I was at the doctor's office with my dad earlier this week. The top news story on the television was about the death of Robin Williams. He was called, “World's Funniest Man Ever.” Amazingly talented. Funny. Hilarious.
Addicted. Depressed. Another precious life lost to suicide.
I haven't had time or inclination for television or movies for some time. But I remember Robin Williams. And I know how famous he was. And I feel very, very sad. Very sad over a life lost to pain and suffering. Maybe people knew that Robin was suffering on the inside. Probably many did not. I did not. Perhaps if someone met him, they would think, ‘Lucky guy. So funny. So popular. Rich. Famous. He has it all.” And go along never realizing his pain and suffering.
The truth is that Robin William's situation is a picture of so many lives all over the world. People look a certain way on the outside. You may know someone a long time and never know their internal pain or suffering. And it is something to consider when dealing with others. How often have we interacted with others and had no idea of the pain? Some are funny. Some are angry. Some are bitter. Some are loud. Some are quiet. Maybe some are vocal about their pain and suffering. Many more are silent.
What does this mean? It means that when someone is rude to me at the grocery store, I should try and be kind back to them anyway. Maybe they just lost a loved one. Maybe they just lost their job. It means when someone is angry at me, perhaps it is because they have had a lot of hurt and are angry at others. Returning anger to them will only escalate the situation. Where there is no wood, the fire goes out.
It means that when I meet someone that seems to have it all, I should not wish I were them. They probably have more pain than I can imagine.
I was sharing some thoughts with a friend about this and she commented that sometimes people say “How are you?” and you know they don't care. We should ask and care. And listen. It can be hard to listen to someone grumble and complain. But sometimes people just need to know that someone will listen to them and that someone cares.
Why such a ramble on a health site? Because compassion matters to health. Caring matters. We can share remedies and stuff and that is good. And when it comes with love and care, it is better. So, I am reminded this week of silent suffering and hope it will help me to love and care better for others.
Just my two cents...
~Mama to Many~
5-HTP gives me terrible nightmares. It seems as if every night I am waking up screaming or crying, which has never happened to me even as a child. Every night for 2 weeks, I have dreamt that horrible things happened to family members, friends, and me. I also get these weird hallucinations when I am about to drift off to sleep where suddenly I see a giant spider or something on my pillow, then I'll scream and wake up. It is all but impossible to get up in the morning, even when I am done sleeping.
I started out taking 100mg before bed, then gave it a week and tried 100 in morning and 100 before bed, gave it another week and tried 100 in morning and 200 before bed, then tried 100 in morning, 100 in afternoon, 200 before bed, which I've been doing for the past 2 weeks. It does not seem to be helping my depression at all; in fact, it seems as if it has gotten worse.
★★★★★
Thank you so much for posting this, Ron. I ordered a small bottle after reading your post to test it out and found it is indeed a good mood enhancer. I have been applying it to the sides of my wrist once or twice a day. I don't have depression but can feel a happy shift about 15 minutes after application. That really surprised me! Doesn't smell great though, a bit like petroleum! I have read the same comment about other brands of this essential oil too.
St John's Wort
Tif, medications may cost less than herbs in terms of dollars up front for relief. But the long term cost to health of some medications may not be worth that initial savings.
Buying pre-made supplements can get pricey. But there are lots of herbs that are cheap by the pound and then a tea can be taken. It is more work than a pill, but in the long run may be worth the trouble.
5-HTP
★★★★★
I too had very good results with 5HTP. I was initially taking too much and got the anxiety that people mention. But I cut back the dose and it is so much better. I think people need to experiment with the times of the day that is best for them, and the dosage. I open the 100mg capsule and take 50mg in a tiny bit of water 30mins before breakfast - it helps get rid of the morning catatonia. I take 100mg in a tiny bit of water 30mins before dinner - it helps get rid of the comfort eating in the evening. And I take 50mg in a tiny bit of water at bedtime. I think you need to take it on an empty stomach. It seems to work better that way. But 5HTP definitely works for me - it was matter of finding the right dose and time of day to take it.
