast shower (cold-warm-cold-warm…), always finish with cold water.

Some history

In the 1820s, a German farmer named Vincenz Priessnitz started touting a new medical treatment called “hydrotherapy,” which used cold water to cure everything from broken bones to erectile dysfunction. He turned his family’s homestead into a sanitarium, and patients flocked to it in the hope that his cold water cure could help them. Among his clientele were dukes, duchesses, counts, countesses, and a few princesses to boot.

Priessnitz’s hydrotherapy soon spread to the rest of Europe and eventually to the United States. Celebrities and other famous folks took to it, like, well, a duck to water and helped popularize the cold water cure with the masses. For example, Charles Darwin was a huge proponent of hydrotherapy. The first hydrotherapy facility opened up in the U.S in 1843, right when the sanitarium craze hit America. By the end of the 19th century, over 200 hydrotherapy/sanitarium resorts existed in the U.S., the most famous being the Battle Creek Sanitarium founded by John Harvey Kellogg.

The popularity of hydrotherapy began to decline in the 20th century as many in the medical field moved to drugs to treat illnesses. As doctors concentrated on conventional medicine, more holistic methods began to be seen as quackery. While hydrotherapy was prescribed less and less to cure illnesses, doctors continued to use it to treat injuries such as strained muscles and broken bones. You’ll find athletes today taking ice baths to speed their recovery from injuries and intense workouts.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.randifredricks.com/randi/art/cold.cfm

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/18/depression-cold-shower.html

http://www.cold-showers.com/alleviate-depression/

http://earthclinic.com/Remedies/showers.html

http://thehealthylivinglounge.com/2010/02/15/12-essential-reasons-to-take-cold-showers/

http://www.secrets-of-longevity-in-humans.com/cold-showers.html

http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/18/the-james-bond-shower-a-shot-of-cold-water-for-health-and-vitality/

Kissing Therapy for Depression

2011-11-11T22:49:00.001-08:00

What is Kiss?

Everyone knows that kissing is good for your well-being, for your mood, and for your health. That is not one more urban myth but scientifically proven reality. But, let’s start from the basics. According to Wikipedia, a kiss is the act of pressing one's lips against the lips or other body parts of another or of an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, affection, respect, greeting, friendship, and good luck, among many others. In some situations a kiss is a ritual, formal or symbolic gesture indicating devotion, respect or greeting, as in the case of a bride and groom kissing at the conclusion of a wedding ceremony or national leaders kissing each other in greeting, and in many other situations.

Physiology of Kissing

Adrianne Blue’s 1997 book “On Kissing” outlines the physiology of kissing. Kissing is a highly coordinated exercise. You lean in, tilt your head to avoid a nose collision, and the muscles in your shoulder, neck and back are called into play as the brain’s motor center gears itself to the delicate task of steering the lips and tongue. Your lips are loaded with nerve endings, and as your mouth meets your partner’s, impulses fire through your neural network. Your brain tells your lungs to work harder, your heart to beat faster, your salivary glands to pump moisture into your mouth. Your jaw, the one movable bone in the human skull, hinges open as you extend your tongue.

Then, as tongues touch, neural signals go zipping along your spine, to your pancreas, your adrenal glands and pelvic nerve. Your arteries and veins dilate — your heart rate shoots up, maybe doubles. Your lips swell, and you get that pleasant tingling sensation in your private parts. The blood rushing to your skin’s surface makes you feel fevered, your face flushed. You may begin to sweat.

This ritual is what anthropologists call pre-copulatory activity, what sex manuals call foreplay and what Marvin Gaye calls getting it on. And getting it on is good for your health. In his book “Superimmunity,” Dr. Paul Pearsall says that sex in the context of a loving relationship boosts chemicals in your body that protect against disease. Doctors believe that physical touch itself boosts levels of the hormone oxytocin. Among other things, oxytocin boosts feelings of affection and promotes caretaking behavior, and synthetic oxytocin has been used to treat depression.

Therapeutic Effects of Kissing

From an aerobic standpoint, kissing is a workout: According to the 1991 Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex, a passionate kiss burns 6.4 calories per minute. (This compares to 11.2 calories per minute you burn jogging on a treadmill.) It takes only two muscles to purse your lips into a simple pucker, but a serious French kiss activates all 34 of your facial muscles, and the highest level of serious making out, properly done, engages every muscle and tendon in your body.

Kissing can slow the aging process — it tones your jaw and cheek muscles, reducing sagging. That extra saliva washes bacteria off your teeth, which can help break down oral plaque and prevent tooth decay, says Mathew Messina, DDS, a private practice dentist in Fairview Park, Ohio, and consumer advisor for the American Dental Association. "Still, I would not go around advocating kissing after meals instead of brushing," he says.

"Kissing is an exciting excursion into the sensual," says Joy Davidson, PhD, psychologist and clinical sexologist in Seattle. "If we happen to be connecting with someone we care about, it produces a sense of well-being and a kind of full-bodied pleasure." Kissing is also "a sensual meditation," she says. "It stops the buzz in your mind, it quells anxiety, and it heightens the experience of being present in the moment. It actually produces a lot of the physiological changes that meditation produces."

Kissing is a great stress-buster as it signals our brain to produce oxytocin, which makes us feel all warm and fuzzy, and the near-smile position of our mouth tricks our brain into feeling happy. Of course, if you're kissing someone, chances are you're in a good mood already. If we close our eyes and breathe deeply it relaxes us and if we are really excited, our hearts pump, pulses race, and we get a shot of adrenaline. The more intense the kiss, the more endorphins produced to make us feel good.

There are powerful proteins and protective bacteria in saliva that make it a natural antiseptic. New evidence suggests that these proteins even destroy HIV. Animals lick their wounds because saliva has healing qualities and acts like an antibiotic. When we swap spit with someone, we swap some of these healthy antibodies, increasing our immune systems. Kissing prevents the formation of the stress hormones, glucocorticoids, which are responsible for high blood pressure. Regular kissing has also been shown to lower blood pressure by maintaining stabilized cardiovascular activity, and lower cholesterol by production of antioxidants. Frequent kissers are less likely to suffer blood, bladder, and stomach problems. Weakening muscles and insomnia seem less likely as well. A study in Japan revealed that thirty minutes of intense kissing can relieve sneezing and sniffling, caused by allergies, by slowing down histamine production. Kissing is also supposed to cure hiccups.

Beyond the health benefits of the sexual kiss, the therapeutic power of a Platonic or familial kiss — its healing magic — can be traced to the accident-prone days of childhood. When you fell down and skinned your knee, when you pinched your fingers in the door jamb, when some schoolyard blooper launched you into a new realm of pain and humiliation — when you hurt yourself as a child, what did your mother do? She kissed the hurt away.

The chaste, nurturing kisses between parent and child build lifelong trust. “Kissing the pain away creates an emotional tie between mother and child that eases the suffering,” says Dr. Hyman Tolmas, clinical professor of pediatrics emeritus at Tulane University School of Medicine. “It’s better than medication at times. Everybody wants to be loved. It builds self-esteem.” He believes that children who have parental love demonstrated to them early on “grow up to be good parents themselves.”

Dr. Seth Prosterman, a clinical sexologist in San Francisco, agrees: “The displays of affection that parents do in front of their children are important as modeling. Family hugs, kisses — its all part of the nurturing that makes you feel secure.” And between romantic adults, says Prosterman, “Kissing is powerful in many different ways. A kiss can be healing, nurturing, bonding. All those psychological benefits translate into feeling healthier physically.”

According to Helen Friedman, a clinical psychologist in St. Louis, frequent kissing can lead to holistic healing. “The social support of a kiss is a buffer against stress — pain, too,” she says. “This showing of affection is a way to bond. And the need for human bonding is as basic as the need for food.”

That’s a uniquely fitting metaphor — the kiss as soul food — because anthropologists believe the custom of kissing originated in humans when cave-dwelling mothers would transfer food from their own mouths to their babies’ mouths, like birds, and adults learned to mimic the act.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss

http://www.salon.com/2000/02/14/kissing_2/

http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/features/kissing-benefits

http://www.helium.com/items/569436-the-health-benefits-of-kissing

http://benefitof.net/benefits-of-kissing/

Taoist Views on Depression

2011-11-03T23:04:00.000-07:00

Taoism was founded by Lao Tzu. He created this philosophy so that people can be deeply related to the nature or his surroundings. It refers to the power which envelopes surroundings; all things living and non-living. Some of his teachings and quotations are:

- " Be still like a mountain and flow like a river" = means that we, people, should go with the flow. And that is also one of the main teachings of Taoism.

- " There would be no love without hate, no light without dark and no male without female." = means that for every thing (whether living or non-living), there is always an opposite side or part of it. That belief is also called the Yin-Yang.

Depression, in the Taoist view, can be looked at in 4 levels of depth:

Spiritual,
Mental,
Emotional and
Physical.

At any level, depression is an inner conflict of an individual. Spiritual depression is not a health problem and medical science cannot deal with it. The other three types can be helped by various healing arts, because they are all connected to chemical and body energy imbalances.

In the simplest way of understanding, depression is an emotional conflict with the logical mind and physical/chemical hormonal balances of the body. There is a good chance that if you can logically and completely solve your own inner conflicts emotional and/or chemical imbalance can be significantly improved or even normalized.

In the most cases, depression is involved with hormonal imbalance, usually between the pancreas and adrenal glands. These glands can simulate emotions as physical and behavioral patterns. The brain can also secrete hormones to govern the emotions.

Note that in some cases, if you know why you are feeling depressed, it is harder for you on to work on your hormonal chemical balances. If you do not know why you are depressed, it may be easier to alter your condition with antidepressants, at least on the behavioral level. That may be related to unsteady blood glucose level, causing frequent anxiety. The former case is an energy condition of so called ‘broken heart’, or ‘Closed Heart Chakra’. The Heart Chakra is the bridge between the upper and middle Tan Tien.

Among the seven Chakras, the fourth Heart Chakra is the center that has the role of connecting mind and physical body. The Heart Chakra works like the fourth dimension (Time dimension). It allows the Mind (5-th dimension), the Spirit (6-th dimension) and the God (7-th dimension) to connect with the physical body.

Having a broken heart means, that the person is having difficulty harmonizing two existence’s of self, the mind (spiritual existence) and body (physical existence, the reality). The body will only manifest what goes on in the mind. As your mind is moved, according to the brain, hormones are released to physically express the feeling, in other words, emotion. Even if we assume that hormones alter your mood, the natural order of feeling is led by brain’s logical process, and only then hormones are released from the brain itself and other glands.

In order to deliver the logical (mental) stimulation to the endocrine system, the Heart Chakra has to evoke and distribute the energy stimulation by resonating. For example, a physically perfect person can logically determine that he/she is happy, but he/she might not feel that way and no glandular/hormone response is achieved. Another common example is in the statement saying that the brain is the most important sexual organ. Here, the brain includes both the feeling mind and logical decision making mind. The feeling mind does not come from hormonal emotion. It is the feeling before the emotion triggered/reinforced by hormones. It is the same energy the Heart Chakra resonates. In the Taoist spiritual teaching, the Heart Chakra is the center of feeling, love; not the Eros, but the logos.

Having the Heart Chakra functional means no conflict of mind or no miscommunication between mind and body. The body cannot fool the mind, or the mind cannot fool the body. When the mind is in harmony and when body and mind is in harmony, there can be no emotional conflict caused by hormone imbalance. The precise emotional manifestation supported by the glandular system is always voluntary and conscious, and they are the home work for us to get spiritual; they are not the conflicting or blinding factor with unknown cause.

The Heart Chakra can evoke proper hormone balance at once. In short, an individual with full functional Heart (Chakra) cannot be depressed in the true sense.

Historically, the effort of helping depression has always been either by psychological or chemical treatment. Often, one finds self in a deep spiritual escape route that eventually crashes for lack of a foundation, (accepting or understanding of the multi-dimensional existence of self).

By organizing the Eight Psychic Channels, especially the Chong Mai, the segments of energy sources that were in one unit, in one location, the Heart Chakra, can be restructured. When the Heart Chakra is mended, one gets another chance to attain harmony within one’s own mind and between the mind and body. And, it can be achieved with his/her clear wisdom, through all difficult experiences, and without losing one’s own mental activity or chemical influence. The Heart Chakra becomes like a time machine that puts all past (memory), present (reality) and future (spiritual destiny) in one place, and allows one to put them in perspectives. That is how depression is neutralized; through the perspectives.

Even if there is no way to mend a fragile Heart (Chakra) permanently, being able to see the truth of multi-dimensional reality, in a bird’s eye view, can aid one’s attainment of understanding, which in turn, helps to eliminate depression, which is mere a conflict within.

An interesting observation of metastatic breast cancer is that depression starts out from the Heart Chakra and affects the balance of the two glands - pancreas and adrenal gland. The pancreas is a part of the nourishing system of body. The adrenal gland is a part of the urogenital/reproductive system. After prolonged and strong mood swings, the stress of the glands affect the reproductive organs (uterus, ovary, etc.) and the immune system (a self defining system) and the absorption of self nourishing factors, both in the physical and mental level. Mental suffocation from fear, anger, sadness and insecurity manifests in the diaphragm which is at the same area as the Heart Chakra. Stress accumulating in the uterus and ovaries form some type of abnormal masses. When such abnormal activity persists, the lung takes the impact, but it can conveniently relocate the impact on the breasts with the help of a tense diaphragm. Because, the breasts are the nourishing organ by the mother for us in the past, and for others (children) in the future, and the lungs are sensing outer atmosphere and defending the frontier of self, the lungs can resist longer than the breast. If both organs are ready for cancer, the breast takes the impact first to retain life longer. When the nourishing fails, the defense fails next. When the self existence concept is not clear, the immune system is not clear about making boundaries between self and others (pathogen).

As a result, the stress originating from the Heart Chakra (awareness of self), depression, can eventually affect the function of self-forming/nourishing (digestive system, pancreas,) and self-maintaining/defending (immune, lymphatic and respiratory system, adrenal gland). The self that cannot exist strongly or breathe with (communicate or express) the outside anymore becomes a small existence going into a non-existence. And, the defense force gives in to the outer force or the existence of others. Such abnormal stress eventually moves to the marrow and brain which is the deepest physical and mental manifestation of self in the physical dimension.

So, in simple words, when you feel that you are suffering from depression, Taoism teaches on how to flip everything around. So you should get to understanding and acceptance of the fact that you should not suffer from depression. Instead you should learn to embrace it, understand it, accept it, work with it and modify your life accordingly, in potential to shift your life in a positive manner.

It is not easy to resolve depression in this manner, since it’s a dynamic process: full of practice, exercises, actions, philosophy, and life style modifications to balance out your nature in a full manner. But, at least Taoism gives you direction and means on how to move on this way.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.leaflady.org/taoist_view_of_depression_and_br.htm

http://personaltao.com/healing-depression/

http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Like-Taoist-And-Zen-Philosophy/1209788

http://mixsbrainy23.blogspot.com/2010/08/teachings-of-taoism.html

May Lipitor Cause Depression?

2011-10-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

In one of the previous posts, we have already addressed the potential danger of cholesterol lowering drugs to cause clinical depression in patients. Based on the reader's interest to the topic, we will review the most popular statin drug Lipitor in more details in terms of how it works, what are the potential side effects, and what are the chances that the negative side effects might be more significant than the health induced benefits.

Why is Lipitor Prescribed?

Lipitor (Atorvastatin) is used along with diet, exercise, and weight-loss to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke and to decrease the chance that heart surgery will be needed in people who have heart disease or who are at risk of developing heart disease. Lipitor is also used to decrease the amount of cholesterol (a fat-like substance) and other fatty substances in the blood. This will decrease the risk of stroke, heart attack, and other heart diseases because when there are high levels of cholesterol and other fats in the blood, these substances may build up along the walls of the blood vessels and decrease or block blood flow to the heart. Lipitor is in a class of medications called HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins). It works by slowing the production of cholesterol in the body.

How Lipitor Works?

There are two sorts of cholesterol: a 'bad' sort called low density lipoprotein (LDL) and a 'good' sort called high density lipoprotein (HDL). LDL is deposited in the arteries and increases the risk of heart disease by clogging and narrowing the arteries (atherosclerosis), while HDL actually protects the arteries against this. Lipitor and other statins as well lower cholesterol in two ways: They encourage the liver to clear LDL (bad cholesterol) from the blood, and they block an enzyme that the body needs to make new cholesterol.

