Topic
Alternative Depression Treatments
I'm interested in hearing about success/failure stories about alternatives to mainstream psychiatry in self-treating major depressive disorders. Google does great at telling you what doesn't work, and what "yay try this!" sites I can find are obviously ad sites. I have to be careful with interactions with all the ton and a half of prescribed meds I must take every day. I have no money to work with anyway.
Replies
- I like bagels.
- Oh! Yes. Bagels. Eating more fat/starch/carbs has been my self-treatment option of choice for years. It's funny though, in time it seems to give you increased depression and worse general health. I am not sure why in the world that could be so. You'd think there'd be no ill effects from too much of a good thing like that, or like making light of other people's pain.
- [Sorry, wanted to put this topic in this area, so I moved the thread over. General is more for general Glitch posts about the game]
- If I had seen the Off Topic I would have put it there myself, so thank you, Kevbob.
- Ty Kev. I don't know what to say Silky maybe a Nitnem CD playing ?
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Here are a few things that help me:
* having a goal I'm excited about and working towards that goal (I'm most depressed when I feel like my life is stuck in a rut and I have nothing to look forward to or work for).
* getting outside in nature
* meditation
* taking care of my health (eating healthy, getting adequate sleep, exercise)
But for me the first, is really the most important. I need something to get motivated about. It can be as simple as looking forward to starting a spring garden and all the planning and activity involved with that. -
(I had posted in the middle of kevbob moving it over to Off Topic and the post got lost, so I will try again.)
Silky,
I am so, so sorry that you are going through this right now. I know how hard it is, and it sucks.
As far as things that have have worked for me... there are a number of things that have helped somewhat. Making sure that I eat right, get exercise, take a multivitamin, drink enough water, get enough sleep, and use of a lightbox have all helped. I know that these are all well known, but they did help me. It was a struggle many days for me to check them off my list, so even though they are known, it doesn't make it easy.
I really do know how hard it can be. It sucks. If you ever need some extra support, drop me a line. -
I had a great deal of success with cognitive behavioural therapy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogni...
There's a fair bit of science behind it, and a couple of good books. One is Feeling Good by Dr David Burns, the other is CBT For Dummies.
The main premise of the therapy is that there are various different errors in the way that you think. These might be Maximising, where you blow something up out of all proportion ("My car tyre always goes flat!" when it's the first time it's happened) or Catastrophising, where you jump to the worst possible conclusion and think that it's realistic. CBT helps you challenge those thoughts by looking for evidence that X isn't the case.
There are certain kinds of depression that it can't help with, but even if you have one of those kinds of depression, it still can help. I'm no longer depressed, but I still use the techniques to give myself a more sensible outlook on life. -
That does sound like exactly what I need, Quibba--wouldn't conflict with my many other meds, won't light my lupus up, won't put me at risk, won't cost us anything much, and I've had some success in the past with some generally similar mind control tactics--biofeedback for pain, for instance. I'll try to get the books you recommend from the library. You are such a great, helpful person! I'm lucky you're here.
Hmm, Rook--Pandora doesn't know Nitnem so I'll have to turn to other resources. I'll give it a try though, if I can find it! I'm less than normally functional now. It took me three tries to get a deposit right at the bank.
Thanks Knitomatron--I have to get physically healthier and maybe that's not going to happen. That's something I might just have to put in the "accept things I can't change" category. But all good ideas and thanks also for understanding that I'm pretty serious about this...usually have a good sense of humor but right now even that is not functioning for me.... -
Silky, I'm also a lupie, and I have bipolar. I use DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) and CBT (as linked above) and those help. Also having my companion animal. Using distraction online. Spending time outside (in the shade so my lupus doesn't get going).
I use psych therapies as well, I just use the above to work together with my meds. - Oh... LOTS of fruits and veggies helps with vitamins that can involve mood. And it helps with lupus, as we should be having a low protein diet, and lots of those.