★★★★★
When I was going through extreme depression due to adrenal exhaustion I found taking 5HTP pulled me right out of the depression. I knew my serotonin was low and the 5HTP brought me back to normal levels. I started with a dosage of 50mg and gradually increased until I felt I could smile again. I beleive 5HTP is as close as you can get to the actual serotonin produced by your body.
Multiple Remedies
★★★★★
I spent about 15 years severely depressed and on medications which, in my opinion, numbed me and added to the already bad situation.
Couple of things that helped me...
1) Seeing a chiropracter and getting the spine re-aligned, which in turn allows the nerve endings to do their bit effectively.
2) Acupuncture and chinese herbs which allowed me to wean off the nasty allopathic depression meds that I was originally put on.
3) Soaking 1-2 times daily in dead sea salt (Available at ebay. The more you buy, and you use 3-4 heaped cups or more in a single soak). This allows your body to absorb magnesium and other critical elements and minerals that are missing from your body which may most definitely be adding to the 'low'.
4) Green juice first thing in the AM on an empty stomach. Include celery, cucumber, parsley, ginger and lemon juice. This detoxes your liver and flushes out the toxins from your body which will shift things very fast for you. FRESH juice drunk as soon as you have juiced, preferably withOUT the pulp.
5) Sunshine, sunshine, sunshine, atleast 30-45 mins daily in nature.
6) Walk barefoot atleast 30-45 minutes daily on the earth, grass, see earthing under separate heading on this site.
7) Exercise to release those endorphins.
8) Eliminate all sugar, white flour, and processed foods from your diet. HUGE in getting better. Substitute with more healthy choices like greek yogurt and agave and nuts for a 'sweet' treat.
9) Addition of raw foods to your diet. If you can go 50% raw, you will find you are getting better very soon.
10) Pranic healing. Please google it. Learn to do it yourself or find someone who can do it for you. Life CHANGING!
Please ask any specific questions. I really know the above has shifted my being and hope it can be helpful to you too.
Apple Cider Vinegar
★★★★★
I guess I been depress all my life but always can snap out of it quickly But for going on 2 yrs now I been deeply depress more than I ever had in my life, I didn't want to take pills so I just left it in God's Hands WELL I been reading this site for a couple of months and last month I decided to try ACV for weight 181 pound 5ft6 but with a stomach left from surgery ..I NOTICE JUST LAST WEEK I HAVEN"T FELT DEPRESS ANY LONGER..I make A Hugh jug of AVC with honey and mix it with juice and I sip it the whole day, I will be updated on my weight. THANKS EARTHCLInic
Proper Mental Diet
★★★★★
First off, self forgiveness and acceptance. Years ago, I was about 12 years old at the time, I did/said something to my mom that was uncalled for and certainly not a way a person should ever treat their mother. As it's embarrassing I'll keep the details to myself. I had apologized and everything shortly after... But it wasnt enough for me... I spent a week or so allowing myself to be torn apart by it. I was depressed, I was beside myself crying when I was alone, praying for forgiveness, and not finding any peace at all. I ended up opening up to my mom about it. And I'll never forget what she said, "How can you expect forgiveness if you cant even forgive yourself?" It became clear to me, that the only reason I couldnt find peace and let it go, is because I hadnt forgiven myself. I was expecting the feeling of peace and forgiveness to come from some outside source. The issue was entirely with myself. I had to accept that I had made a mistake and I had to forgive myself for it. My mom had forgiven me the instant it happened as any good mother would. Regardless of the situation, you always have to be able to live with yourself. You always have to accept, forgive, respect, and love yourself. You cant expect peace or happiness if you're disgusted with yourself.
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Next... Dealing with external things... When I was a kid, there was a popular saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me." As time goes on, western culture seems to stray further away from that simple philosophy. We have slowly placed more and more power in words, events, and circumstances. It used to be glorified and shown to us in media such as movies and TV shows, someone would make a rude comment and the hero would go and start a fist fight to defend their honor. A fight with a loved one would result in the protagonist turning to alcohol to cope. Or some horrible event would turn the protagonist to a life of depression and alcohol abuse. In our modern day, it is almost virtuous to be offended or to be a victim. It's a matter of duty to be outraged or to be hurt and to let it be known that you have been wronged.
