★★★★★
WARNING!
I use 5-HTP now after being prescribed pharmaceuticals, and it is at least as effective. The dark secret about meds is that for many of us they don't do much in the first place, and eventually they destroy your liver (which happened to my sister, with many serious health consequences).
My advice for wearning yourself off your meds (which is what I did) is to do it VERY slowly, and introduce 5-HTP as slowly. At least 3 months, until the dosages you are taking are just tiny crumbs. This will keep your side effects down to a bare minimum. Good luck!
★★★★★
Whenever I feel a depressive mood coming on I simply pour myself a glass of juice or tea and add about 3 dashes of just regular grocery store bought cayenne pepper, drink up and in seconds I begin to feel much better and relaxed. Works really fast! No need to even stir the cayenne into the drink.
Cold Showers
★★★★★
5-HTP
★★★★★
★★★★★
Apple Cider Vinegar
★★★★★
Vitamin D
★★★★★
I was feeling down this past winter but after a while realized maybe it was depression. I felt bleak, hopeless, almost grieving. I felt like the future was empty. It was an ugly feeling. Then I began to suspect maybe it was physical / nutritional because I have a great marriage to a man I love who treats me like gold, I have two healthy children and I have a good life with many hobbies and interests. I take good care of my health, eat nutritious organic food - much of it we grow ourselves, and I make time for gratitude every day, but I was STILL DOWN IN THE DUMPS. I realized I might have low vitamin D as it was winter here in the Northeast (Pennsylvania). I started taking D3 (with Vitamin K2 and Magnesium with Calcium for absorption etc) and within a day or two was feeling better. I kept feeling better and better every day and I NEVER FELT DOWN AGAIN. That awful CLOUD OVER MY HEAD disappeared and thank God it didn't come back! Boom! Just like that. I took 3000 IU per day, and now am down to 2,000. In summer I don't need it. I don't wear sunscreen, my skin is olive and doesn't burn. Anyway, it made me wonder how many poor souls out there are suffering needlessly due to low D. Just wanted to share my experience.
★★★★★
1. Exercise, especially intense aerobic exercise or weightlifting.
2. High-quality canned tuna (due to the fish oils). If/when I get down just having a bit here and there can perk me up.
3. Sauna. It's difficult to be depressed when you sweat it all out. Also gives you time to meditate and get into a better mindspace.
4. "Doing" rather than thinking. For example, trying to get involved in a tasks at home or at work that keep your mind off things. Decluttering, cleaning, gardening, etc. Anything other than negative thought patterns.
St John's Wort
★★★★★
There are lots of reputable brands available. Many people take 300 mg three times a day and for some it takes a few weeks to start working. For me, SJW is as powerful as any RX antidepressant.
First, again Lilac you have great information which comes from your ample research. Please continue informing the EC community about your insights and progress. There's nothing like living through an issue that makes suggestions have real meaning.
One of the most memorable persons we all know who had depression issues was President Lincoln. So severe were his manic depressions, that he would not carry a pocket knife with him for fear he would use it on himself. At least that is in one of the biographies on Abraham. I have four or five.
And to both you and Mama to Many, thank you for your condolences.
I am such an impatient person, and I expect instant recovery after a short time but find that grief is more persistent and perplexing in this case (loss of a mate) than I'd anticipated, even though I knew for years the prognosis of her cancer.
One would think the mind and soul would be ready when the end finally came. Oh not so. Very rarely in my life have I experienced mental confusion. Quite frustrating. So many cross currents seem to be at work with a spousal loss.
I can now better sympathize with those who suffer the death of a husband/wife. It's only been a month so really what should I expect? The "rawness" is still there, and the strange quietness of the house when I'm here alone...always nearly expecting her voice. But knowing that is an impossibility and then the intellectual refusal to talk to her; she is not here. Not here. The thought seems so self contradictory..."she"...not here...in her own home. You see? An impossible demand; a command by the emotion to expect the "normal" but the "normal" is a "goneness" that is mystifying. Then the "brain" says, "no quit that...she is gone." Not just left me...even for another man...that would be easier I think. She is just gone.
The only consolation in a way, is I am convinced that "absence from the body is presence with the Lord" and that can console me when the extremes are working me over...overloading both sensation and reality. The reality. That insatiable reality will not leave me alone. I'm told again and again by wiser than me that time will take the edge off. OK. It's just been a month.
The "reality" is an "un-reality"....and that is so frustrating to deal with. Why can't the mind just control the emotions? It is what it is...now let's move on...would be the mind's command.
So is this depression...or still a bit of shock? The last two months were very hard. She died at home. In my arms. And I'm oddly proud of that. Interesting that I observe my most emotional moments come in recollecting what "we" went through during those final weeks. Is much of grief about "me" and not "her"... ? My mind wants to put it all into an analysis.
I was her "nurse" for about 15 hours a day and her sister the rest. So I saw it all. At the end she could not speak except to blink a "yes" at my questions..."do you want water?" "blink"...then I bring water. She could only walk with help and a walker for her to lean on. And she died taking a tour of the upstairs...she wanted her normal clothes on...and then we "walked" her holding the walker and I holding under her arms. She inspected upstairs bedrooms and then she had to sit down on the walker so I could push her back to her bed. While standing...ready to sit...she made dramatic eye contact ... eyes became like saucers...huge....I'd never seen that before ... in 29 years of marriage. I though somehow I'd hurt her, even though the eyes were not "grimacing" as if in pain ... no facial expression of pain and then, she fell into my arms. She was dead. Instantly.
