Depression

Background

Depression is NOT a "prozac deficiency," but often goes away with natural therapies.

It is important to go after the underlying causes. When you do this, most depression can be effectively treated naturally — without the side effects of prescription antidepressants.

Common Causes

Hormonal deficiencies
Nutritional deficiencies
Doing what you think you should do instead of what you really feel like doing (causing "anger turned inward on oneself")

Sick vs. Depressed

Don’t confuse being sick with being depressed (though your physician might). Ask yourself "Do I have many interests?"

If the answer is "no," consider depression. If the answer is "yes," but you are frustrated that you have no energy to do your interests, you’re likely NOT depressed, but rather have an illness your physician is missing.

Treatments

Give these treatments 6 weeks to work.

Lifestyle

Take walks

Going for a walk (especially outside in the sunshine) 30-60 minutes a day can be more effective than Prozac.

Get more sunshine

Inadequate sunlight is a common cause of depression (called "Seasonal Affective Disorder" or SAD), which should be considered if your depression is worse in the winter.

Mind Body Treatments

Allow yourself to be angry

From a psychological perspective, depression usually represents repressed anger that has been turned inward against yourself. This is why choosing to allow yourself to be angry or even to sometimes go into a rage can be healthy when you’re depressed — even if the people around you don’t like it. You can tell when the anger is healthy because it will feel good. Remember though, that you are choosing to be angry, and what you are angry about is nobody else’s fault (so don’t beat up others with your anger). When you don’t allow guilt to get in the way, notice how your depression decreases and you feel better after a good fit of anger!

Make life a "no-fault" system

This means no blame, no fault, no guilt, no judgment, no making comparisons, and no expectations on yourself or anyone else. This means you’ll be changing habits of thinking. For example, if you find yourself judging somebody, simply drop the judgment in mid-thought when you notice it. And no judging yourself for judging others!

Pay attention to what feels good

We sometimes are given the misconception that keeping attention on problems is more "realistic." That is nonsense! Life is like a massive buffet with thousands of options. You can choose to keep your attention on those things that feel good. You’ll notice that if a problem truly requires your attention at any given time, it will feel good to focus on it. Otherwise, you’re living your life as if you have 200 TV channels to choose from, and you only choose to watch the ones you find really annoying!

Recommended Supplements to Improve Mood

Many nutritional deficiencies (especially fish oil deficiency) can worsen depression.

Multivitamin powders

Overall nutritional support is essential, and a good multivitamin powder is a simple way to provide it.

Curcumin

A special highly-absorbed curcumin was shown to powerfully improve mood by taking 1 twice a day after 6 weeks.

Fish oil

Eat more oily fish (salmon and tuna) — at least 3-4 portions a week. Alternatively, take a teaspoon of fish oil a day (Vectomega is a special supplement I highly recommend; it’s potency is such that you can take just 1-2 tablets a day instead of the 8-16 capsules that are usually required by other products). Fast food fried fish does NOT help, but tuna fish salad does.

Saffron

Get a supplement that includes the highly absorbed form of curcumin, such as this one from Terry Naturally.

5-HTP

5-HTP 300 mg a night (less if on antidepressant meds) and tyrosine 500 mg a day, the special proteins that make the "happiness molecules" called serotonin and dopamine.

St. John’s Wort

Other Therapies & Advice

For more guidance on regaining happiness, read the e-book 3 Steps To Happiness: Healing Through Joy.

Optimize thyroid function

Natural Armour thyroid (or compounded T3) thyroid hormone (by prescription) has been shown to be very helpful in treating depression in repeated studies — even when thyroid blood tests were normal! The T4 thyroid hormone found in Synthroid (and most thyroid prescriptions used by non-holistic physicians) was NOT effective.

Treat other hormonal disorders

Be sure to treat other hormonal disorders as well. Suboptimal testosterone and estrogen levels can frequently cause depression and are easily treated by holistic Physicians. These hormonal deficiencies often need treatment even if the tests are normal.

Smile more

There is a feedback cycle from the muscles activated during smiling that actually decreases depression. This is the basis for using Botox for depression, injected to decrease frowning muscle activity and keep smile muscle activity active. (See the book The Face of Emotion for more information.)

Treating irritable depression

Often called "atypical depression" where the key symptom is irritability, researchers shown 600 mcg of chromium picolinate daily can help after 6 weeks. This condition likely reflects mildly inadequate adrenal function with intermittent drops in blood sugar (see "Adrenal").