At high doses, statins can nudge up your HDL (good cholesterol) while lowering your LDL (bad cholesterol) by 50% or more. Studies have shown that, for patients who already have heart disease, taking a statin can reduce the risk of fatal coronary events within five years by up to 40%. According to Thomas H. Lee, a cardiologist and editor in chief of the Harvard Heart Letter, even people who don't have high cholesterol can cut their risk of heart disease by a third simply by taking a statin.

Even given their wild popularity, "statins are still underprescribed," says Thomas Allison, PhD, a cardiovascular specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "The drugs could do much more good if more people took them to prevent heart disease, not just treat it," he says. "Most people aren't receiving cholesterol treatment until they've had a heart attack."

Lipitor can also be used to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease in people with type 2 diabetes, regardless of their cholesterol levels. It has been shown to reduce the risk of needing procedures to improve blood supply to the heart, such as a balloon dilation of an artery or a heart bypass graft. It also reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke and death from heart disease.

Is Lipitor Underprescribed or Overprescribed?

While scientific opinion on the necessity of promoting statin drugs, and Lipitor, as the most popular among them, is widely accepted in medical community, it cannot be considered as the only existing approach to the cholesterol related health problems. Dr. Mercola presents totally opposite point of view, claiming that the drug is often prescribed for the cases, when it is unneeded, and even presents certain dangers to the patients’ health.

That these drugs have proliferated the market the way they have is a testimony to the power of marketing, corruption and corporate greed, because the odds are very high— greater than 100 to 1—that if you're taking a statin, you don't really need it.

The ONLY subgroup that might benefit are those born with a genetic defect called familial hypercholesterolemia, as this makes them resistant to traditional measures of normalizing cholesterol. And, even more importantly, cholesterol is NOT the cause of heart disease.

If your physician is urging you to check your total cholesterol, then you should know that this test will tell you virtually nothing about your risk of heart disease, unless it is 330 or higher.

HDL percentage is a far more potent indicator for heart disease risk. Here are the two ratios you should pay attention to:

HDL/Total Cholesterol Ratio: Should ideally be above 24 percent. If below 10 percent, you have a significantly elevated risk for heart disease.
Triglyceride/HDL Ratio: Should be below 2.

I have seen a number of people with total cholesterol levels over 250 who were actually at low risk for heart disease due to their elevated HDL levels. Conversely, I have seen many people with cholesterol levels under 200 who had a very high risk of heart disease, based on their low HDL.

Your body NEEDS cholesterol—it is important in the production of cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps your brain form memories and is vital to your neurological function.

There is also strong evidence that having too little cholesterol INCREASES your risk for cancer, memory loss, Parkinson's disease, hormonal imbalances, stroke, depression, suicide, and violent behavior.

How to Optimize your Cholesterol Levels Naturally?

If your cholesterol levels are not critical yet, you may try to adjust your diet and lifestyle accordingly to balance your good and bad cholesterol in the body:

Reduce, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars in your diet. Eat the right foods for your nutritional type, and consume a good portion of your food raw.
Make sure you are getting plenty of high quality, animal-based omega 3 fats, such as krill oil.
Other heart-healthy foods include olive oil, coconut and coconut oil, organic raw dairy products and eggs, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and organic grass-fed meats as appropriate for your nutritional type.

Exercise daily. At least 30 minutes of exercise a day has been shown to decrease total cholesterol and improve "good" HDL cholesterol levels, while lack of regular physical activity can raise "bad" LDL cholesterol levels as well as lead to weight gain. Make sure you incorporate peak fitness exercises, which also optimizes your human growth hormone (HGH) production.
Reach and maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight can decrease "good" HDL levels and increase "bad" LDL and total cholesterol levels.
Address your emotional challenges engaging in enjoyable and mood stabilizing activities, like dancing, yoga, meditation, massage, and others.

Cut out caffeine and alcohol – drink water. Both caffeine and alcohol have been shown to elevate cholesterol. So it's best to switch to pure water and, at the very least, follow the "no more than one a day" rule.
Don't smoke or use tobacco in any form. Smoking damages blood vessels, contributes to hardening of the arteries and is a major health risk for heart disease, stroke and other degenerative diseases. Be sure to get plenty of good, restorative sleep.

Unlike statin drugs, which might lower your cholesterol at the expense of your health, these lifestyle strategies represent a holistic approach that will benefit your overall health—which includes a healthy cardiovascular system.

However, some experts have expressed concern that the emphasis on statins could draw attention away from the importance of diet and lifestyle. A 2007 study of 71 patients who began taking statins found that 44% felt their physician had prescribed the statin even though the patients preferred to try dietary measures to control their cholesterol. And although 76% of the patients wanted to reduce their dietary fat intake when they began statin treatment, after six months there was no significant change in the group's fat intake.

Lipitor Side Effects

While you may try to leverage your cholesterol levels naturally with the recommendations, provided above, that might not work as expected due to the various reasons, and mostly due to the genetic predisposition. If that is a case, you will still have to take the medications, since the cholesterol can potentially be dangerous to lethal to your health. While taking Lipitor or other statins, you should be aware on the possible side effects. Note that medicines and their possible side effects can affect individual people in different ways, or may not affect at all. The following are some of the side effects that are known to be associated with Lipitor. Just because a side effect is stated here does not mean that all people using this medicine will experience that or any side effect.

Common (affect between 1 in 10 and 1 in 100 people)

Disturbances of the gut such as diarrhoea, constipation, nausea, flatulence or abdominal pain.
Indigestion.
Runny or stuffy nose.
Nose bleeds.
Muscle, bone or joint pain
Headache.
Difficulty sleeping (insomnia).
Skin reactions such as rash and itch.
Back pain.
Dizziness.
Feeling of weakness.
Decreased sensitivity to touch or pain, pins and needles sensations.
Chest pain.

Uncommon (affect between 1 in 100 and 1 in 1000 people)

Vomiting.
Decrease in the number of blood cells called platelets in the blood (thrombocytopenia).
Inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis).
Muscle pain.
Hair loss (alopecia).
Loss of appetite.
Weight gain.
Liver disorders.
Changes in blood sugar levels.

Rare (affect between 1 in 1000 and 1 in 10,000 people)

Swelling of the legs and ankles due to excess fluid retention (peripheral oedema).
Hepatitis (inflammation of the liver).
Muscle breakdown (rhabdomyolysis).
Inflammation of the muscles (myositis).
Fever.

Very rare (affect less than 1 in 10,000 people)

Visual disturbances.
Serious skin conditions such as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome or toxic epidermal necrolysis.
Enlargement of the breasts in men.
Taste changes.

Unknown frequency

Interstitial lung disease.
Depression.
Memory loss.
Sleep disturbances.
Sexual problems.

Lipitor and Depression

As you noticed, the frequency of the Lipitor-induced depression falls in the category of Unknown. That means, that the link exists, the danger is low, and that there is no sufficient data to quantify the probability you may develop depression from long-time Lipitor consumption.

Some new researches however show much higher probability for the related problems development than is shown on the official side effects statements. One of the studies found up to 12 per cent of patients taking part in one clinical trial suffered sleep disturbances such as insomnia, while 11 per cent of users in the same trial had depression and three per cent some level of memory loss. Another study suggested 12 per cent of statin patients had erectile dysfunction. That does not mean you might develop all the health problems above, if you just start taking Lipitor, since these trials did not evaluate the per cent of the patients affected by the stated conditions before the trials, so the numbers have lower value with missing reference points.

Another study, performed at the University of California, School of Medicine, showed that in multiple cases patients report depression and mood changes as side effects of Lipitor. Some people reported loss if interest in activities and tendency for diminished involvement in social affairs.

Summary

While the Lipitor side effects might be significant, the mainstream medical opinion is that the biggest risk with statins is not taking them. Only about half of all patients prescribed a statin end up reaching their cholesterol goals, mainly because far too many people leave far too many pills untouched.

If you feel that taking Lipitor brings major complications to your health and emotional wellbeing, discuss with your doctor the possibility to alter your treatment plan and optimize the cholesterol maintenance approach.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000009/

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100001508.html

http://www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,,20189423_2,00.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1226238/Side-effects-alert-statin-users-drug-linked-depression-memory-loss.html

http://www.heart-health-for-life.com/lipitor-side-effects.html

http://commonsensehealth.com/Health-Conditions/How_to_Lower_Cholesterol_Naturally_in_7_Steps.shtml

Ecstasy and Depression: Risk Factor or Potential Cure

2011-10-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

Ecstasy Popularity

After several years of falling popularity, ecstasy use has once again been increasing in clubs and on college campuses. As this recreational drug first appeared on the arena, it gained popularity fast among adolescents and young adults in the nightclub scene or dance parties known as “raves.” However, the profile of the typical ecstasy user has been changing now. The drug is widely used by all demographic groups because so many young people believe that ecstasy is a safe drug. A person may experience feelings of mental stimulation, emotional warmth, empathy towards others, a general sense of well-being and decreased anxiety.

The reason ecstasy popularity has increased might be lying under its main traits, outlined above. The research made on the reasons of sudden increase in Ecstasy Popularity show that some people turn to it as a temporary means of escaping the problem. It is also been observed that young people have started taking the MDMA as a part of their lifestyle. Ecstasy popularity studies also shows that recently people have tendency to take ecstasy more than other drugs because, it has very few direct effects, almost all the effects are indirect and hence it is considered as harmless by many users.

Young adults are not aware that ecstasy can produce a variety of adverse health effects, including nausea, chills, sweating, involuntary teeth clenching, muscle cramping, blurred vision and, in some cases, death due to overdose. Ecstasy can affect the brain by altering the activity of chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters with symptoms such as high blood pressure, faintness, panic attacks, and in severe cases, a loss of consciousness and seizures.

In this publication, we will not review in details all negative effects on health and wellbeing, which ecstasy may cause to its consumers, but we will focus on the scientifically proven facts, that its use can lead to the severe consequences to the mental health, causing clinical depression.

What is Ecstasy?

Ecstasy is a slang or street name for Methylenedioxymethamphetamines (MDMA) It is a synthetic, psychoactive mind-altering drug with hallucinogenic and amphetamine (stimulant) like effects. It alters perception of time and distance. MDMA was first developed in 1914 as an appetite suppressant or diet drug. It was a legal substance up until 1985.

As Ecstasy was considered as a natural antidepressant, doctors used to prescribe it to the patients until it was banned by UN and USA. Prior to this ban, the MDMA was one of the main tools against depression, the doctors had. It was also widely used for treating post traumatic stress disorder.

MDMA/Ecstasy is produced in clandestine laboratories, and is seldom pure. The amount in a capsule or tablet is likely to vary considerably, which could lead to overdoses. Now, MDMA is under a Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) -- Schedule I Substance -- meaning that it has no medical use and high abuse potential. The Federal penalty for manufacturing or selling can lead to fines up to four million dollars. A ringleader or head manufacturer could receive life in prison.

What does ecstasy do to the brain?

Ecstasy works by stimulating the production of a brain chemical called serotonin, key in the regulation of mood and emotion. The rush you get comes from the release of much higher levels of serotonin than normal. But by artificially messing with this production process, some scientists believe users are diminishing their brain's ability to produce serotonin in the future.

Mid-week Hangover

Ecstasy works by changing the way the brain produces and handles the neurotransmitter serotonin that, among other things, regulates your mood.

"Experts agree that once the initial serotonin rush produced by the drug (the 'high') has passed, levels of serotonin in the brain will fall," says Ruth Goldsmith from the independent drug information and expertise centre DrugScope. "This seems to account for the 'mid-week hangover' or 'Tuesday blues'; the short period of depression experienced by many ecstasy users in the days following their use of the drug."

There are several possible reasons why ecstasy my cause the short-term depression. MDMA works by releasing from certain brain cells large amounts of the brain chemical, serotonin. This release of serotonin is what causes Ecstasy’s mood elevation effect, as well as the feelings of empathy, self-acceptance, and emotional closeness with others that so many people find valuable and rewarding about the drug. But in releasing large amounts of serotonin, MDMA also depletes the brain’s supply. It then takes some time for the brain to replenish what was released. How long does it take for serotonin levels to be fully restored after someone takes Ecstasy? This depends on the individual’s diet, general heath, genetic make-up, how much ecstasy the person took, and other random factors. There’s no way to tell for sure, but based on animal studies, scientists say that it could take anywhere from 48 hours to an entire week. The mild depression some people feel after taking Ecstasy could be related to this temporary depletion of serotonin.

Somehow similar theory states, that the release of serotonin also causes serotonin receptors in the brain to down-regulate, which basically means turn themselves off for a while. The up-and-down regulation of receptors is one of the primary ways the brain tries to achieve homeostasis, or balance. These receptors work in conjunction with the amount of serotonin around and are just as important in the regulation of mood as serotonin itself. In trying to maintain a balanced mood, these receptors respond to the amount of serotonin around by turning themselves on and off (up-regulation and down-regulation). When they are flooded with serotonin as a result of taking Ecstasy, many of them down-regulate.

The majority of these receptors will up-regulate again as soon as the excess serotonin is metabolized away. However, some of these receptors may stay down-regulated longer, perhaps days, weeks, or even months. The depression some people feel after taking ecstasy may be a result of these serotonin receptors staying down-regulated too long. Whether, how much, or how often this happens may largely be a genetic factor unique to the individual.

Some people may simply be genetically pre-disposed towards Ecstasy-related depression. Some ecstasy users who experience depression might have been depressed before they started using ecstasy. Depression is a common illness that often goes undiagnosed and untreated. This is particularly true for teenagers and young adults who suffer from mild to moderate depression. It is likely that many compulsive ecstasy users are unconsciously trying to self-medicate their depression. However, ecstasy use may play unfavorable role in depression treatment, since by directly affecting serotonin, it may trigger getting your neurotransmitters out of balance, especially if they already were in the borderline condition.

Ecstasy and Clinical Depression

While danger of short-term mild depressive episodes has somewhat limited effect on mental wellbeing, the long-term consequences might be far more dangerous, and even disastrous.

Based on the study 2003 results in Britain, experts warned that the changes to the brain brought about by the drug leave a legacy of long-term mental health problems, including memory loss and lack of concentration. Psychologists have found that even those who gave up taking the drug several years ago scored higher on a depression rating than people who had never taken it.

A 2005 Cambridge University study discovered that people with a certain genetic make-up showed greater signs of depression after using the drug. The Cambridge team looked at the gene which controls serotonin transporters in the brain. Everybody has two copies of each gene, and there are two possible versions which people can carry, so they can either be classed as ll, ls or ss. They found that 60% of people who had the ss version were assessed as having at least mild depression after taking ecstasy, while non-drug users with the ss type displayed no such problems.

Similar results were received in 2006 during the three-year study conducted at the PET Center at Arhus Hospital in Denmark, showed the recreational drug caused depression in laboratory pigs. The scientists injected pigs with varying doses of Ecstasy to study the effect the drug has on the pigs' brains. The study has significant importance for humans as well, as pigs' brains are quite similar to human brains in many perspectives.

Controversial Studies

Recently, the Ecstasy positive and negative therapeutic effects came in light of the general community due to several researches, producing controversial results of weather ecstasy may cause the long-term brain damage or not.

There is no evidence that ecstasy causes brain damage, according to one of the largest studies into the effects of the drug. Too many previous studies made over-arching conclusions from insufficient data, say the scientists responsible for the research, and the drug's dangers have been greatly exaggerated. It was concluded that ecstasy has not been linked to damage to the central nervous system and no long-term changes to emotional states and behavior have been triggered by consumption of the drug.

The study was carried out by a team led by Professor John Halpern of Harvard Medical School and published in the journal Addiction February 2011. Many experts who have argued that the drug is relatively safe welcomed the new paper. "I always assumed that, when properly designed studies were carried out, we would find ecstasy does not cause brain damage," said Professor David Nutt, who was fired as chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs by Alan Johnson, then home secretary, for publicly stating alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than ecstasy.