What we have forgotten is that NO ONE HAS THE POWER TO DISTURB YOU BUT YOU. Absolutely NO ONE. Every word that is spoken to you, every event that you encounter, and every circumstance that you endure, you are faced with a choice of how to perceive it. You have the power to dwell on it and let it disturb you or you have the power to pay it no mind and go on. When someone says a bad thing to you, you have the choice to be offended or not. You have the choice to take that with you and dwell on it. You have the choice to let it define who you are or not.
Every time you allow yourself to be disturbed, hurt, offended, angered etc by words, circumstances, and events, you are giving those things power over you. You are allowing those things to control you and to define you. You are allowing those things to steal your peace and happiness.
Every moment of every day, you have the choice to seek out happiness. You have the choice to dwell on peaceful things. You have the choice to forgive and to forget. You dont forgive as a favor to those that wrong you, you forgive as a matter of health/wellbeing for yourself and as a way to maintain control over your emotions. It harms you mentally and physically to harbor negative feelings.
Awful things happens, far worse than words people say. Circumstances can be hellish. But you always have the choice to control how deep you allow these things to disturb you. Its not always easy. But how you respond to them, will certainly affect how quickly you recover and the damage you sustain from them.
Next time something negative happens big or small, and you're tempted to let it push you further into that pit of despair, stop yourself, and remind yourself that you have the power to change how that affects you.
On top of the mental diet, sunlight, try to stay around people you love and enjoy. Avoid isolation. Join in fun activities whenever possible. And allow yourself to enjoy them. When thoughts of "hiding" how you really feel creep up, shrug it off and remind yourself that you are enjoying yourself. THIS IS how you feel.
An anxious mind is one that dwells on the future, a depressed mind is one that dwells on the past, and a mind at peace is one that is present.
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Look for the good...
If I told you to look around you, where ever you're at and find everything thats blue. You'll likely find plenty of things that are blue. But then I tell you to close your eyes without looking anymore and told you to tell me everything that you saw that was brown while you were looking for the blue.... Did you even notice anything that was brown? Probably not near as much as you would have had you been looking for stuff that was brown.
Your mind will see what you are looking for. So if you go through life with this idea that only negative things happen to you, you're going to see every single little negative thing to reinforce that idea. You catch a cold, check... they screw up your order at a restaurant, check. You have a bad day at work, check. You stub your toe on the coffee table, check. Someone makes a rude comment, check. And you'll likely gladly accept the negative things that happen to others as part of it.. a friend gets sick, check. A coworker gets divorced, check. A friendly coworker quits, or gets fired, check.. The list goes on.
But in all of this negativity how much good might you have missed? You got a free drink through a mix up at the drive thru. The nice person at the cash register rounded your change up from .95c to $1 so they wouldnt have to count change. You had a good day at work. You havent been sick in months. Your family was happy and healthy today. Someone complimented you, ("Hey, I really like that shirt! "). A friend or family member had a new baby. etc...
Chances are there isn't near as much bad as you believe there is and chances are there is just as much good to balance it out or completely tip the scales the opposite direction, you just refuse to see it.
Your mind amplifies the negative while overlooking the good or brushing it off as if its a lie or a rare fluke. You can flip this on its head and train your mind to look for the good while overlooking the bad. You just have to start looking for the good. And when you see it, dont brush it off or make excuses for it. Let that be "just your luck". Let that be the normal occurrence that you look for.