She left over a period of two weeks, in dramatic downturn. And then died while standing. Just like her. She was a tiger. A very alive person.
So the unreality permeates..."she"... a most alive mate for all these years is not here any longer.
Many who write here to EC are facing dire situations and potential loss of a loved one ... we see that often on posts. And I sometimes have just glossed over the intensity between the lines; the desperation for help.
I will never be so glib; so quick to fire off some "answer" without sensing the hurt...the dawning of loss written in those lines.
So many who write to EC are in pain and are suffering. Those are emotions. So many have suffered for years; for decades.
I cannot fail to consider that suffering when I read their stories. Never again will I just focus on the "answer" without "feeling" their suffering....to some degree to empathize. At the tomb of Lazarus ..."Jesus wept.
5-HTP
5-HTP
5-HTP
Cold Showers
★★★★★
Cayenne
★★★★★
★★★★★
Rhodiola
★★★★★
Cold Showers
★★★★★
Proper Mental Diet
Thank you for this!
I have recounted your thoughts to several others today - especially the part about seeing the good.
Negativity is so easy. Your analogy of looking for the color blue was perfect. Being positive or negative is a habit.
Thanks again!
~Mama to Many~
Proper Mental Diet
If one doesn't get a result - or, rather, doesn't get the dramatic result others seem to get with regard to skin cancers, warts and moles - they're often advised to sprinkle baking soda on their oil patch which seems to increase the effect.
Which makes sense as both are reactive and particularly to one another - one being acidic and the other alkaline - which means when the O3 fatty acid meets the O3 baking soda, BOOM! An overwhelming army of oxygen carried in on a tsunami of penetrating castor oil! POOF!
I'm not sure about mixing a salve of them. Although, I suppose, the oxygen produced might be trapped by the oil if you were quick about it but, I think sprinkling it on a castor oil pack just prior to application would be more effective as even just mixing the two together is going to provide escape for most of the oxygen produced, as such reactions are so fast.
Even so...I THINK one could even make an effective, alternative OLIVE oil pack. With its O2 fatty acids, if one sprinkled IT with baking soda with its own O3 arrangement...there may not be as MUCH oxygen generated, perhaps, but still quite a bit and olive oil penetrates pretty well...could be useful in a pinch!
Dietary Changes
★★★★★
I had major depressive disorder from age 4 until age 26. I'm 41 now, no problems with it. I was so bad I would have to snap my wrists with a rubber band to keep my thoughts from cascading downwards and had to go inpatient a number of times.
At age 19, I began a yoga teacher training program. I began a slow turn to vegetarianism because of a book I read to help migraines. When I did this, 75% of my MDD lifted, and my mind cleared up for the first time since I could remember. I even tried to go back and immediately the depression set in along with a newfound anxiety. That's when I committed to full vegetarianism.
It wasn't a cure-all, though, and I have to say the truth that I found a higher power that loved me and I felt it express very strongly to me. Once during a time period of self-harm I said no one loves me and I just clearly felt a strong response that he loved me. In that moment, I committed never to self harm again but it took time to get away from music that was always in lack. Always missing something. I had to turn to music that was talking about gaining and positive ideas.
I was still struggling with the MDD, but I began to respect myself and say that I would not be in a relationship with someone who did not love me. Therefore, no more intimate relations with those who are not truly wanting to be with me. This change probably brought me to 80% without major depressive disorder and kept me from going under water emotionally. I joined a program for that.
Once I found out that I had a learned eating disorder, and went into treatment with a nutritionist who balanced my food, and began to work on the reasons behind it, I would say that my major depressive disorder was gone at 100%. For whatever reason, the consistent nutrition at certain times unlocked the key to my major depressive disorder it was like I was saying that I deserve to have food and I deserved to have life. I also had to work on getting out of other people's business and began attending a program for that. I can only control what I do but of course one has to set up boundaries for things that are wrong. (I guess the best way to summarize that is that I learned how to interact with people in my life or family in a way that set up boundaries).
I have not had a problem since maintaining these changes and I'm super lucky and wanted to share with others.
Vitamin D
★★★★★
I can't believe no one has mentioned vitamin D, but more specifically, UV light. I already take 2,500mg of D3 daily, but perhaps it's not enough because I've been battling Mycotoxicosis for over 5 years. Between that and working a night shift, I got lazy and only tanned (yes, tanning beds! ) once last week. Big mistake! I became unbelievably depressed with constant suicdal thoughts for four days. I finally went tanning (12 minutes in a low level bed), and within 30 minutes, my depression was GONE. My face even filled out (it was getting disgustingly hollow), and my body became less bloated.
I highly suggest labelling this cure as UV light if you don't want to mention the controversial tanning bed, but don't just say D3! I think I took 10,000IU at the beginning of the week, and it wasn't enough to make up for lack of tanning. Nothing compares to your body making its own vitamin D. It's common sense - humans need sunlight. Believe me, if the weather wasn't so crappy here in Jersey, I'd be tanning my butt outside.