Ronald Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Psychiatry in his report in the May 2011 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology opposes this viewpoint, insisting that recreational Ecstasy use is indeed associated with a chronic change in brain function. Cowan and his colleagues examined brain activation during visual stimulation, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in subjects who had previously used Ecstasy (but not in the two weeks prior to imaging) and in subjects who had not previously used Ecstasy. They found increased brain activation in three brain areas associated with visual processing in Ecstasy users with the highest lifetime exposure to the drug. The findings were consistent with the investigators' predictions based on results from animal models: that Ecstasy use is associated with a loss of serotonin signaling, which leads to hyper-excitability (increased activation) in the brain. The hyper-excitability suggests a loss in brain efficiency, Cowan said, "meaning that it takes more brain area to process information or perform a task." The investigators found that this shift in brain excitability did not return to normal in subjects who had not used Ecstasy in more than a year.

Summary

While I am not expert on the topic, based on the various resources, available on the Web, I can conclude that both proponents and opponents of Ecstasy have their valid points, but research results are still inconclusive to choose side. There are multiple studies and clinical ongoing trials, trying to bring the positive effects of the drug to the safe medicine (for PTSD, depression, and cancer treatment) in Europe, Israel, and USA, but there is still a long way to go, and the resulting drugs might be substantially modified by the scientists from the state as you may take it now.

For those, who use ecstasy as recreational drug on regular basis, I have one question to ask: Are you ready to jeopardize your health for short-term positive emotional effect, if there is a chance that it may cause your mental destabilization on long run? Think about that, before you take next pill.

In any case, there are safer alternatives, as marijuana, for example...

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.thedowneypatriot.com/bookmark/12393685-Ecstasy-growing-in-popularity-among-teens

http://vraelcontentblogs.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/why-did-ecstasy-increase-in-popularity/

http://www.taadas.org/factsheets/ecstasyFacts.htm

http://www.thesite.org/drinkanddrugs/drugsafety/drugsandyourbody/ecstasyanddepression

http://dancesafe.org/drug-information/ecstasy-and-depression

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2003/mar/16/drugsandalcohol.science

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/19/ecstasy-harm-brain-new-study

20 Strategies on how to Deal with Depression at Work

2011-09-27T22:44:00.000-07:00

An important aspect of recovering from depression is continuing to participate in as many of your regular daily activities as possible during treatment. For many people, work is high on that list. Employment is about much more than making a living. The satisfaction and security of work contribute to positive self-esteem, and being part of a work team can help foster a sense of belonging. Keeping the established routine helps in certain distraction from the self-absorbing negative thoughts and feelings.

But there is no surprise that it can be challenging to function at your best in the work world while dealing with depression. That is true when you currently have a job, but that is even tougher when you are just entering or returning to the job market. In this situation, you need to “sell yourself” to the new or prospective employer and project the self-confidence and professional integrity, and concentrate maximally on new responsibilities and tasks, if employed.

We will offer selected practical strategies on how to make the most of your job situation. Note that many of these strategies can be put into action before you ever set foot in your workplace or schedule your first job interview. When you are playing an active role in your own treatment plan and maintaining the proper perspective on your situation, you will find it easier to bring out your very best in the work world.

On-the-Job Strategies

Consider adopting the following strategies to improve your outlook and performance on the job:

Do not let work take precedence over recovery. Work is important, but it is only one aspect of your life. Even on the busiest of days, remember that recovery is your top priority. Your treatment plan and the self-care strategies you employ each day should not take a back seat to the immediate concerns and demands of the workday. Sometimes, trying to reach your daily employment demands, you may jeopardize your strategic recovery plan.
Stay in touch with your family and friends. If your job environment permits, make regular phone calls during the day to friends and family. Staying in contact with someone you trust can give you perspective on what really matters and keep you focused on getting better.
Remember what’s important about work. It is rare to find a job that does not involve challenging people, deadlines, difficult assignments and other stress factors. At times when work feels overwhelming, try to focus on the positive reasons why you work, including financial independence and security, personal satisfaction and the sense of community or belonging that comes from contributing to a team effort.
Do not take it personally. In many cases, the problems are unrelated to your personal performance or attitudes, but rather to the personality issues in your coworkers, managers, or customers, or with the objective complications. While you can do your best to work towards the problem resolution, that might not result in the desired outcomes. Do not try to blame yourself for every work-related issues, popping up in the area of your responsibilities. Remember, that people you work with, may also have their own psychological issues or personal stressful life events.
Keep in mind that politics and personalities are part of working. When you work with other people, differing agendas, conflicting priorities and interpersonal conflict can’t be avoided. They do not need to derail your efforts to recover from depression.
Don’t set yourself up by expecting perfection. But even if you are responsible for the work-related difficulties, it is not the end of the world. Everyone does mistakes. If you do your job, that is unavoidable once awhile. Adjust your attitude and expectations about yourself and your work, knowing that oversights and professional errors are inevitable in any job.
Communicate with your coworkers. Interact with coworkers in small ways. Do not give in to the temptation to isolate yourself. The less visible you are, the more you jeopardize your job. However, if do not feel like, do not volunteer to initiate non-essential conversations; ask questions instead. If necessary, write them out before meetings and get prepared to important conversations and discussions ahead of time.

Put special attention on your appearance. While you are coping with your depression, proactively and carefully monitor your professional appearance. Make extra efforts to look good.
Try to hold yourself together in difficult moments. A crying jag may make you feel better, but it can disconcert your coworkers. If you burst into tears, go to a private place to compose yourself.
Don’t let the past define today or tomorrow. Realize that problems caused by your symptoms in the past will not necessarily repeat themselves, especially if you have a working treatment plan in place. Just because a lack of energy once caused you to miss a crucial deadline doesn’t mean you are unreliable. Give yourself credit for the progress you are making, and permission to start over.
Develop symptom-specific strategies. To help you keep focused on the future instead of the past, make sure to learn all you can about your illness and your specific symptoms. Take a close look at the symptoms that have tripped you up in the past, and develop specific strategies for countering each of them. For example, if your depression can make it hard to concentrate or if you feel overwhelmed when beginning a project, it might be helpful to break work assignments into smaller, more manageable steps that can be completed in shorter timeframes.
Take regular breaks. Stepping back from work and doing something that relaxes you, like meditating or listening to music, can help you cope with stress. Do not tell yourself, you cannot afford even a minor distraction. Getting back to work after, you may be able to perform the task quicker and with better quality and efficiency.
Expose yourself to a little sunlight during the day. Lack of sunlight can make depression worse. Make sure you’re getting enough. Working long hours might not give you a chance to be outside before or after your working schedule. If you can afford, take a short walk outdoors during your breaks, have your coffee or lunch outside, take a brief walk on the parking lot.
Be physically active at workplace. If you have fitness center at job, aim for 30 minutes of exercise per day during your lunch break or in small installments during the day. Even short 10-minute bursts of activity can have a positive effect on your mood. If you do not have such opportunity, you can at least simulate it by, for example, taking the stairs rather than the elevator or parking your car in the farthest spot on the parking lot.
Take baby steps. When you are working on a project that seems overwhelming, break it into multiple steps, and complete them one at a time.
Don’t skip meals during the day. Going too long between meals can make you feel irritable and tired, so aim to eat something at least every 3-4 hours. Slow down and pay attention to the full experience of eating. Enjoy the taste of your food. But, avoid heavy lunches with lots of fat. Saturated fat in particular is really bad for your mind and makes you feel weighed down and sad.
Drink water. Water needs to be an integral part of your day, especially if you are feeling depressed. It cleans out toxins and impurities and helps your organs process all the junk. No, I do not you call you to drink 8 glasses of water, as per some outdated recommendations, you may still find on the Internet. Drink, when do you feel like, when you are thirsty, but do not let it go due to the work overload.
Smile, at random. Smiling has been scientifically shown to trigger a chemical response in the human body. What this means is that the physical action of smiling will cause you to feel happier even if you have nothing to smile about! Try smiling more often and see how it changes your mind.
Don’t go it alone. It is difficult to juggle a full work schedule while also meeting everyone’s expectations at home. When you also need to find time and energy to devote to managing your depression, it can be overwhelming. Examine your daily or weekly schedule and look for activities, both at home and at work, that could be delegated to others. Involving coworkers in shared responsibilities, asking family members to help with chores, or reaching out to a friend to provide a “sounding board” for your ideas and concerns are all good strategies for accomplishing your goals without sacrificing your emotional health and recovery.
Discuss your coping skills with therapist. Take your medications and attend your counseling sessions to ease the depression symptoms that are making it difficult for you to function. Address the job survival tips and techniques, while discussing your progress during your therapy sessions, and apply obtained recommendations at your workplace.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.depressiontoolkit.org/takecare/Coping_at_work.asp

http://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/managing/bad-days-at-the-office.aspx

http://www.copingwithdepression.net/18/depression-in-office/

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_tips.htm

http://www.thedailymind.com/how-to/11-ways-to-fix-your-workplace-depression/

Bach Flower Remedies and Depression

2011-09-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

"Every single person has a life to live, a work to do,

a glorious personality, a wonderful individuality."

Dr. Edward Bach

What are the Bach Flower Remedies?

Back Flower Remedies were created by Dr. Edward Bach a British physician and well-known bacteriologist and researcher, in the 1930s. Bach believed that illness is the effect of disharmony between body and mind and that symptoms of an illness are the external expression of negative emotional states. Disillusioned by modern medicine, he assumed that every physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual symptom offered clues as to what we need to restore balance. Over time, Bach discovered various recipes of the flower remedies to address the emotional distress.

He identified 38 basic negative states of mind, divided into 7 traditional groups, and created a plant or flower based remedy for each one, based on what emotional difficulties are handled. The emotional issues addressed by healing flower essences are isolation, despair, anxiety, hesitation, and insufficient interest in current conditions, oversensitivity to influences and ideas and over-care for the welfare of others.

From a total of 38 different Bach Flower Essences, 37 made from specific flowers and one made from the water of a spring believed to have healing properties. Each essence is used to treat a specific emotion or state of mind such as fear, anger, apathy, etc. These are all emotions that most people can readily identify in themselves and in other people. These emotional states and their corresponding essence are all described in The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies by Edward Bach. Dr. Bach’s goal was to create a system of medicine that was simple enough that people who become familiar with the essences through his publications could identify their negative emotional state, select the corresponding essence and thus treat themselves.

The Bach Flower Essences are all natural, very dilute solutions made from spring water, an alcohol preservative, and the parts of specific flowers. They are used to help balance the emotions and bring about a state of equilibrium in living organisms, and have been successfully used with people, animals, and even plants. Bach Flower Essences are listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States (HPUS), have been issued with National Drug Code (NDC) numbers by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are sold as over-the-counter homeopathic products in the United States.

Although the Bach Flower Essences are listed in the HPUS and are prepared at a 5X homeopathic dilution (0.00001 gram of active substance per milliliter of tincture) they are not considered homeopathic medicine. While they are prepared from plant material, they do not fall in the same category as herbal medicine. The fact that we refer to them as “essences” suggests to some that they are aromatherapy—the use of essential oils and other aromatic compounds from plants to affect someone’s mood or health—which they are not. Flower essences fill their own unique niche in the arsenal of complementary medicine.

The Bach Flower Remedies are now well known as alternative therapy that helps to manage the emotional demands of everyday life. Each remedy brings balance to a specific emotion. They are completely safe and natural. The remedies can be used by everyone and do not have any side effects. They are even used to help plants and animals because they act in such a gentle way.

Depression Treatment

Clinical depression is a serious illness, requiring balanced professional treatment. In many cases, you feel gloomy and down for a prolonged period of time, and you are just not able to get excited by anything or feel any reason to see hope for the future. People with depression often suffer from a feeling of monotony, lack of concentration and therefore become forgetful, worry about problems more than dealing with problems, low self esteem and in worse cases feelings of suicide.

Back Flower Remedies will not be able to replace medications and therapy in the severe cases, but they might help with light to moderate depressive episodes, giving a safe and side-effects free assistance to the person to regulate better the general mood and emotions on a daily file.

Following are some of Bach’s flower remedies for depression. Select the remedy or remedies that best match how you are feeling. You can take one or more remedies. Simply add four drops of the remedy to a glass of water and sip throughout the day. Alternatively, take two drops under the tongue four times a day or as necessary.

Elm: When you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed because you are overworked or have too many responsibilities, Elm is the remedy of choice.
Gentian: When you feel pessimistic, discouraged, or have lost faith. It is used for depression when a person knows the reason for his or her sadness.
Gorse: When you feel hopeless, that there is nothing that can be done for you, or resigned to your less-than-ideal fate, gorse may be helpful.
Mustard: Mustard is used for sadness or depression that has no apparent cause. It feels like a dark cloud has blocked out happiness and joy.
Sweet Chestnut: Selected for feelings of hopelessness, Sweet Chestnut reflects a long, courageous battle that feels lost. It is particularly suited when it feels like an inner transformation is occurring and a “dying off” of a person’s old self is taking place.
Willow: Willow is best suited for negativity and a tendency to blame others for the problems in life. Alternatively, if your sadness is linked to a grudge that you’re holding onto but would like to let go of, Willow is a good choice.
Olive: Olive helps when you feel exhausted and tired most of the time.
Wild Rose: Wild Rose is recommended when you feel you are losing interest in life, when you stop enjoying even the activities you used to like, when you experience resignation and apathy most of the time.

The best known flower remedy is the Rescue Remedy combination, which contains an equal amount each of Rock Rose, Impatiens, Clematis, Star of Bethlehem and Cherry Plum remedies. The product is aimed at treating stress, anxiety, and panic attacks, especially in emergencies.

Reference Chart is provided below:

Use and Dosage

Bach's Flower Remedy might be taken straight from the bottle, four drops at a time, as required in any stressful life event or episode of depression. Nonetheless, it's ideal to put four drops in a glass of clear, natural water, and to sip as needed. Regardless of what remedies are chosen, the technique for preparing the remedies will be exactly the same. When the remedy is meant to be utilized now and again, place two drops of each solution in a glass of clear, non-gasified natural water. However if you're making use of the Rescue Remedy, you really should place four drops. The essence ought to be taken up to four times per day, as needed. When it's going to be utilized for chronic conditions then place two drops of each remedy or four drops just in case you're making use of Rescue Remedy into a dark glass 30ml bottle with non-gasified natural water. This solution ought to be taken 4 times on a daily basis right until you have obtained relief from emotional stress. This could take a couple of weeks relying on the seriousness of the situation.

Summary

Bach Flower Therapy can be used as a self-help tool by anyone to help soothe daily irritability, depression, moodiness and stress of all kinds. However, when problems are deeper, repetitive, or chronic, psychological counseling and anti-depressants may be more appropriate. Often, Flower Remedies can be used during the counseling process as a form of support between sessions or as a way of facilitating the psychological work itself.

Bach flower remedies, and other systems of botanical treatments derived from Bach's work, have been recommended for many psychological and emotional conditions. There are numerous anecdotes about successful treatment with Bach flower remedies, although effectiveness has not been thoroughly investigated by adequate scientific research.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.burnoutsolutions.com/08c-bach-flower-remedy.shtml

http://www.bachfloweressences.co.uk/pages/Bach-Flower-Remedies-and-Depression.html

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/7-flower-remedies-for-depression.html

http://www.depression-remedies.info/bach-flower-remedies-for-depression.php

http://bachflower.com/blog/2011/01/30/an-overview-of-the-bach-flower-essences/

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8513/34968/358740.html?d=dmtContent

Amoryn - The Natural Antidepressant Review

2011-09-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

Clinical Effect

Amoryn is considered to be a very effective natural remedy against depression and anxiety. It is effective because it attacks the root cause of these two problems. Developers claim that Amoryn works in the brain, at the root of these problems and removes the cause, not just addresses the temporary cover-up of the issues. It works deeper for long term benefit, not like the quick fixes offered by the synthetic anti depressants. It is 100% natural and so is safe for you to take.

Your brain produces neurotransmitters, the natural chemical messengers of the brain. These neurotransmitters send messages from one cell to another. There are four neurotransmitters to be found in the brain. One of them is Serotonin or the “feel good” neurotransmitter. Serotonin has an important role in regulation of our mood. When Serotonin levels fall, you will feel sadness and anxiety. When they are high you feel happy and good about yourself.

Dopamine and norepinephrine, two other neurotransmitters also affect the mood. Low levels of both cause tiredness and you will feel demotivated and depressed. GABA, another neurotransmitter helps you relax. Low levels of GABA in your brain will make you anxious and restless. Amoryn boost the activities of all these four neurotransmitters. It helps to balance them and increase their levels and thus lifts mood.