- re: CBT, I also recommend the book Mind Over Mood - it's sort of like a workbook and can be very helpful for stopping negative self-talk.
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My first college course was a psychology course and my professor said that one of the most important things for depression and anxiety is B-complex. Apparently the B complex vitamins work to regulate the brain functions? Anywho, she said that more people should try that first before going for the prescriptions.
On a side note, don't go crazy and by a Super B-Complex with 200 or 300% of everything you need cuz from personal experience, I get chest pain when the B-complex is too strong, I'm not sure but maybe it's the niacin so a regular B-complex with close to 100% of the daily values has worked best for me. -
You should check out the book The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon. It's a fantastic resource and has a very good breakdown of alternative treatments. You can also try CoQ10 supplements (it's an enzyme that your mitochondria use for energy). Best of luck to you, and if you need a friendly sympathetic ear, I've been there myself, both with depression and bucketfuls of medications. I'll second the recommendations for water and regular sleep as well. Even if they don't help directly with your depression, they're good for your health in general, and eliminating as many sources of physical stress as possible is as good as reducing the equivalent mental stress.
Also, if you do want to try other meds, SNRIs along with other atypical depression meds are much less likely to react with other drugs, and most drug manufacturers have programs where you can get the drugs for free if you're broke enough. - Thanks so much for the advice--it's very useful. We'll be getting these books you recommend to me from the library. I'm hanging on. I think I'm doing a little bit better just from having talked about it openly instead of hiding it from everybody.
- Good to hear :)
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Way back in the wayback, long before most glitchen were born or even conceived, there was a movement during the 1970s called (or at least as much as I can recall it) Positive Mental Attitude
The theory was that by physically acting happy, you actually get happier. That is, if you're feeling blue, try thinking of something that makes you happy...anything, and smile. Theoretically (and I *am a believer), the very act of smiling, of making your face a happy face works as positive feedback to the brain, much the same way that smiling is caused by happy things, happy faces cause happy feelings.
Ok, now I suppose someone's gonna say that's kooky, and I suppose it is, but it works.
It's not a cure for depression, but it does help.
And lest we forget the power of light, back when I was younger (when I was only 7 or 8 back in the late 1960s), and long before there was an established theory of "light therapy" I realized that sticking my face in front of a lamp made me feel different mentally, in a positive way.
I agree with the comment about behavioral modification. Much of our brain chemistry is tied into our external world by way of our senses. they reflect our status and they can also affect it. -
I have struggled with depression. The only thing that has consistently made a difference for me is:
1) breaking a sweat every day. (I hate to sweat, and I'm not a fan of exercise in general, but it makes such a difference that I -- mostly-- do it anyway).
and
2) getting a good solid dose of sunlight as close to every day as possible.
A good way to kill both birds with one stone is to go for a really brisk walk at midday, preferably up and down a hill.
I've done medication and therapy, and in my experience this simple combo works most reliably and costs the least.
I hope this helps; I'm rooting for you, Silky. - Exercise helps a ton. Just once a day, getting out and taking a light walk, or a jog, or whatever it is you like to do seems to help. Just stretching relaxes me and makes me feel calmer, better, and refreshed afterwards.
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I'm sorry, but if you are having major clinical depression, thinking positive and going for a walk aren't going to cut it. If your biochemistry is malfunctioning you need to correct it with prescribed medicine. There are other things which will help in addition (Vitamin D3 and CBT/Psychodynamic therapy have been excellent for me, and if you have lupus chances are you're not getting enough D3) but without fixing the problem at a biological level nothing else will work. It's an illness not a state of mind. You also need to be under the care of a good doctor who will work with you to find the right drug for you. It's important that clinical depression is not left untreated.
There are lots of dedicated depression forums on the internet with information on all aspects of depression, medication and psychotherapeutic treatments. If it's real depression get it treated, if it's not do your stretching exercises and walks in the sun but don't call it a 'major depressive disorder' because that trivialises a serious illness. Either way, I hope you find something that works.