★★★★★
Hello, I am brand new to this site and a nobody. I will tell you I used to have horrible depression my whole life. I was suicidal as long as I can remember. What changed it? I went gluten free. It took a few months and I just kept feeling better and better each day. I am 54 and for the first time in my life I am free of depression. And guess what? If I get a hold of even a crumb of wheat, the depression will come back for about 2 weeks, feeling like I did before going gluten free. Now a days its much easier to find the gluten free substitutes for pasta make the transition easy peasy (and I'm a foodie). You can still have Mexican food as long as its a corn tortilla rather than flour, Yes you can eat fudge and ice cream on this diet too. It changed my life and I also lost 35 lbs even eating fudge on the holidays. It definately wont hurt. I can even think better..much better now.
Hope you know you are loved in this word..regardless
Jodie
5-HTP
Take out of your diet all sugars, grains, pastas, breads, sweet fruits and you will see a great difference in your mood ....paleo diet or atkins....
5-HTP
★★★★★
You want the 5HTP to create serotonin in your brain, not your gut. The nausea from 5HTP comes about when the body makes serotonin in the gut rather than the brain. When Europeans take 5HTP they take it with a decarboxylase inhibitor so this will not happen. Try taking it sublingually. I've taken 5HTP on and off for years, but lately I'm having better results with Source Naturals' brand of Tryptophan. (See their website for a comparison of 5HTP and Tryptophan. ) When you take any amino acids, like Tryptophan, do not take with any other protein... Wait 2 or 3 hours, if possible. This may also apply to 5HTP. Amino Acids compete with each other to get into the brain, so it won't be effective if taken too near protein. Take these amino acid pills with fruits or fruit juices. Also take magnesium, folate, vitamin C and especially Vitamin B6 along with the 5HTP or Tryptophan to help your brain create serotonin. See LEF. ORG, then "tryptophan" for a helpful writeup. Here's a very good article:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2008/apr2008_Why-Aging-People-Become-Depressed-Fatigued-And-Overweight_02.htm?source=search&key=tryptophan
You can also call LEF (Life Extension Foundation) for a free consultation (tel. 800-226-2370). I got relief from depression by following the GFCF diet (Gluten Free, Casein Free = no dairy, no wheat, barley, no rye, no oats unless gluten-free oats. ) My life picked up from that diet. Lots of info online about it; also see the book THE ULTRAMIND SOLUTION by Mark Hyman, M. D. Also I got great results by learning how to increase serotonin through diet. Do see this excellent book: NATURAL PROZAC by Dr. Joel Robertson. You can start by reading the reviews on Amazon for these books.
★★★★★
5-HTP for depression. This little pill did wonders for me. I had been feeling depressed for around a month due to heavy family problems. When I finally put all my symptoms together (oversleeping, hopelessness, sadness, emotionally unstable) I instantly came to this site. Cold showers did not appeal to me at all; I live in sunny CA and still get cold. I ordered the pills and thankfully they came the next day. I take one or two (depending on how I am doing) 100mg pills a day. My mood has definitely improved and I am finally returning to my normal self. They also seem to have reduced my terrible headaches. I recommend 5-HTP to all!
★★★★★
I started eating once a day, around 4-5pm. This means I do a 24 hour fast, roughly. It hasn't even been 2 weeks, but it has been very beneficial. I was 161 lbs and am already at 154. I can literally feel my body doing what it's supposed to be doing for energy. Sometimes I have so much energy that it feels as though I took an ADD medication, like Adderall. Definitely helps me feel hopeful and has the ability to get me out of that dark, horrible run. Good luck to you.
Cold Showers
★★★★★
I have been an avid reader of your site since i found it. I use many of your suggestions such as acv, bsm and baking soda for a cleanser. I heard about cold showers and depression and decided to give it a try. The main reason i tried it was because one day i was with a friend and we do wind each other up a bit and hurl joking insults at each other, but this one day i got really down about some of his comments as i suffer from depression and menopause i was feeling very vunerable. I could not get over his jokes and as much as i tried to reasure myself that he did not really mean them they still hurt and i was in tears for days. I thought i would take a cold shower to see if it cheered me up. All i can say is WOW. I must admit although i had lost the will to live i honestly thought i was going to die in the shower and decided i am not only depressed i am bloody bonkers, i was convinced i was going to die from heart failure, shock and hypothermia all at the same time. But after i stopped shivering and my teeth stopped chuttering i realised i was going to live after all and actually started to enjoy it. That was only this morning and i have been in such a good mood all day i cant wait to try it again tommorow. My face has also been glowing all day without any make up and i cant stop looking in the mirror, maybe it's just because i feel better but it has took years off me.I have got curly hair and heard it is good for curly hair as mine is going a bit frizzy. I will give you an update in a couple of months to see if it helps . I am one of the few women who love my curly hair and would not touch a straigtener. Everybody comments on my hair and how nice it is but lately with the onset of the menopause it seems to have died so i would love to see if something this simple gets it back to normal.