The main ingredient of Amoryn is hyperforin. Hyperforin relieves both depression and anxiety. It helps cure moderate or severe depression. Hyperforin acts as a natural reuptake inhibitor which increases the levels of all the four neurotransmitters. The ability of any St. John's Wort extract to relieve depression depends mainly on its hyperforin content. Amoryn contains the highest quality St. John's Wort extract in the world, standardized to 3-5% hyperforin. Each dose (two capsules) of "potency assured" Ampryn contains 36mg of hyperforin, so you can be sure that you're receiving the optimal amount.

Another amino acid 5-HTP is present in Amoryn. 5-HTP increases the Serotonin level. It provides the brain, the necessary building blocks to produce more serotonin.

Rhodiola Rosea extract, another ingredient of Amoryn, is an adaptogenic herb that can increase serotonin activity by up to 30%. Rhodiola also increases the activity of two other mood-related neurotransmitters - dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) - by inhibiting the activity of COMT, an enzyme that breaks DA and NE. If this action is not performed by the enzyme, then the level of these two neurotransmitters will increase.

Amoryn and its ingredients do the job of increasing the level and balance the activity of the four neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and GABA, thereby managing the mood.

Amoryn also contains, along with its main ingredients, some supporting nutrients. These nutrients help you maintain your mental health. Amoryn contains some B vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid. These three vitamins reverse the nutritional deficiencies related with depression. They promote production of SAM-e (S-adenosylmethionine). SAM-e is a compound, which is involved in synthesis of neurotransmitters.

Amoryn also contains vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 is essential in preventing and relieving you of depression caused by cold days. Amoryn contains Selenium and zinc which help in improving mental health in many people. Selenium, a mineral found in whole grains and seafood, plays an important role in maintaining optimal psychological well-being. Unfortunately, the diets of many North Americans and Europeans do not provide ideal amounts of selenium. Selenium also provides non-psychological health benefits. It helps protect against cancer, promotes healthy immune functioning, and increases fertility in infertile men.

Amoryn is produced by BioNeurix Corp. under strict quality measures and clinically tested.

Dosage

The standard dose of two (2) capsules daily works well in most cases, but some people require a higher dose. If you do not respond (or respond only partially) to two (2) capsules, it is recommend increasing your daily dose to three (3) or four (4) capsules.

Certain individuals may benefit from starting with a half-dose of one (1) capsule per day. During the first week, you should try taking this reduced dose if you:

• weigh less than 120 pounds

• are particularly sensitive to supplements and drugs

• often experience side effects when taking new supplements or drugs

• have moderate-to-severe anxiety-related symptoms or often have difficulty sleeping

Unless you experience side effects, increase to the standard dose of two (2) capsules daily after one week.

Side Effects

Most people do not experience any negative side effects when taking Amoryn. When side effects do occur, they are typically mild and often go away after a few days or weeks. 3 out of 4 users classify their side effects as "mild". Less than 1.5% of users report side effects which they describe as "severe".

Possible side effects include:

- fatigue
- stomach upset
- headache
- vivid or unusual dreams
- increased sensitivity to sunlight

Among positive side effects, mentioned by consumers, is the noticeable weight loss for some individuals.

Effectiveness

According to BioNeurix and surveys of actual users, 88% of AMORYN users with anxiety and 90% with depression report positive results. Amoryns primary benefits include being clinically proven to relieve both mild and severe depression and anxiety, is a natural product (no prescription required) and it is not addictive.

For anxiety, panic attacks or depression it is important to take Amoryn everyday as it does not work immediately. Most people see results in 4 weeks or less but it can take up to 6-8 weeks before Amoryn starts working.

Limitations

People with high blood pressure may have to use the Amoryn with great caution and may need to discontinue using it (and any product containing St. John Wort) in case of the noticeable blood pressure increase, caused by the product use. St. John Wort causes blood pressure to increase in some individuals.

Amoryn is considered not being suitable to take alongside prescription anti-depressants such as MAOI's and SSRI's and is not recommended to take with Triptan based Migraine medication due to the risk of Serotonin shock occurring.

Do not take Amoryn until you have talked to your doctor:

If you are pregnant or nursing
If you have been diagnosed with a serious health issue like severe anxiety, depression or other mental health disorder and have not yet consulted with your physician about taking a dietary supplement
If you have an autoimmune disease and are currently taking medication

Sources and Additional Information:

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/supplement-articles/117306-amoryn-natural-antidepressant.html

http://www.amoryn.com/

http://www.reviewanxietytreatments.com/amoryn-review.htm

http://www.anxiety-and-depression-solutions.com/marketplace/amoryn.php

http://www.hicow.com/antidepressant/depression/selective-serotonin-reuptake-inhibitor-2069571.html

How to cope with post-divorce grief and depression?

2011-08-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

Marriage is one of the most significant relationships in life and divorce can be an awfully distressing incident for most of the people. Divorce, the official ending of marriage is usually accompanied by angst, misery, depression, dejection, gloominess, sense of failure, end of a way of life and insecurity. People undergoing divorce, even if they have initiated it themselves, finds them going through a dejected phase. That is a proven fact that in most cases, even if a person wants the divorce, when the reality of starting over sets in, that person can get thrown into a period of despair. And when the person doesn’t want the divorce, many times their esteem is greatly affected, causing them to go into a deep depression. For some it’s a sense of failure, and for others it’s simply the uncertainty of what lay ahead. You may well spend some time in a state of shock, unable to comprehend what's happening. You may wonder what you did to trigger the situation and go through a period when you blame yourself for him or her leaving. You may one day beg him or her to come back, and tell you never want to see him or her again the next. You'll mourn the end of your marriage, and wonder about your future.

Research shows that divorce is the second most traumatic events in the lives of people, the first being the death of a spouse and this stress is capable of expediting severe spell of depression and angst to the brain’s emotional center. Regardless of the situation, when a marriage ends, it can almost be compared to a death because in reality it is the loss of a loved one. And when something dies, there is a period of mourning. The person you were married to has been part of your life for quite a while and now it’s over. It’s certainly understandable that you would feel sad and scared, since many of your dreams were tied up in the marriage. You might even be thinking that you’ll never love again or that no one will ever love you. Maybe you’re thinking that it was your entire fault. Whatever thoughts and feelings you have, they are natural feelings.

Grief

Losing an important correlation in your life is tantamount to death. It is the demise of an ‘Us’ that was once full of dreams, trust & security. Divorce means loss of spouse, loss of family life, loss of common home, loss of friends and loss of social status. For kids too, it means losing that perfect family and one parent forever. With such huge losses, it is natural to grieve. Mothers may also feel financial burden if they have to take care of her kids solely. Facing financial problems after divorce could be one of the major reasons of grief.

Divorce changes our every day schedule and lifestyle. With no one around to share one’s thoughts & sentiments, one certainly feels lonely and this may also lead to reduced work efficiency.

In divorce, there is usually ‘a leaver’ (spouse who decides to call off the relationship) and ‘the left’ (spouse who is not the initiator & is left out to accept the divorce). ‘The left’ is usually the one who grieves most and he/she may also be more frustrated & angrier. The situation becomes more complex and anger more intense, if your ex-spouse has left you for someone else. Sometimes people are unable to identify the difference between grief & anger or may be the grief remains concealed below anger. In reality, anger is just a facade, an emotional cover up. When the true feelings cloaked up in your heart are unveiled, then do you realize the true meaning of loss and divorce and start mourning your sufferings.

There are various stages of grief which everyone person goes through while grieving. It is important to pass on all the phases of grieving to complete the healing process & to emerge a stronger person.

Denial and shock - The initial reaction to any heart wrenching experience such as divorce or death is denial or non-acceptance. You may still be looking for solutions to your matrimonial crisis and try to work out with your spouse. You may also try to restore & save your marriage.
Anger and frustration - You may be angry with yourself and your spouse for not being able to continue the nuptial arrangement and for separating. You may want to fight back & get even with your ex in any way even if it involves your kids.
Depression - You may have overwhelming feelings of sullenness, hopelessness, numbness, self-pity, abandonment, desperation, resentment and moodiness. Lack of control over the situation may make you feel depressed & even suicidal. You may feel like crying all the time but once you pass on this stage and overcome all the fears, you’ll feel liberated.
Acceptance - Once you’ve accepted that your marriage is finally over, you’ll find it easier to let go everything. You’ll feel unburdened & soon realize that it’s better to live alone rather be unhappy together.

Once you’ve gotten over the legal procedures, you may have the feeling of let go and will try to move on in life. Now is the time to start thinking and planning about your bright future.

Several tips for grieving after a breakup or divorce:

Don’t fight your feelings – It’s normal to have lots of ups and downs, and feel many conflicting emotions, including anger, resentment, sadness, relief, fear, and confusion. It’s important to identify and acknowledge these feelings. While these emotions will often be painful, trying to suppress or ignore them will only prolong the grieving process.
Talk about how you’re feeling – Even if it is difficult for you to talk about your feelings with other people, it is very important to find a way to do so when you are grieving. Knowing that others are aware of your feelings will make you feel less alone with your pain and will help you heal. Journaling can also be a helpful outlet for your feelings.
Remember that moving on is the end goal – Expressing your feelings will liberate you in a way, but it is important not to dwell on the negative feelings or to over-analyze the situation. Getting stuck in hurtful feelings like blame, anger and resentment will rob you of valuable energy and prevent you from healing and moving forward.
Remind yourself that you still have a future – When you commit to another person, you create many hopes and dreams. It’s hard to let these dreams go. As you grieve the loss of the future you once envisioned, be encouraged by the fact that new hopes and dreams will eventually replace your old ones.

Taking care of yourself

Learning to take care of yourself can be one of the most valuable lessons you learn following a divorce or breakup. As you feel the emotions of your loss and begin learning from your experience, you can resolve to take better care of yourself and make positive choices going forward.

Self-care tips:

Make time each day to nurture yourself. Help yourself heal by scheduling daily time for activities you find calming and soothing. Go for a walk in nature, listen to music, enjoy a hot bath, get a massage, read a favorite book, take a yoga class, or savor a warm cup of tea.
Pay attention to what you need in any given moment and speak up to express your needs. Honor what you believe to be right and best for you even though it may be different from what your ex or others want. Say "no" without guilt or angst as a way of honoring what is right for you.
Stick to a routine. A divorce or relationship breakup can disrupt almost every area of your life, amplifying feelings of stress, uncertainty, and chaos. Getting back to a regular routine can provide a comforting sense of structure and normalcy.
Take a time out. Try not to make any major decisions in the first few months after a separation or divorce, like starting a new job or moving to a new city. If you can, wait until you’re feeling less emotional so that you can make better decisions.
Avoid using alcohol, drugs, or food to cope. When you’re in the middle of a breakup, you may be tempted to do anything to relieve your feelings of pain and loneliness. But using alcohol, drugs, or food as an escape is unhealthy and destructive in the long run. It’s essential to find healthier ways of coping with painful feelings.
Explore new interests. A divorce or breakup is a beginning as well as an end. Take the opportunity to explore new interests and activities. Pursuing fun, new activities gives you a chance to enjoy life in the here-and-now, rather than dwelling on the past.

Divorce Depression Symptoms

If you’re not sure about your feelings and whether you are experiencing depression, there are some particular symptoms that are good indicators as to whether you are dealing with depression. You might be finding that you are unable to sleep or perhaps in contrast sleeping more than usual. Perhaps you are feeling deep fatigue or unusual aches and pains. Some people find themselves overeating or drinking alcohol excessively to mask the pain. Still others seem very angry or irritable, or perhaps you are feeling restless, something you don’t often feel. Most of these feelings are very normal for someone struggling with a divorce. It’s when the feelings don’t pass or if you are feeling worthless or have recurrent thoughts of dying that you should reach out for help. Sometimes, for a short while, you might want to have a professional help you through the rough patch.

Complications

Depression is most common among those who experience complications in the divorce process. The most common complication is continued attachment to the former spouse. This lack of acceptance of the ending of the relationship creates a rollercoaster of false hope followed by further disappointment, doubt and isolation. Although most people do not feel a sense of finality to the relationship when filing for separation, most have accepted the reality of the divorce after a year of separation. Those who have not accepted the ending of the relationship continue to feel a longing for their former partner and continue to have social, relational and emotional difficulties. Other complicating factors which increase the risk of depression include disagreements about parenting after the divorce, custody disputes and unresolved financial entanglements.

Adjustment

Although divorce is a stressor which creates a higher risk for depression, most divorced individuals report the long-term (between two and four years) effects of a divorce to be an opportunity for personal growth. After successfully navigating the uncoupling process and dealing with difficult emotions, one can then begin to experience a sense of relief and hope for happiness. Although the project of rearranging one's life and healing can take years, most people eventually adjust well. A crucial element to healthy adjustment is support. Support provides the opportunity to prevent distorted ways of thinking about yourself or relationships. Helpful friends and family open the door to developing new social and intimate relationships. Support also aids in preventing the trap of isolation which can further complicate the influence of depression.

Getting Help

Help is available in many forms. Some people think that contacting a counselor or therapist will result in a prolonged period of intensive therapy. They have visions of lying on a couch recounting their life stories while the therapist scribbles notes and mumbles to himself.

In reality, counseling or psychotherapy is not like that, at all. A counselor or psychologist may feel it's necessary to see you only one or two times. You don't have to lie on a couch, and a counselor of psychologist does not judge your character.

If you're still uncomfortable with counseling or therapy, consider attending a support group. Many churches and synagogues offer these groups for people dealing with changes such as the loss of a spouse, parent, or child; separation or divorce; and illness. You can find support groups in your area listed online.

You can also search for mental health services available in your area. Many communities offer counseling services and other mental health resources. Some of these services may be available at little or no cost, depending on your ability to pay.

Keep the following considerations in mind if you're wrestling with the idea of looking for some help:

Nearly everyone experiences a period in life where they could benefit from professional help.
There is no shame in seeking help for an emotional problem.
Finding help can allow you to move past your problems and get on with your life.
Taking the initiative to find help is a sign of strength, not weakness. It is a step in taking control of your life.
Living with depression, or in a prolonged depressed state, isn't necessary. Most doctors and therapists recommend a combination of medications and counseling to treat depression, and it's usually done successfully.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.indidivorce.com/divorce-depression.HTML

http://www.straightdivorce.com/divorce_articles_depression_stemming_from_divorce.asp

http://life.familyeducation.com/depression/divorce/46893.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/28097-divorce-one-major-causes-depression/

http://www.indidivorce.com/divorce-depression/divorce-grief.HTML

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/coping_divorce_relationship_breakup.htm

Kava Kava and Clinical Depression

2011-08-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

What is Kava Kava?

Kava Kava (Piper Methysticum), also known as Kava, Cava Cava, Cava, Cawa Cawa, Awa, Ava, Sakua, and Yaqona is an herbal plant that can be found growing in the Polynesian Islands. As a relative of the black pepper plant, it has similar heart shaped leaves and flowers as the black pepper plant as well as a similar peppery taste. Many believe that it is extremely beneficial in countering the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress when it is in ingested.

History

Kava kava is native to some islands of the South Pacific, including Vanuatu and Fiji. Vanuatu is one of the world's foremost suppliers of kava kava. It has been used for centuries in Fiji and Hawaii to reduce fatigue, combat anxiety and enhance sleep.

Preparation

Kava kava must undergo preparation before it can be used to treat depression or anxiety. The plant must grow for four years before it can be harvested. The roots are then cut from the plant, peeled, washed and ground. They are then steeped in water, and the root pieces are removed by straining the liquid through cheesecloth. The resulting liquid is ready to drink.

The ground root pieces can also be dried and used in supplement capsules.

Consumption

Kava Root (the only part of the plant that is used) is largely employed in many cultures as a celebratory drink much in the same way that alcohol is used in the West. It helps mark momentous occasions such as weddings, public festivals, political powwows and holidays, and it is even used in ceremonies honoring the dead. Unlike alcohol, kava does not produce or stimulate aggression. It does not condemn the user to a dreaded hangover, unlike alcohol.

Kava Kava can be purchased in liquid form, powdered form, as an extract or tincture, or in tablet or capsule form. In some places, the root itself is actually chewed which provides a much more concentrated dosage than any other preparation of the herb. The most popular way to consume Kava Kava is in the form of a tea.

