Coping with Depression and Anxiety

”I feel so worthless, everybody dislike me, I am alone! I am just so tired of everything, I don’t care what happens to me or others.” This is just one testimonial of a depressed person.

So what does the doctor prescribe?
Treatment choice will depend on the outcome of the evaluation. There are a variety of antidepressant medications and psychotherapies that can be used to treat depressive disorders. However, significant numbers of patients continue to experience symptoms such as sadness, low energy and hopelessness after intensive treatment with antidepressants. As a matter of fact 50 % of depression sufferers don’t improve after using antidepressants, according to a Washington Post article, written by Shankar Vedantam. But lately some doctors are even looking into recommending natural cures for depression, to go along side with the traditional treatments.

And there is one more aspect about antidepressant medications. They have many side effects, unlike the natural cures for depression. Therefore many people chooses natural cures for depression, to avoid side effects. Most anti-depressant drugs work by blocking biochemical pathways in other words they interfere with the body’s normal chemistry. This often results in side-effects and it frequently takes some time to get the dose just right to balance the positive and negative effects.

The most common side effects of antidepressants are:

• Sexual functioning may change; if worrisome, it should be discussed with the doctor.
• Dry mouth
• Blurred vision.
• Drowsiness as a daytime problem this usually passes soon.
• Nervousness and insomnia (trouble falling asleep or waking often during the night)
• Constipation and the urine stream may not be as strong as usual; the doctor should be notified if there is marked difficulty or pain.
• Agitation (feeling jittery). If this happens for the first time after the drug is taken and is more than transient, the doctor should be notified.
• Headache and Nausea

What can natural cures for depression do for you?
There are a number of things you can do to improve your condition. Just for start, you should know that there is a growing wealth of evidence, which highlights the ever-increasing role that the food we eat plays in our emotional status. Research is ongoing in this area and some of the proposed benefits require further research before we can equivocally relate specific illnesses to a deficiency of nutrients in our diets.

Natural Cures For Depression: Omega 3 fatty acids
Depression has been linked to deficiencies in omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin B, vitamin C, zinc, and tryptophan. Vitamin D has also been linked to depression. So a diet high in this can improve your overall mood and reduce the depression symptoms, and it is one of the powerful natural cures for depression easily available to everyone.

The omega-3 fat DHA, which is found in fish, is highly concentrated in the brain and populations with low omega-3 fats tend to have higher rates of depression. While aggressive anti-cholesterol diets and medication, which tend to exacerbate omega-3 deficiency, are associated with increasing incidence of depression. There is also a correlation between incidence of depression and heart disease, the latter being also associated with deficiency of omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fatty acids can be found in fish, such as salmon, tuna, and halibut, other marine life such as algae and krill, certain plants (including purslane), and nut oils. Also omega-3 fatty acids play a crucial role in brain function as well as normal growth and development. So this too is another one of the natural cures for depression that anyone can use.

Natural Cures For Depression: the B vitamins
Both low folate and low vitamin B12 status have been found in studies of depressive patients, and an association between depression and low levels of the two vitamins is found in studies of the general population.

Natural cures for depression: Serotonin
Changes in the serotonin levels in the brain can alter the mood. For example, medications that affect the action of serotonin are used to treat depression.

When we eat foods that are naturally rich in tryptophan, such as whey protein shakes, scrambled eggs, milk, lean meats, etc., the tryptophan turns into natural serotonin. The serotonin is then found in the blood stream, in the gut, and is synthesised in the central nervous system. This is how nature intended things to work and how things could work if only we would eat a more healthy diet.

Natural Cures For Depression: sleeping better and in total darkness to produce Melatonin
Melatonin is one of the Natural cures for depression , that our own body makes, since it is secreted by the pineal gland in the brain . It helps regulate other hormones and maintains the body’s circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is an internal 24-hour time-keeping system that plays a critical role in determining when we fall asleep and when we wake up. Darkness stimulates the production of melatonin while light suppresses its activity.

A recent study of postmenopausal women found that melatonin alleviated both depression and anxiety. Other studies show that people who suffer from major depression or panic disorder have low levels of melatonin. Healthy individuals with mild episodic depression and patients who have Seasonal Affective Disorder, a mild depression that correlates with fall and winter — periods of light-phase shortening) also have lower than normal melatonin levels.

Natural cures for depression: St. John’s Wort (hypericum perforatum)
St John’s Wort contains a variety of natural antidepressant substances including, hypericin, pseudohypericin and hyperforin. These work at the root of mild depression, boosting neurotransmitter function and returning your mood to normal. It may not work as fast as the pharmaceutical alternatives, but there are NO side-effects, and in time (perhaps 6 weeks) are just or more effective.

Natural cures for depression: “Talking” therapies, depression courses and programs
A depression course can help you in many ways by teaching you how to avoid anxiety and stress. Things start to happen instantly when you begin such a program. It is a major psychological breakthrough point.

Programs that are designed to tackle the general anxiety by releasing calm into your body through specific exercises that are designed to help with depression. By the end of such a program, which is one type of the natural cures for depression, you are left feeling restored, confident and more like your former self.

“Behavioral” therapy programs regards as fundamental an approach that respects and enhances each person’s capacity for self-knowledge and self-care, and it emphasizes techniques that are grounded in this approach.

Whatever you choose from the large variaty of natural cures for depression, or the medicines prescribed by doctors, you should keep in mind that life is too short to be brooded over. You must enjoy it thoroughly. Live it to the fullest!