★★★★★
One time I purchased a bottle of 5-htp, and after taking one capsule morning & evening, just twice, I threw the bottle away. My reaction to 5-htp was horrific; upon further research I learned that high levels of serotonin are associated with SEVERE ANXIETY. I also read that the spice ginger is a serotonin antagonist, so I have a bottle on hand, just in case I ever feel so anxious ever again.
Then I read somewhere online that there is a set of people whose depression responds to Acetyl L-Carnitine, they said the depression lifted in these people when using 3-4 grams a day, and to take two grams of acetylcarnitine on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning.
This amino acid is the most amazing substance; I've never been able to take more than 2 grams per day - there is such great mental clarity, there is utter inability to be depressed, but there simultaneously is no euphoria - just calm lucid clarity. I've read that it assists the brain in making many different neurotransmitters - so it is not anything, not anything at all like 5-htp which floods the brain with serotonin - which, if you don't need it, might create severe anxiety.
Apple Cider Vinegar
★★★★★
About 6 months ago, I suddenly woke up with severe nausea and constant burping. Everything I ate and drank made me feel sick. I woke up nautious and went to bed nat ious every day. My quality of life started changing. I did not want to go out anymore and do things because I constantly felt sick. Being newly engaged, this really put a damper on my relationship. Who wants to be around someone that feels sick everyday and to be honest..when you are sick everyday you reach a point where you just want to be alone. I am only 27 years old and I felt like I had put on 10 years or more in the last 6 months. I even told my mother if I had to live the rest of my life like this I might kill myself. Everything made me sick. Even riding in a car. I had a colonoscopy which came back fine. I then had a scope done and showed that I had erosions all in my stomach, throat, and esophogas. I have been on prevacid and aciphex, which did not seem to help at all and the constant burping was just nasty and embarrassing. I got online and found this site and figured I would give the ACV a chance. This is only my 4th day and oh my goodness thank you god!!! I am not nauseous anymore. Riding in a car no longer makes me sick. If I burp it is one good one instead of a million tiny ones and I have energy like I haven't had in years. I have lost 3 pounds in a few days and I am not having bad cravings. I also notice my skin looks better. I also have battled depression for a long time and I actually feel happy. I woke up at 4a.m smiling thinking why am I so happy. This is truley amazing and I can't wait to keep taking it and see what else it does. If you have battled acid reflux believe me I know how horrible it is. Please just try this and you will not regret it!!
Exercise, Omega 3, Sauna
★★★★★
I have to monitor my mood because I'm prone to depression so I have to nip it in the bud. This is what works for me.
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.
5-HTP
★★★★★
Julia Ross, who wrote the Mood Cure, recommends taking 5 HTP 50 mg pills, 1-3 pills at mid afternoon and 1-3 pills at bedtime. If you haven't tried it before, she says to start with 1 pill, if you don't feel any difference in an hour, take a second one, and if still no difference in another hour, take a 3rd. At whatever point you feel a difference, that is your dose. She does not recommend 100 mg pills, I suppose because it limits the ability to start low and gradually increase, only as needed. Obviously, if you feel weird on it or have some side effect, don't take it. Her book is a great resource for how/when/why and side effects to look for when taking various aminos and supplements for mood. She also distinguishes between the "Blues" type of depression and the "Blahs" type of depression and recommends aminos/supplements accordingly.