Therapeutic Effects

Many people find other uses for kava, including many medicinal ones. It’s interesting to note that kava has been shown to help ease anxiety, depression as well as producing a restful sleep. It is used by athletes, businessmen and diplomats to help “take the edge off” and focus concentration. Widely prescribed throughout Oceania and Europe to treat hyperactivity in children, it has also been used to aid children who have difficulty sleeping on occasion.

People report the following positive effects on health and well-being:

• Relaxes muscles.
• Calms nerves.
• Creates a general feeling of well-being.
• Induces a feeling of peace, relaxation and contentment.
• Enhances mental alertness and concentration.
• Can be successfully used as an herbal aphrodisiac.
• Reduces inhibitions and makes people more sociable.

It is not exactly known how kava functions in the body yet, but it seems to influence a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA in the brain, making it similar to benzodiazepines such as Valium and Xanax, according to an article in the international journal "Planta Medica," which reported that kava facilitated the transmission of GABA. In a 1990 "European Journal of Pharmacology" article, researchers reported that kava was able to inhibit uptake of another neurotransmitter called norepinephrine. In an article in the October 1998 issue of the journal "Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology Biology and Psychiatry," researchers found that one of the kavalactones, D,L-kawain, has been shown to affect dopamine, resulting in an increase in this neurotransmitter. According to Drugs.com, there are conflicting reports about kava's effects on serotonin. Based on the current research, it is difficult to say exactly how kava affects neurotransmitters --- of which the human body has many --- but at a minimum, it affects GABA, norepinephrine and dopamine.

The kavalactones in kava are able to pass through the blood-brain barrier and act as sedatives and analgesics, as well, meaning that if you are experiencing the irregular sleep cycles often found in individuals suffering from depression, kava can help with that, as well!

Consumers’ Experience

When first ingested, users will experience a numbing of their lips, tongue, and sometimes even their stomach that is caused by the blood vessels constricting. Kava Kava has an intoxicating effect which, which depending on the dosage taken, some might compare to that of drinking alcohol or using marijuana. When taken in moderation, most users experience a great sense of relaxation and well being combined with the ability to think clearly. It can also induce a restful, dreamless sleep. This can be extremely therapeutic to those that suffer from depression. In some cases, if the dosage is too high, individuals will enter a euphoric or dream like state that may be undesirable and can be avoided simply by lowering the dosage.

Side Effects

For the most part, other than the initial numbness of the lips, tongue, and stomach, there are no reported side effects from Kava Kava as long as it is used in moderation. In fact, some have replaced alcoholic beverages with it because they get the same effect without waking up with a hangover the next morning. However, when used excessively, there are some reported side effects and/or health problems such as a hypertension, yellow, scaly rash, shortness of breath, eye irritation, and changes in red and white blood cells and platelets.

Kava Kava and Liver Damage

In the early 2000's, demand for Kava rose dramatically as it began to make its way into the mainstream. For many years, it was also being prescribed in parts of Europe to treat anxiety as well; something that the pharmaceutical companies were surely taking notice of. Shortly thereafter, reports of liver damage by a handful of people in Europe began to emerge. Unfortunately, doctors were quick to blame Kava, and soon, entire countries were banning this historically safe and effective herbal supplement. Three of those countries included the United States, Canada, and Germany. Others quickly followed suit and the legal status of kava was suddenly in serious jeopardy.

But, the health industry fought back with a vengeance. Leading that fight was the International Kava Executive Council. Even though they were outgunned by governments, pharmaceutical companies and the media, the herbal industry was able to provide more than enough evidence that the ban was unquestionably unjustified. Furthermore, the IKEC showed that the conclusions that were reached should never have been reached in the first place, as it became clear that Kava was nothing more than a convenient scapegoat for the reported liver damage. As the evidence was being submitted, ongoing research was also being conducted by a number of independent laboratories and universities behind the scenes, partly because a worldwide ban on kava kava could be devastating for several economies throughout Oceania.

Fortunately, within a small span of time, several key pieces of evidence emerged. Perhaps the most notable one came from from the University of Hawaii, as reported by the Honolulu Advertiser in early 2003. It turns out that there's a poison in the leaves and peelings (bark) of Kava called pipermethystine. And, not surprisingly, this poison could potentially lead to liver damage.

It turns out that once the demand for Kava skyrocketed, there wasn't enough Kava root to fill the demand. Suppliers then knowingly or unknowingly bought the leaves and peelings of Kava plants (the parts that are always thrown away as waste material) from unscrupulous growers. Up until that event, the only parts of the Kava plant that were traditionally used throughout its 3,000 year history were the roots; never the peelings or the leaves. On a related note: further research revealed that the handful of people who suffered liver damage also consumed alcohol on a regular basis, restoring Kava's place in the herbal medicine chest as a safe, effective, and pleasant herbal supplement.

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Countries started to lift their bans on Kava in 2003-onward, but kava was now synonymous with "but it causes liver damage." Nothing could be further from the truth, but the media had accomplished its task, and restoring Kava's reputation has been an uphill battle ever since.

So, where do we stand with the "kava legal status" question? Happily for many, the United States lifted its ban completely, Canada lifted its ban on Kava if it's imported by individuals for personal consumption, and even Germany, where much of the original controversy arose, lifted its ban on Kava in 2007. Except for a handful of countries such as Norway, Australia, and Sweden, Kava is indeed legal throughout the world once again! The Canadian Health Ministry even gave permission to export Kava to Canada, provided it was only to private individuals.

Dosage

The most significant anti-anxiety studies show that an effective daily dose of kava is 70-210 milligrams of kavalactones. The amount of kava to take depends on your purpose for using it and your individual sensitivity to the effects of kavalactones.

Death or severe illness from exclusive use of kava has not been reported in any medical literature.

No standard dose exists for kava. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, a typical dose may be between 150-300 mg, taken between one to three times daily. However, the dosage recommendations on the labels of kava supplements will vary according to the brand. Do not take kava kava for more than three months without the close supervision of your physician.

Recent Research

In the recent, 2009, study, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia have found a traditional extract of Kava, a medicinal plant from the South Pacific, to be safe and effective in reducing anxiety. Lead researcher Jerome Sarris, a PhD candidate from UQ’s School of Medicine, said the placebo-controlled study found Kava to be an effective and safe treatment option for people with chronic anxiety and varying levels of depression.

“We’ve been able to show that Kava offers a natural alternative for the treatment of anxiety, and unlike some pharmaceutical options, has less risk of dependency and less potential of side effects,” Mr. Sarris said.

Each week participants were given a clinical assessment as well as a self-rating questionnaire to measure their anxiety and depression levels. The researchers found anxiety levels decreased dramatically for participants taking five tablets of Kava per day as opposed to the placebo group which took dummy pills.

“We also found that Kava had a positive impact on reducing depression levels, something which had not been tested before,” Mr. Sarris said. In 2002 Kava was banned in Europe, UK and Canada due to concerns over liver toxicity.

While the three-week trial raised no major health concerns regarding the Kava extract used, the researchers said larger studies were required to confirm the drug’s safety.

“When extracted in the appropriate way, Kava may pose less or no potential liver problems. I hope the results will encourage governments to reconsider the ban,” Mr. Sarris said.

Summary

While Kava Kava has been shown to help alleviate some of the debilitating symptoms of depression, it should never replace any prescription medication or traditional therapy without first consulting with a physician. It is important to remember that what works for one person might not necessarily work for another and what might be safe for one person might be dangerous to another. Kava Kava is an extremely potent herb for depression that can have some undesirable effects if it is misused. Work with your physician to determine if it is right for you…

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.herbsfordepressionrelief.com/kava-kava.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-the-Legal-Status-of-Kava?&id=3303256

http://www.kava.com/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090511122619.htm

http://www.livestrong.com/article/135977-kava-kava-depression/

http://www.livestrong.com/article/439633-what-neurotransmitter-does-kava-kava-affect/

Celiac Disease, Gluten-Free Diet, and Glutenated Depression

2011-07-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

Overview

Depression can be defined as a deep, chronic feeling of sadness. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, it almost always requires treatment to improve. Many treatments exist, including natural remedies that can help a person avoid the need for antidepressant medications. A gluten-free diet is offered for consideration by some experts as an alternative treatment for depression, but conflicting research exists as to whether this is effective. More than that, the overwhelming data has been recently received that gluten-free diet may cause or aggravate the depressive disease. It is important to talk with your primary doctor or therapist before beginning alternative treatment like that.

Celiac Disease

While some chose to maintain the gluten-free diet, other do not have much choice. Celiac disease is an inherited, autoimmune disease in which the lining of the small intestine is damaged from eating gluten and other proteins found in wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats.

There are many symptoms of celiac disease, such as bloating or gas, diarrhea, headaches, an inability to gain weight and fatigue. The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness also lists other nonphysical symptoms, such as depression and irritability. As of today, following a gluten-free diet during lifetime is the only treatment for celiac disease.

It’s very hard for some celiacs (people with celiac disease) to accept the fact that they need to adhere to gluten-free diet for their life. Many of them lack mental strength to accept this reality. Also, such dietary plans create many deficiencies in the body.

Glutenated Depression Causes

Research has shown that people with celiac disease do develop depression; however, the connection is not fully understood. The higher sensitivity to the depressive episodes can be explained by several reasons:

Some people may not be aware they are not aware that they are suffering from celiac disease, so they inadvertently consume an inacceptable for them dose of gluten from their daily intake. Simple things like breads, pizzas and other wheat products contain huge quantity of gluten. This in turn affects their villi (lining of your small intestine) and their capacity to absorb essential nutrients is substantially reduced. The malnutrition may cause severe health and mental consequences. Sometimes, depression related to the celiac disease is referred in the literature as ‘glutenated depression’.
While being diagnosed with celiac disease, patients have to accept a bitter reality that they have to consume gluten-free diet for lifetime. They are told to change drastically their eating habits and lifestyle, with complete exclusion of wheat. So they will be banned from eating all sorts of breads, pizzas, they cannot drink beer and they will be cutting most of the deserts from their diet. It’s not easy to accept these realities. Their mind and body will resist. It becomes very hard for them to say “no” to all ‘glutenated’ foods every now and then, even if they are told by their doctor that these things can harm them. They may get severe cravings for the gluten containing treats, but they have to keep their mouth shut, which is not always easy. Gluten is very nasty nutrient. It will immediately show up. Starting from diarrhea and stomach upsets, it will make the person sick mentally and physically. So it will lead to glutenated depression.
Even if a person follows a strict gluten-free diet, he/she may not be aware of the deficiencies, which such diet creates in the body. So he/she strictly adheres to gluten-free diet, but may not take in essential vitamins and nutrients, which would have been otherwise, part of his/her normal diet. So it will affect his body (mainly brains) and within a short period of time he will start feeling empty and depressed. This may be considered as the third potential cause of glutenated depression.

Research Studies

According to various studies, there is a some link between depressive disorder and adherence to the gluten-free diet, required for celiac disease patients.

One study conducted by Addolorato et al., reported that depression was present in a higher percentage of celiac patients. They found that one year of gluten-free diet failed significantly to affect depressive symptoms. The presence of depression after introduction of the gluten-free diet could be related to the reduction in quality of life in celiac patients. The non-regression of depression after introducing the diet could suggest that these patients need psychological support.

Another study found that celiac disease increased a patient's risk of subsequent depression. Moreover, patients with celiac disease were 1.8 times as likely to develop subsequent depression as those without the gastrointestinal disorder. Also, prior depression increased the risk of celiac disease at odds ratios of 2.3. The investigators suggested, in the Journal of Affective Disorders, that this increased risk might be due to increased screening for the condition among patients with mood disorder compared to healthy individuals.

Consideration

While it is absolutely clear that celiac disease is a strong risk factor for the depression development, the leading factor for the depression might not be a gluten-free diet itself, but other two factors of consideration, reviewed earlier.

The authors of the study published in the journal BMC Psychiatry observe:

“Celiac disease in adolescents has been associated with an increased prevalence of depressive and disruptive behavioral disorders, particularly in the phase before diet treatment.”

There are also ‘non-celiac’ aspects of gluten sensitivity. Gluten related inflammation in the brain can manifest as a host of cognitive, emotional and neurodegenerative disorders in the absence of intestinal manifestations. This is often referred to as “silent celiac disease”:

“Celiac disease is an under-diagnosed autoimmune type of gastrointestinal disorder resulting from gluten ingestion in genetically susceptible individuals. Non-specific symptoms such as fatigue and dyspepsia are common, but the disease may also be clinically silent.”

They further note that:

”Depressive symptoms and disorders are common among adult patients with celiac disease, and depressive and disruptive behavioral disorders are highly common also among adolescents, particularly in the phase before diet treatment. Recently 73% of patients with untreated celiac disease – but only 7% of patients adhering to a gluten-free diet – were reported to have cerebral blood flow abnormalities similar to those among patients with depressive disorders.”

Their data revealed abnormalities in tryptophan assimilation (tryptophan is the amino acid precursor to serotonin) and prolactin levels in adolescents with celiac disease and depression prior to treatment. They revealed that

“A significant decrease in psychiatric symptoms was found at 3 months on a gluten-free diet compared to patients’ baseline condition, coinciding with significantly decreased celiac disease activity…”

This data shows that the diet by itself plays a small role in the depression development in celiacs, so for those who are diagnosed with celiac disease, there is no second thought that they have to adhere to the required gluten-free diet.

But what about others, who want to try gluten-free diet “by choice”? Based on the unclear and sometimes conflicting data available as of today, I would be careful with such experiments, and I would not make such diet related life changes without approval of your primary doctor or therapist.

Sources and Additional Information:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/348064-gluten-free-diet-and-depression/

http://www.safedepressiontreatment.com/181/glutenated-depression-what-is-that/

http://depressionselfhelptips.com/glutenated-depression-is-really-a-bully-just-face-it-down.html

http://www.celiaccentral.org/Celiac-Disease/Related-Diseases/Depression/43/

http://www.lapislight.com/wp/2010/05/28/gluten-free-diet-can-improve-depression-and-behavioral-problems-in-adolescents/

What Judaism Tells you Аbout Clinical Depression?

2011-07-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

“We Americans are insane. Eleven p.m. every night, we snuggle up, ready for bed, and what’s the last thing we do? We switch on the evening news. Thirty minutes of murder, brutality, corruption, catastrophe, moral lunacy, sports and weather. Good night. And then in the morning we are awakened by a clock radio set to some news station. And we begin the day with…murder, brutality, corruption, catastrophe, moral lunacy, sports and weather. And you want to know why you’re depressed?”

Rabbi Ed Feinstein

Depression in Torah

While the Torah does not address depression directly, it does refer to the state of being man or woman should exist in. A person should not be so troubled and despondent that they are incapable of feeling their connection to the divine. By extension, medicine that aids the body and the mind to find succor and to function is important, but not if the medicine so obliterates the pain and connection to reality that they cannot experience the wonder of the divine. In other words, some sadness is natural, but when depression is a medical condition and creates an inability to function, seeking medical help is advised.

Judaism doesn’t work like a drug that blots out pain. Judaism acknowledges the reality of sorrow in this world. The Bible itself offers poignant examples of depressed individuals. Saul, the first king of Israel, suffers excruciating fits of melancholy. He loves his protégé, David, but is also desperately jealous of him, and he fears the people around him are plotting against him. Periodically he sinks into black despair and fits of rage.

King Saul got some relief from melancholy when David played his harp. This story is interpreted as evidence that external measure – including therapy, medication, physical exercise, making art or listening to music – can help to alleviate the pain of depression.

Elijah, the lonely prophet of the book of First Kings, is rejected by his society and feels that his work has been a failure. At the lowest point of his life he flees into the wilderness, sits down under a tree and prays for his own death. “Enough!” he cries. “Please, G-d, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers” [1 Ki.19:4].

Jonah, another misunderstood prophet, is frustrated with God and humanity alike; he, too, begs G-d to take his life and put him out of his misery. And the Book of Psalms, the most personal book in the Bible, expresses the full range of human despair at the sorrows of this world.

Historical Perspectives

Jews come from a tradition that doesn’t encourage escapism. It forces them to acknowledge the pain, injustice and strife all around, and simultaneously cultivates an intense yearning for justice, goodness and peace. Since the World around is far from being perfect, this combination inevitably produces dissatisfaction with the world. Dissatisfaction is a necessary religious trait for Jews. It’s the engine that motivates them to want to change the world and make it better.

However, while dissatisfaction with the world is essential to a Jewish life, sadness and depression are not. In fact, our tradition sees sadness as the enemy of the good life, the very antithesis of the life Judaism tries to bring about. The Torah itself commands happiness; it is a religious obligation for Jews, as stated in the book of Deuteronomy: “You shall rejoice in all the good that G-d has given you” [Dt.26:11].

In 12^th century Spain, Yehudah Halevi taught: “It is not in accordance with the spirit of the Torah to worry and feel anguish throughout one’s life; one who does so transgresses God’s commandment to be content with what you have been given…” In the 19^th century, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch wrote that “Judaism never considered pain, sorrow, self-affliction or sadness to be valid goals. The opposite is true – one should pursue happiness, bliss, cheer, joy and delight.” And Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav who, you’ll recall, struggled all his life with depression, is famous among Hasidim for his great teaching: “Mitzvah gedolah lihiyot b’simcha tamid – it is a great mitzvah to be ever joyful, and to overcome feelings of sorrow and melancholy” [Likkutei Etzot, Joy 30].

Jewish tradition endorses modern therapeutic techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, which is based on the idea that overcoming negative patterns of thought can alter the way we feel and act. Jewish ethical writing, starting in the middle ages, argues that we need not be victims of our emotions, but can discipline ourselves to acquire positive attitudes and feelings. In fact, the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, pointed out that if we rearrange the letters of the Hebrew word for “thought” – machshavah – we get the word “b’simcha – with joy,” teaching us that we can often combat depression by changing the way we think.

Depression Types

A certain amount of depression in life is natural when depression refers to the sadness and anxiety associated with living. Mourning, for example, is a time when the heart and the mind can be depressed. In Judaism, rituals for observing death and mourning such as sitting shiva for the departed help assuage grief. Judaism's extended community also creates a very real support system that is vital for overcoming the psychological wear and tear of loneliness, depression and anxiety.

Depression Sources

A common source of unhappiness is unachieved goals. This can lead to low self esteem which may doom one to more failures, further erosion of self esteem, causing a downward spiral into the abyss of sorrow. One can prevent this vicious cycle by setting realistic goals from the outset. If sadness has already settled in, one can stop the snowball effect by setting short-term, easy goals that bolster ones confidence and in turn empower one to achieve longer-term, more significant goals. This will initiate an upward spiral to level ground.

Another source of sorrow is feeling that we don’t have everything we want. On this our Sages taught, "Who is truly wealthy? One, who is content with his portion." A poor man once complained to the Maggid of Mezritch about his poverty. The Maggid sent him to Rebbe Zusha of Anipoli for advice. Rebbe Zusha, who himself suffered dire poverty and poor health, questioned in all sincerity, "I don’t know why the Maggid sent you to me, I’ve got everything I need".

Also, we often get depressed about bad things that happen. Contemplating the good in the bad helps mitigate ones melancholy. King David’s son Avshalom rebelled against him, forcing him to flee: "David ascended the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went" (II Samuel 15:30). Nevertheless, David concluded that it’s better the rebel be his son because another man would have killed him. In the end, not only did he not despair, he began to sing: "A psalm of David when he fled from Avshalom his son" (Psalms 3:1).

Finally, one must realize that everything is from G-d for the ultimate good. An observer unfamiliar with surgery would consider it a most terrible act. The surgeon however understands it’s for the patients good, sometimes saving his life. Ultimately there can always be a sudden turn-around. Abraham and Sara suffered being barren for a long time until unexpectedly they were blessed with a child who fathered the entire Jewish nation.

Judaism and Anti-depressants

Some medications that treat depression can influence a person's ability to experience emotions naturally. According to more conservative traditional views, if a person subsists on medication that inhibits their connection to G-d, then he or she should discontinue. Someone who was taking anti-depressants asked since while depressed he used to pray with tears but now the medication makes it harder for him to feel the same connection to G-d, perhaps he should stop taking the medicine. Rabbeinu Yonah (Spain, 1200-1263) addressed this issue some 800 years ago: "Although there is a beneficial aspect to sadness it prevents people from becoming overly joyous over the pleasures of this world nevertheless one should not pursue the state of sadness, since it is a physical disease. When a person is despondent, he is not able to serve his Creator properly." While it is admirable that this person initially used his depression to feel close to G-d, clearly G-d prefers that he face the new challenge of finding spirituality as a healthy person. The medicines the rabbi likely referred to involved hallucinogens, opiates and other medicines designed to disconnect mind and body and not pharmaceutical medications to treat clinical depression.

The modern position on the anti-depressants use is clear: If your doctor is reliable and he/she has prescribed anti-depressants, you should certainly take them. Modern Judaism accepts the point of view that depression is like any other illness and needs to be treated with the correct medication. A person suffering clinical depression needs competent treatment. It is wrong to tell him “Just pull yourself together,” just as it would be cruel to tell a drowning person “Just pull yourself together.” This is adding insult to injury.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.ehow.com/about_4740361_judaism-depression.html

http://www.betham.org/sermons/marder041105.html

http://ohr.edu/this_week/ask_the_rabbi/1149

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1472060/jewish/Why-Did-G-d-Give-Me-Depression.htm

http://www.vosizneias.com/50538/2010/03/03/new-york-understanding-depression-in-the-jewish-population

Thinking Styles Feeding your Depression

2011-07-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

Every person is unique, even biological twins are different in their biological development and cognitive expression styles. However, all depressed people have much in common in a way of thinking. Yes, they all think in remarkably similar ways. Understanding what these thinking styles are and why they form a pattern, will offer the best weapon to fight depression in its sources.

Depression, to be ongoing, has to be maintained. Otherwise, depression will simply evaporate over time. This maintenance is performed by thinking styles that encourage any introspection to be emotionally arousing.

What's The Difference Between Depression and Prolonged Sadness?

We all suffer, when unfortunate and stressful life events struck suddenly, or penetrate slowly in our lives, causing mental exhaustion and despair: a loved one dies, or perhaps due to outside circumstances beyond our control, we have to move from a house we've lived in and loved for many years. Our energy level may well sink and perhaps we become more insular.

Someone who is grieving can suffer exactly the same chemical imbalance which is so often cited as the cause of depression. However, there are key differences between grieving (sadness), and depression. The person who is not suffering from depression, but is simply sad, is able to see beyond the sadness. They know it'll lift.

The poor old depressive, on the other hand, feels that life will always be the way it is now. There is no future for him or her and quite probably no past either, at least not one, they are able to remember. There's only the crippling misery of 'the now.' The old saying that time heals everything is true for the person who's sad because of an unpleasant event, but it certainly doesn't work for the depressive.

Depressive Thinking Leads to Depression, Leads to Depressive Thinking, leads to…

As you explore the thinking styles, associated with depression, you'll see how each one of them helps to maintain depression. It alters our perception of reality. It's these thinking styles that make an end to depression a hopeless dream. We're imprisoned by our thoughts.

It's these thinking styles that make it so hard to see an end to the depression, as they limit our possibilities of thought. Once these patterns take hold, the emotional arousal they cause begins to affect us physically. It is not your fault if you are depressed, but there are concrete, effective things you can do about it.

Thinking Styles List

The following styles in thinking can be subtle yet very powerful in causing us to experience needless emotional distress. Interestingly, the more distressed we become, the more our thinking can become narrowed and focused, making it difficult to think in balanced ways. Many times, simply identifying which Thinking Style/s we are using can be very liberating, allowing us to break free from narrowed, unhealthy thinking patterns.

All-Or-Nothing: Events are only good or only bad. They are black or white with no gray areas between the extremes. If something falls short of perfection, then it is seen as a complete failure. "My work today was a total waste of time."

Overgeneralization: You draw general conclusions based on one event or a single piece of evidence. If something bad happens one time, you see it as an unending cycle of defeat. "People are always mean to me."

Mind Reading: Even though they have not told you so, you believe you know what people think and feel about you, as well as why they behave the way they do towards you. "He thinks I'm stupid."

Catastrophizing: You expect things to turn out badly. "If I ask my boss for a raise he will yell at me."

Chain Reaction: You continue down the chain, link by link, with how one bad thing will lead to another bad thing, ending in a larger bad outcome with regard to an overall goal. "If I fail this test I won't pass this class, then I will fail out of school, then I won't graduate, then I won't get a good job, then I will be unhappy in a dead-end job forever."

What If's: You ask questions about bad or fearful things that could possibly happen in the future, while being unsatisfied with any answers. "What if something happens to her?"

Personalization: You think that things people say or do are in reaction to you, or you believe you are responsible for things people do or say. "He looked at his watch because I'm boring."

Shoulds/Musts: You have strict rules about how you and others should/must feel and behave. You feel angry if others break these rules and guilty if you break them. "I shouldn't take any time off. I must work hard all the time."

Filtering: You magnify or dwell on the negative details of a situation while ignoring all the positive ones. "Look at all the things I have done badly."

Jumping to Conclusions: You make illogical leaps in believing that A causes B without enough evidence or information to support your conclusions. "My boyfriend was late in picking me up. He doesn't really want to go out with me tonight."

Comparisons: You compare yourself to other people, trying to figure out who is better, smarter, more attractive, etc. "She is so talented. I'll never amount to anything."

Discounting Positives: You automatically discount or reject positive actions or events as if they don't matter. If you did something well, you tell yourself that it doesn't count, it wasn't good enough, or anyone could have done it as well or better. You don't allow yourself to enjoy even small accomplishments. "If I had spent more time preparing for my presentation it could have been better."

Maximization/Minimization: You maximize your problems or blow the effects of them out of proportion to the situation. Or, you minimize the value of your positive qualities. "This is the worst thing that could happen. I can’t manage it."

Blaming: You blame yourself for things that are not in your control. Or, you hold others responsible for your misfortunes. "It's my fault that my husband drinks. If I were a better wife he wouldn't do that."

Emotional Reasoning: You automatically believe that what you feel is true for you. If you feel strange, boring, stupid, etc. then you believe you are these things. "I feel embarrassed. I am so awkward and foolish."

Being Right: You are always trying to prove that your opinions and behaviors are the right ones. You cannot accept that you might be wrong or inaccurate, and you will go to great lengths to prove that you are right or others are wrong. "You don't know what you're talking about. We have to do it my way or it won't work."

Reward Fallacy: You expect to receive rewards or payoffs as a result of your own deeds or sacrifices, as if someone is keeping score. You feel angry or resentful if your actions do not reap rewards. "I spent all that time fixing a nice dinner and no one appreciated it."

Change Fallacy: You believe that if you pressure people enough they will change to suit you. You also believe they must change since you let your happiness depend on them. "If she told me she loved me more often, then I could feel happy."

Fairness Fallacy: You believe you know what is fair, but since others don't agree with you, you feel resentful or angry. "I deserve a day off from work since I worked hard over the weekend, but my boss won't allow it."

Sources and Additional Information:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Depression---What-Have-Thinking-Styles-to-Do-With-It?&id=4146830

http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/dlp/understanding-depression/thinking-styles-and-depression/

http://www.allaboutdepression.com/workshops/CBT_Workshop/CBT_09.html

Tryptophan - promising remedy against depression

2011-06-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

Overview

Considering the depression as disease caused by chemical imbalance in the brain, we can search for natural supplements taken with food to neutralize the negative impact in our body. One way to increase amount of the useful components is consuming food that contain tryptophan. Tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin, which helps you relax and can generally improve your mood and treat your insomnia. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, what means it cannot be produced in the body and needs to be taken as a part of the diet or as a dietary supplement.

Tryptophan and Serotonin

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that must be consumed with food, rather than any nonessential amino acid the human body might be able to generate with no relation to the diet. Obtained tryptophan is converted by our body into the chemical 5-hydroxytryptophan, or 5-HTP, which is then converted into melatonin, serotonin, and, very inefficiently, niacin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that facilitates the relay of signals between brain cells. Eating foods containing tryptophan is a way to increase serotonin in your brain naturally, which may have a positive effect not only on your mood and anxiety, but on your sleep, appetite and pain sensation as well.

Tryptophan and Depression

While regular antidepressant drugs help relieve depression by increasing the availability of serotonin in the brain and preventing its depletion, tryptophan allows to increase serotonin levels naturally. Research by Linda Booij and colleagues, reported in 2005 in "The British Journal of Psychiatry," found that acute tryptophan depletion causes a relapse into depression and depressive symptoms, such as lethargy and loss of appetite, in people with remitted depression, highlighting the importance of tryptophan for protection against depressed moods. Women need more tryptophan than men. Research in 1997 from McGill University found that men produce 52 percent more serotonin in their brains than women, with the result that women are more likely than men to suffer from depression unless their tryptophan levels are high.

What is Tryptophan used for (other than depression)?

Tryptophan is used as a natural cure for a variety of conditions, besides depression, such as anxiety, stress, low moods, poor mental health, migraine headaches, insomnia, nervousness, carbohydrate craving and other eating disorders, premenstrual tension, fibromyalgia, excessive alcohol use, other addictive states, aggression, irritability, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette's syndrome and some psychiatric disorders.

Foods Containing Tryptophan

Foods that contain tryptophan include milk, turkey, beef, cottage cheese, oats, soy, bananas, cheese, nuts, sesame seeds and peanut butter. Nuts, in particular almonds, and sesame seeds, can be sprinkled on casseroles, breakfast cereals and salads.

Tryptophan Supplements

One disadvantage of tryptophan is that our bodies do not always absorb it efficiently, even when foods high in tryptophan, such as almonds and peanut butter, are eaten. Supplements of tryptophan are available at doses that can be readily absorbed by the brain. These supplements must be taken together with vitamin C and B-complex vitamins to support the transformation of tryptophan into serotonin. Like all supplements, tryptophan should be taken only on the recommendation of your doctor.

5HTP (5-hydroxy tryptophan) is considered by many to be more effective than tryptophan for depression. L-Tryptophan (which is the desired form) is converted to 5HTP before becoming serotonin; taking 5HTP bypasses this first step of the process. The effectiveness of 5HTP may be increased with gingko biloba, St. John's Wort, B-complex vitamins with magnesium, tyrosine, flax seed oil, and ginger. Vitamin B6 and folic acid may assist in the conversion to serotonin. An equivalent dose of 5HTP (compared to 1gm of tryptophan) is about 100 mg. Doses of 100mg tid have been used, but it may be best to start at a lower dose and slowly increase as the side-effect of nausea can occur at higher doses. Starting at a lower dose reduces the likelihood of nausea, which usually disappears in less than 2 weeks.

Side effects and precautions

Tryptophan is generally well tolerated, but there is a risk of several side effects (these are usually mild, occurring mostly at the higher doses and fading away by themselves after discontinuing Tryptophan supplementation).

Among possible side effects of Tryptophan are dryness of the mouth, nausea, stomach disturbances and drowsiness.

Make sure you know well your reaction to tryptophan before driving or any other activity demanding high alertness.

Do not take L-tryptophan in combination with other serotonin increasing drugs, such as SSRIs, MAOIs and sedatives, for abnormally high levels of serotonin are no better than its deficiency.

As with any other nutritional supplement, it is advisable to seek medical advice before taking tryptophan, as it may interact with other medications or cause adverse effects.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/385527-tryptophan-depression-anxiety/

http://depressioncure4u.com/tryptophan.html

http://www.digitalnaturopath.com/treat/T138417.html

http://www.xomba.com/foods_fight_depression

Drinking Coffee Link to the Depression Symptoms

2011-06-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

When I started to work on the article, exploring causal relationship between coffee and depression, I was not quite sure what category this post will belong: to the depression causes, or to the depression cures. There is no doubt, that there should be some link between these two. To my surprise, the amount of studies trying to examine the relationship is quite limited, and the results, and following recommendations are quite controversial. Following the detailed review of all the materials, I decided to place the post in the cure category, and I will try to explain this decision.

How Coffee Works on your Body and Mind?

When you drink coffee, or any other caffeinated drink, as a matter of fact, whether it's a soft drink, caffeinated tea or energy drink – the caffeine uptake will put your body on the special internal rollercoaster. Upon consumption, caffeine begins its effects by initiating uncontrolled neuron firing in your brain. This excess neuron activity triggers your pituitary gland to secrete a hormone that tells your adrenal glands to produce adrenalin. Therefore, caffeine puts your body in this "fight-or-flight" state, which might not be quite necessary for you risk-free daily job at your computer desk. And there is a payout coming later. When this adrenal high wears off, you feel more fatigue, irritability, headache or confusion.

Stephen Cherniske in his book, Caffeine Blues explains your body's "perspective" of this constant state: "Imagine you lived in a country that was always under threat of attack. No matter where you went, there was a perpetual state of alert. Not only that, but your defenses were constantly being depleted and weakened. Does that sound stressful? Caffeine produces the same effect on your body, like fighting a war on multiple fronts at the same time." Cherniske calls your body's constant state of alert "caffeinism," which is characterized by fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, sleep disturbance, irritability and depression.

A dosage of 50 to 100 mg caffeine, the amount in one cup of coffee, will produce a temporary increase in mental clarity and energy levels while simultaneously reducing drowsiness. It also improves muscular-coordinated work activity, such as typing. Through its CNS stimulation, caffeine increases brain activity; however, it also stimulates the cardiovascular system, raising blood pressure and heart rate. It generally speeds up our body by increasing our basal metabolic rate (BMR), which burns more calories.

Can Caffeine Cause Depression?

After reviewing the coffee effect on the body, it would seem more likely, that caffeine would cause anxiety rather than depression – which is true for some people. On the other hand, there is a possibility that caffeine makes the symptoms of depression worse in several ways. One way is by increasing levels of the stress hormone cortisol – a hormone produced by the adrenal gland that’s associated with feelings of depression.

Other consideration should be taken in an account. Caffeine usually increases energy levels and boosts alertness initially, but this is followed several hours later by a “crash” where a person feels fatigued and wiped out. In a person who’s already depressed, this can make the symptoms worse – or lead to a cycle of drinking caffeine all day just to stay functional. Caffeine also causes rapid fluctuations in blood sugar levels which can worsen the symptoms of depression.

Validity of these warnings has been confirmed by research results, completed in Kansas State University, checking the hypotheses that drinking caffeinated coffee can lead to feelings of depression. Commenting on the study results, scientists explained that caffeine only increases energy temporarily. When caffeine is consumed, it begins to lower the level of sugar in the body's blood supply. About 4 hours after drinking the coffee, the body experiences significantly low blood sugar levels, which causes feelings of depression and fatigue.

And finally multiple studies have proven that stopping abruptly caffeine consumption can worsen depression if you regularly consumed it before, remaining regular withdrawal symptoms in the process of cleansing from other drugs as nicotine, for example. Quitting caffeine can also cause other signs and symptoms such as headaches, fatigue and irritability.

Coffee as Mild Antidepressant

To be fair, we should also present another side of a story. Several recent studies have shown that coffee may function as an antidepressant, acting on the central nervous system and has mild antidepressant effects.

Coffee and Depression studies have found that drinking coffee reduced the rate of suicide in the large demographic populations observed.

The first study that raised the topic of coffee as an antidepressant was done in 1993. In this study, which included the relationship between Coffee and Depression, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program studied 128,934 nurses and found that coffee drinkers were significantly less likely to commit suicide than nondrinkers. This Nurse’s Health Study did not go so far as to establish a causal relationship between coffee drinking and the drop in the suicide rate as far as coffee and depression goes. The study stated that it could be that the coffee itself had little to do with it, but that people who drink coffee share other characteristics that make them less likely to commit suicide.

A second study on coffee including this relationship confirmed these controversial findings and went farther as to state that it was the coffee that dropped the suicide rate. This study was especially noteworthy, as it was large-scale and adjusted for a wide range of other factors.

Published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 1996, the study followed more than 86,000 registered nurses in the United States between 34 and 59 years of age for ten years. Dr. Ichiro Kawachi, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School who led this study, looked at the data from the Kaiser study hoping to dispute their findings. Instead of what he expected to find, he confirmed the original study’s results with his own: using coffee as an antidepressant reduced the suicide rate in these nurses.

Dr. Kawachi discovered that the nurses he studied who drank two to three cups of coffee a day were one-third less likely to commit suicide as those who didn't drink any. The nurses who drank more than four cups of coffee a day were 58% less likely to commit suicide than their colleagues who drank less. This study of female nurses found eleven suicides among those who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day, compared with twenty-one cases among those who said they almost never drank coffee.

Dr. Kawachi suggested that whether it is the caffeine or some other coffee ingredient, coffee does seem to have at least a mild antidepressant effect. The caffeine in coffee may have mood-elevating actions through effects on neurotransmitters such as dopamine and acetylcholine.

Summary

1. Moderate amount of the caffeinated drinks consumption may have slight positive effect on the depressive symptoms appearance, especially for people performing the stressful and complicated job functions. Mild antidepressant and stimulating effect helps the body to “wake up” and got to work. Moderation is a key, since excessive amount of the daily dose of caffeine may cause the body to get “over burnt”, draining physical and emotional energy out.

2. The Mayo Clinic suggested that there is still no substantial link been found connecting directly caffeine and depression. Instead, the depression may be linked to a lack of sleep related to caffeine. Having a good night sleep is very important, so do not drink coffee or any other caffeinated drinks in the evening. It is recommended to confine your coffee drinking to before noon as a general rule.

3. Depression symptoms may occur as a result of caffeine withdrawal, especially among people who consume caffeine regularly. An individual withdrawing from caffeine because of a chronic toxic overdose may experience symptoms of withdrawal including headache, nausea, nervousness, reduced alertness and depressed mood. These symptoms are most acute during the first 20-48 hours, but they may persist for as long as 7 days. Discontinuation of caffeine at even a moderate intake can lead to these symptoms.

4. While proven link between caffeine and depression has to be discovered yet, scientists claim that there should be no relations between decaffeinated coffee and depression symptoms, focusing on caffeine as the primary troublemaker.

5. And final, but very important point: if you drink coffee, at least do not feel guilty about that!

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.naturalnews.com/012352.html

http://menopausesymptomstheweirdones.com/herbal-remedies-for-stress-anxiety/can-caffeine-cause-depression/

http://www.ultimate-coffees-info.com/coffee-and-depression.html

http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/puarticles/caffeine.htm

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1937838

Depression in Different Cultures: Is it Universal in terms of Emotional Expression?

2011-06-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Charles Darwin, who was himself prone to depression, published The Expression of the Emotions in Animals and Man in 1872, 13 years after Origin of Species. This was the first large-scale attempt by a scientist to demonstrate that certain universals might exist in human emotional expression. Darwin wanted to support his theory of evolution – that we had all evolved from a common progenitor – by showing not only that certain emotional expressions were universal, and therefore had a common genetic blueprint, but also that there was some continuity between humans and other mammals in the way that we expressed moods. Some photographs of his observed expressions are shown on the picture below.

Darwin interviewed people who had lived or travelled in foreign lands. He pointed to similarities in emotional expression across different cultures. He also recounted striking and poignant descriptions of grief or sadness in other mammals. On Indian elephants, captured in Ceylon (now Malaysia), he quoted an observer: ‘[the elephants] lay motionless on the ground, with no other indication of suffering than the tears which suffused their eyes and flowed incessantly’.

Darwin’s volume persuasively suggested that the influence of natural selection is not limited to mere physical characteristics but shapes our emotions. However, ever since its publication violent battles have been waged over the interpretation of its findings. Among the main players in this drama during the twentieth century have been the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead and, later, the experimental psychologist Paul Ekman.

Margaret Mead conducted detailed observations of many relatively isolated cultures. Her descriptions demonstrated that there were huge variations in behavior – how people lived, hunted, fed, worked, formed intimate partnerships and raised their children – across the different cultures. In 1935 Margaret Mead published an academic work called Sex and Temperament in Three Societies, in which she concluded that ‘human nature is almost unbelievably malleable, responding accurately and contrastingly to contrasting cultural conditions. This ‘cultural relativism’ was, at the time, a welcome backlash against racism and eugenics, and it arose in the climate of radical behaviorism, which suggested that we are all entirely products of learning and experience.

This arguably optimistic stance suggested that individual differences could be wiped out if we were all raised in the same environment and with limitless opportunities for self-improvement. It further suggested that there were no genetic limits to our achievements. With regard to our emotional worlds, emotional displays were determined entirely by learnt rules of communication within a culture. There was no contribution from biology. It followed that some expressions, like a frown, could represent happiness in one culture, and displeasure in another; and that some facial expressions could be found in one culture and not in another. The cultural relativists would have strongly resisted any suggestion that the same symptoms of depression could be detected in every culture of the world. This would have implied a universal genetic liability, and even continuity with the animal kingdom.

Unfortunately for Margaret Mead, at the time that she was writing other researchers, most notably the developmental psychologist Florence Goodenough, were coming up with sound evidence to support Darwin’s belief in emotional universality. More importantly, they provided direct support for the idea that emotional expressions were innate, not learned. They observed the emotional reactions of children who had not had the opportunity to imitate the emotional expressions of others. In 1932 Goodenough published her observations of a ten-year-old girl who had been blind and deaf from birth. According to Goodenough, this young girl showed surprise when something unexpected happened, displayed sadness when a favorite toy was taken from her, and laughed and smiled when fun or pleasant objects were given to her. Goodenough concluded that children who are born deaf and blind use the same facial expressions as other children to express the same emotions.

Goodenough blazed a trail for other researchers like Jane Thompson and Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, a German ethologist. Thompson took photographs of the emotional reactions of 26 blind children, aged from seven weeks to thirteen years, to certain situations, and had independent raters compare these reactions to those of sighted children, matched for age in similar emotion-provoking situations. In the 1960s Eibl-Eibesfeldt went further and explored the role of IQ in a small number of children affected by thalidomide, a drug, launched in the 1960s, which was found to cause major congenital defects to the unborn babies of pregnant women who took the drug, including eye, ear and brain defects. The children in Eibl-Eibesfeldt’s study were all deaf and blind from birth and had varying amounts of brain damage. They also had limb malformations. He videotaped the young children and then slowly played the tapes back. He observed a wide spectrum of spontaneous emotional expressions in each child, including smiling, crying, surprise, and frowning, which were similar to expressions shown by sighted children. This was true even of one child with an IQ within the severely disabled range. Other researchers produced similar results.

Of course, all these studies had some weaknesses of method, but taken together they seem to imply that no social learning of emotional expression is required. This seems to be in direct contradiction to the findings of Margaret Mead, who had carefully observed differences in emotion expression across cultures. Both theories could not be right as absolutes.

However, the most useful theory of human emotional expression came along later, in the 1970s. This theory, developed by the eminent experimental psychologist Paul Ekman, inhabited the middle ground. Ekman used culture-sensitive observation techniques to demonstrate that the basic expressions of sadness, fear, disgust, anger and surprise could be found in many different cultures of the world, if one only took care to separate the innate behavior from the learned. In other words, he showed that all cultures had the fundamental capacity to instinctively express these emotions in the same way, but that certain culture-specific display rules affected when they would be expressed.

For example, in the 1970s Ekman challenged the prevailing view that the Japanese did not express emotions in the same way as Americans. He did this by asking both Japanese and American people to watch an emotive film on two occasions – once in the presence of a ‘scientist’, dressed in a white coat, and once on their own. On both occasions their external expressions were recorded with a hidden camera. During the viewings with the ‘scientist’ present the Japanese did not express emotion as much as the Americans. However, when both Japanese and American people viewed the same film on their own they reacted in very similar ways. The suppression of emotional expression witnessed in the Japanese when the ‘scientist’ was present reflected a learned response to the presence of authority figures, defined by the Japanese culture. Without knowledge of this Japanese display rule one might have concluded, on the basis of crude observation, that the Japanese did not have the same innate range of emotional expressions as the Americans. This would have been a mistake.

These issues demonstrate the difficulties that can be anticipated in trying to detect a common collection of depressive symptoms in many different cultures. We are not merely considering the outward expressions of sadness, or lack of animation, we must also gain access to the inner thoughts and feelings, the communication of which is surely even more amenable to cultural variation. The cultural relativists, like Margaret Mead, would argue that it is impossible to find core features of depression that are present in all cultures of the world because there are more differences in the way that people express mental distress between cultures than there are similarities. They would suggest that the presentation of mental distress in each culture is unique. It would be meaningless to look for universal features of depression across cultures if a person’s psychiatric symptoms were entirely determined by the relationship he had with his society.

Differences exist, for example, in the physical location of sadness in different cultures – some feel sadness in the heart (the western concept), others in the stomach (like the Japanese). If Europe, which is the parent of modern psychiatry, devises a test for depression, it will use for its template the symptoms suffered by depressed people in Europe. Exaggerated guilt, which is unreasonable in context, is a common feature of depression in European and American cultures. However, it may be a rare feature of depression in India. Guilt may be particularly western. Many reasons for this have been postulated, including the contribution of the work ethic, and, in the older generation, the need to ration one’s desires during the two World Wars. There may have been religious contributions too – from Lutheran Protestant and Catholic confessional traditions.

It is possible, however, that while some symptoms may be culture-bound, and so will be missed entirely in some cultures, other core symptoms may be universal. The development of the WHO’s Standardized Assessment of Depressive Disorders (SADD) was the first large-scale attempt at producing a culturally unbiased interview for the diagnosis of depression. It was used in the psychiatric populations of Basle, Montreal, Nagasaki, Teheran and Tokyo and was conducted by people from the host culture. Evidence could be gleaned from the local psychiatrist who had been treating the patient.

It was discovered that there were certain core symptoms of depression that were present in all cultures, and in at least 79 per cent of the total sample of patients. These symptoms included sadness, joylessness, hopelessness, anxiety, tension, lack of energy, loss of interest, poor concentration, and feelings of insufficiency, inadequacy and worthlessness. The WHO study confirmed that excessive, often delusional, feelings of guilt or impoverishment and low self-esteem were particularly western expressions of depression. Delusions of guilt were completely absent in Teheran, and delusions of impoverishment absent in Tokyo.

Therefore, there were certain core symptoms of depression, sufficient for making a reliable diagnosis, present in all cultures studied. In addition, there were culturally specific symptoms, but these were less important than the universal ones.

The WHO study could be criticized for focusing on urban populations only. Its conclusions would not necessarily apply to a traditional African agricultural village. However, other studies have added to our knowledge of universal symptoms. Patients defined as depressed by local psychiatrists in Ghana had the same pattern of core symptoms, in roughly the same proportion (76 per cent or more of patients). In China, a Western psychiatrist Kleinman found that the main core symptoms of depression were present in 87 per cent of patients presenting to Chinese psychiatrists with neurasthenia (or nervous exhaustion).The label was different but the phenomenon was just the same, and many improved when given antidepressants.

The WHO study could also be criticized for using preconceived notions of how symptoms might aggregate together to form the depressive syndrome. An anthropologist Morton Beiser and his colleagues attempted to show how similar psychological symptoms might occur frequently together in different cultures without using any preconceived European notion of the nature of depressive symptoms. The aim was to see which generic symptoms of psychological distress tended to group together most often in different parts of the world. It was only later that these groupings were compared with our Western concepts of diagnostic syndromes, including depression.

Beiser et al. studied the Serer, a community of settled agriculturalists who have inhabited Senegal for at least the past seven hundred years. They focused on the region of Niakur, where, at the time of the survey in 1970, the 35,000 inhabitants lived one of the most traditional lifestyles in Senegal, or possibly in the whole of West Africa. Four hundred and forty-six adults, who were indigenously defined as probable psychiatric cases, were interviewed in their local tongue, Serer, about their distress. Over 100 different symptoms were described by this community, and they were compared with symptoms volunteered by communities in the Brooklyn and Queens suburbs of New York, and by a community of refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia who had resettled in Vancouver, British Columbia, during 1979 and 1980.

The over 100 items were a ‘distillation of decades, if not centuries, of clinical lore’ about the ways people report distress. All three communities were rated on all the symptoms, although symptoms that recorded a less than 10 per cent positive response across all three centers were excluded. No predetermined ideas were formed about which of these psychological symptoms might constitute the syndrome of depression. Instead, the researchers determined which symptoms seemed to occur most frequently together in each affected person, using a statistical technique called factor analysis. The ingenuity of the design enabled the researchers to explore a wide range of psychological and psychosomatic symptoms, including items that had originally been regarded as culture specific.

The factor analysis revealed many clusters of symptoms, and one of these clusters contained the constellation of symptoms that western psychiatry would use to define depression. In all centers, a significant proportion of all the symptoms reported were psychic descriptions of the depressive experience. The six symptoms presenting in all three cultures were hopelessness, indecisiveness, feelings of futility, hypersensitivity to the feelings of others, and anergia (lack of energy). Another group, called ‘somatization’ (that is, describing distress in physical terms), could be separated out from these symptoms. The ‘somatization factor’ included complaints about shortness of breath, palpitations, dizziness and persistent poor health. The ‘depression dimension’ was independent of scores on the somatization dimension.

This latter finding was thought to be important because it challenged the prevailing view that non-western communities were unable to express depression in psychic terms, tending to perceive their distress in physical terms.

The WHO and Beiser et al. surveys challenge the extreme social–anthropological view that mental distress expresses itself in such radically different forms in different cultures as to make meaningless trans-cultural comparisons of the prevalence of a concept such as depression. If depression has many core features that are evident across different continents it becomes meaningful to compare the prevalence of depression across cultures.

We know that major depression is common in the western world. However, for many decades, psychiatrists from the white western Christian culture such as Frederick Kraupl-Taylor, a professor of psychiatry during the first half of the twentieth century, have believed that the prevalence of depression in the ‘undeveloped’ cultures of Asia, Africa and South America is much lower than the western prevalence. Some have even concluded that depression is nonexistent in the traditional, ‘undeveloped’ communities.

These early researchers have mostly attributed this discrepancy to ‘cultural differences’. Some, like Kraupl-Taylor, blamed the discrepancy on the less developed use of language in pre-literate societies. However, the most predominant explanation was that there were fewer stresses in the seemingly less complicated lives of the tribes of, say, traditional Africa, or Papua New Guinea. Carrothers, in his 1953 monograph The African Mind in Health and Disease, concluded that Africans did not suffer depression because of the ‘lack of responsibility’ they enjoyed within a ‘primitive paradise’.

This ‘happy savage’ idea persists to this day, despite the fact that people all over the world have had to deal with personal and interpersonal difficulties and tragedies – death of loved ones, separation from loved ones, status battles, childcare, ill-health and old age. As social animals we all have the potential to hurt each other, psychologically and emotionally, wherever we live, and extraneous stressors, acts of God and so on, can never be ruled out. In the modern world these stressors might be redundancy and crime; our ancestors would have had to endure famine and drought. Some psychiatrists have suggested that the minds of the members of traditional communities are more primitive, and that this makes them less susceptible to depression. Kraepelin visited Java at the beginning of the twentieth century and concluded that depression was seldom experienced there. He believed that the Indonesians were incapable of experiencing such a condition because they lacked the mental capacity to experience it. The underlying assumption was that their brains were less developed than the modern European brain – and consequently they had not evolved the capacity to experience depressed mood to the same degree. Forty years later, when biological explanations for mental illness and physical treatments such as lobotomy (making lesions in the frontal lobes of the brain) were all the rage, some psychiatrists even ventured to suggest that the African tribesman had an emotional life akin to the lobotomized European patient.

Early observations by European researchers in Africa and India often supported such beliefs by reporting low hospital admission rates for depression compared to Europe. For example Shaw, in his book entitled Clinical Handbook of Mental Diseases (published in 1925), reported that Indians in the Berhampore asylum suffered less frequently from depression than in-patients in European asylums. However, there were many reasons for these comparatively low estimates that had nothing to do with the true prevalence in the communities observed. First, little consideration was given to the possibility that many people with depression were not being admitted to hospital. This was indeed the case in many instances due to the very real barriers to hospital admission. Hospitals were often geographically remote, there was frequently a shortage of beds and there were limited primary care facilities for referral of patients to hospital. Second, few depressed people attended local doctors, preferring instead to visit religious healers. Spiritual explanations for depression are common around the world. Such explanations can prevent people with the illness from coming forward for treatment. In India, the suffering that occurs during a depressive illness is often thought to be a punishment for sins in a past life. The self-prescribed treatment is to cry silently, work hard and pray. People living in India are willing to go to their doctor with physical complaints, but prefer to visit a spiritual healer for help with the mental distress caused by depression.

Sudhir Kakar, a psychoanalyst working in India, conducted an anthropological study of the various ways in which mental health problems are treated there. He identified three main kinds of care –the exorcism tradition, the Ayurvedic tradition and the Guru tradition. In the exorcism tradition there is a hierarchy of treatment: from the healer in the village up to the priest in the temple. The more intractable problems are treated in the temple. In the Ayurvedic tradition, treatments include herbs with tranquillizing properties or shock treatment – using irritants placed up the nose, for example. The Guru tradition was the mainstay of treatment for depression.

So, in order to obtain an estimate of the true prevalence of depression in different countries, attempts have been made to conduct community surveys. Surveys can be fraught with difficulties. One major difficulty is observer bias. Some early researchers, who, due to various preconceived notions (perhaps with their roots in the happy savage idea), were expecting low rates of depression, were not exactly painstaking in their attempts to detect the condition. Similar mistakes continue to be made in assessing contemporary immigrant communities in the western world.

Source: http://www.radcliffe-oxford.com/books/samplechapter/0134/Chap%203-54d5fe80rdz.pdf

Parenting Causes High Stress and Clinical Depression

2011-05-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

While parenthood brings immense amounts of joy, pride, personal growth and other good things to those with children, it can also bring a lot of challenges, and researchers are finding that these challenges can take a toll. A parenting stress study by Florida State University professor Robin Simon and Vanderbilt University's Ranae Evenson found that parents have significantly higher levels of depression than adults who do not have children.

Here are some of the highlights of the study’s findings:

Higher Risk Factors

The study found that certain types of parents have higher levels of depression than other parents. Those who exhibited more symptoms of depression included:

Parents of adult children living at home
Parents of adult children not living at home
Parents who do not have custody of their minor children

Lower Risk Factors

Those who exhibited the least depressive symptoms included:

Parents living with minor biological children
Parents living with minor adopted children
Parents living with minor stepchildren.

(These findings were surprising, as it was assumed that these parents experience the greatest amounts of stress.)

The Marriage Buffer

Married parents also have fewer symptoms than those who were unmarried.

Both men and women were found to be equally effected by depression, a finding that actually shocked researchers, as it was inconsistent with previous studies and contradicts the historically held assumption that parenthood affects women more.

All Parents Are At Greater Risk

There is no category of parent, among all those listed above, who experienced lower levels of depression than non-parents, which researchers found surprising, especially because other adult roles, like being married and employed, are linked with greater levels of emotional well-being.

Lifelong Effects

Also surprising was the finding that these symptoms don’t go away when the kids grow up and move out of the house! Researchers believe that this is because parents still worry about their children and how they’re getting along in the world throughout their lives, from the time they’re colicky infants and tantrum-prone toddlers to the days when they’re worried about promotions at work and marital problems of their own.

What's Behind This?

The researchers believe that this is because parents have more to worry about than other people do. We worry about our children’s well-being all throughout their lives, from the time that they’re tiny and dealing with colic, teething and tantrums, to the time they’re dealing with finding jobs and partners and having kids of their own. It’s not that parents don’t enjoy their children or their roles, but the emotional toll of parenting can be high, partially because parents in the United States are often relatively socially isolated and don’t always have support from the community or even their extended family.

"It's how we do parenting in this society," Simon said. "We do it in a very isolated way and the onus is on us as individuals to get it right. Our successes are our own, but so are our failures. It's emotionally draining."

Something that may be additionally difficult for parents is that people don’t always talk about the difficulties of parenting or realize how much support is needed. This study can help parents see that they are taking on a role that’s challenging as well as rewarding, validate feelings that they might be having, and encourage them to seek social support and take care of themselves.

"Parents should know they are not alone; other people are feeling this way, too," she said. "This is a really difficult role, but we romanticize it in American culture. Parenthood is not the way it is in TV commercials."

New Parents at Risk

While the report, offered before, proposed that the parents with minor biological children are in relatively low risk of depression, the research, which tracked nearly 87,000 families in the United Kingdom between 1993 and 2007, found an opposite - the highest risk for depression occurred in the first years after a child’s birth.

Overall, 39 percent of mothers and 21 percent of fathers had experienced an episode of depression during the first 12 years of their child’s life. After the first year of parenting, a mother’s risk for depression dropped by half, while experienced fathers faced only about a quarter of the depression risk compared with new fathers. Although depression risk for both parents dropped considerably in the second year, it remained steady through a child’s 12th year.

Parents who had an earlier history of depression, who had children at a relatively young age or who had lower incomes were at highest risk for a depressive episode during their parenting years, according to the study, published online in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Parenting as Pure Joy?

Michael Lewis, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry and director of the Institute for the Study of Child Development at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J., says that the idea of parenthood as pure joy "was always a bit of a wonderful myth."

Over the last 150 years, he said, children have moved from being an economic advantage to an economic burden in the United States. We used to be able to send children to work in the fields; older kids tended to the babies. When not pressed into service, they mostly stayed out of the way.

With the advent of Dr. Spock, the parenting industry, obligatory music and soccer lessons and a colossal marketplace that propels kids to desire and parents to guilt, children have become the center of the household.

Meredith Small, a Cornell University anthropologist and author of "Kids: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Raise Our Children," sees cultural forces conspiring to make life lousy for parents.

"Western culture is the worst place to be if you want to be a parent," she says. "If you look at any other culture, people would think that this is nutty."

She said parents have never been as alone as they are in the United States today. In places like India, lots of people sleep in one big house. When the baby wakes up at 2 a.m., six people are available to help. Higher birth rates mean there are older children to take care of the younger ones. Worldwide, she says, 90 percent of child care is done by other children.

Even in many European countries, things are better; working mothers -- and sometimes fathers -- are paid a portion of their salaries to stay home during the first year or more with their young children. Parents get six weeks of vacation and extra time off to take care of sick kids. Good child care is subsidized by the government. College and graduate schools are paid for by the government.

Here, Small said, nuclear families aren't large enough. "Parents are tired, they are overworked, they are extended, they are irritated and they've got nobody to help them."

How to Manage Parenting Stress?

So short of sending the kids back into the fields, having more babies, inviting the neighbors to live with us or charging the kids rent, what's an overwhelmed parent to do?

Family therapist Neil Bernstein, who has offices in the District and Virginia, offers this simple advice: "Get a life."

For the record, he doesn't necessarily accept the study's conclusion that people with children are more depressed. Still, "What parents need to know and should take away from this is that it's important to look after your own mental health, not to live vicariously through your child," he said.

People should have their own interests and look after their relationships the same way they look after their children. And if it all seems too overwhelming, it's worth seeking help from a professional.

"Being a good parent does not mean being totally absorbed in your children," he said.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://stress.about.com/od/parentsunderstress/a/depressionrents.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/02/AR2006010201513.html

http://www.parents-in-a-pickle.com/parenting-and-depression.html

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/new-parents-at-risk-for-depression/

History of Research on Clinical Depression

2011-05-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Historical Background

Descriptions of depression and depression-related mental disorders date back to antiquity (Summerian and Egyptian documents date back to 2600 BC). However, it was Hippocrates (460–370 BC) and his disciples who first studied these conditions systematically and introduced the term ‘‘melancholia’’ to describe the symptoms and to provide a physiological explanation of their origin. Hippocrates described a syndrome of melancholia as a distinct disease with particular mental and physical symptoms; he characterized all "fears and despondencies, if they last a long time" as being symptomatic of the ailment. It was a similar but far broader concept than today's depression; prominence was given to a clustering of the symptoms of sadness, dejection, and despondency, and, often, fear, anger, delusions and obsessions were included.

The Hippocratic School attempted to link the balance of the postulated four humors (blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm) with the temperament and personality, and the latter two with the propensity to develop one of the four diseases (mania, melancholia, phrenitis and paranoia). It is interesting that Hippocrates considered symptom duration as a diagnostic criterion for melancholia by stating in one of his aphorisms (the 23rd) that ‘‘if sorrow persists, then it is melancholia’’.

Subsequent eminent authors of antiquity (Aretaeus of Capadokia, Galen and others) continued using the term melancholia and elaborated further on its symptomatology, its causation and its delineation from related disorders. The essentials of the traditional views on melancholia were retained during the middle ages and long after. The publication of Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy in 1621, in addition to presenting an excellent description of a sufferer’s feelings, provided an informative review of the prevailing concepts on the nature of the illness at the time.

Influenced by Greek and Roman texts, physicians in the Persian and then the Muslim world developed ideas about melancholia during the Islamic Golden Age. Ishaq ibn Imran (d. 908) combined the concepts of melancholia and phrenitis. The 11th century Persian physician Avicenna described melancholia as a depressive type of mood disorder in which the person may become suspicious and develop certain types of phobias. His work, The Canon of Medicine, became the standard of medical thinking in Europe alongside those of Hippocrates and Galen. Moral and spiritual theories also prevailed, and in the Christian environment of medieval Europe, a malaise called acedia (sloth or absence of caring) was identified, involving low spirits and lethargy typically linked to isolation.

The term depression itself was derived from the Latin verb deprimere, "to press down". From the 14th century, "to depress" meant to subjugate or to bring down in spirits. It was used in 1665 in English author Richard Baker's Chronicle to refer to someone having "a great depression of spirit", and by English author Samuel Johnson in a similar sense in 1753. The term also came in to use in physiology and economics. An early usage referring to a psychiatric symptom was by French psychiatrist Louis Delasiauve in 1856, and by the 1860s it was appearing in medical dictionaries to refer to a physiological and metaphorical lowering of emotional function. Since Aristotle, melancholia had been associated with men of learning and intellectual brilliance, a hazard of contemplation and creativity. The newer concept abandoned these associations and through the 19th century, became more associated with women.

The term ‘‘melancholia’’ survived as the only speciﬁer of morbid mood and disposition until Kraepelin, at the end of the nineteenth century, introduced the term ‘‘manic-depression’’ to separate nosologically mood disorders from dementia praecox, known after Bleuler as schizophrenia.

Sigmund Freud likened the state of melancholia to mourning in his 1917 paper Mourning and Melancholia. He theorized that objective loss, such as the loss of a valued relationship through death or a romantic break-up, results in subjective loss as well; the depressed individual has identified with the object of affection through an unconscious, narcissistic process called the libidinal cathexis of the ego. Such loss results in severe melancholic symptoms more profound than mourning; not only is the outside world viewed negatively, but the ego itself is compromised. The patient's decline of self-perception is revealed in his belief of his own blame, inferiority, and unworthiness. He also emphasized early life experiences as a predisposing factor.

Meyer put forward a mixed social and biological framework emphasizing reactions in the context of an individual's life, and argued that the term depression should be used instead of melancholia. The first version of the DSM (DSM-I, 1952) contained depressive reaction and the DSM-II (1968) depressive neurosis, defined as an excessive reaction to internal conflict or an identifiable event, and also included a depressive type of manic-depressive psychosis within Major affective disorders.

Historical Approaches to the Depression Treatment

The ancient scientists did not possess the knowledge, equipment, and opportunity of the modern researchers, however, their therapeutic approach is interesting not just from historical perspectives. May be, the humanistic views, not contaminated by the modern civilization, have the core values, you can use in your daily life…

Early Egypt

Cause of Depression: Loss of Status or Money

Treatment: Talking it Out , Religion, Suicide is accepted

Old Testament

Cause of Depression: Despair, Cognition

Treatment: Faith

Aeschylus

Cause of Depression: Demons

Treatment: Exorcism

Socrates

Cause of Depression: Heaven – sent, Not shameful

Treatment: None, A Blessing

Aristotle

Cause of Depression: Melancholia

Treatment: Music

Hippocrates

Cause of Depression: Melancholia, Natural and Medical Causes

Treatment: Abstinence excesses, Vegetable Diet, Exercise

Celsius

Cause of Depression: A Form of Madness

Treatment: Entertaining Stories, Diversion, Persuasion Therapy

Galen

Cause of Depression: Psychic functions of the brain affected

Treatment: Confrontation, Humor, Exercise

Sources and Additional Information:

Depressive Disorders by Mario Maj and Norman Sartoris

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_depression

http://www.bipolarworld.net/Bipolar%20Disorder/History/pharoah.html