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Blisstree’s no enemy of antidepressants when you need them; in fact, some of us are of the opinion that the demise of talk therapy might be good for depressed patients, who seriously just need a psychiatrist to meet their needs. But proponents of functional medicine, like Dr. Mark Hyman, say that attitude isn’t the best approach. Instead of treating depression like a Prozac deficiency, he says, we need to figure out what’s causing our mood shifts (and other chronic symptoms) in the first place.
“Just knowing you have depression isn’t helpful,” he said at a recent event hosted by New York City’s Urbanzen Foundation. He and other proponents of functional medicine say that diagnosing patients with a disease doesn’t bring them any closer to a cure. Instead of racing to a diagnosis and prescription meds, we should be searching for the source of our symptoms, which he says is often easy to cure without prescriptions or extreme treatment measures.
Depression, an example he writes about frequently on Huffington Post and his website, one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the U.S. But instead of resorting to talk therapy and drugs, Hyman says that he sees patients regularly who can achieve better mental health through fixing some of their causes in physical health. These are just some of the things that he says could be causing depression (and they don’t require treatment with prescription meds):
I am 47 and have suffered severly from depression since childhood. It is a crappy world out there and sensitive people just don’t have a chance. I have been on every drug and they make it worse. I also will abuse certain ones so drugs just are not an option for me. I have found that happiness is a choice and that God is the only one that can truely fix me. My definition of depression is God just screams louder in some of us. Give him a chance
I have been taking anti depressants no for 20 years. I have been weened off slowly only to be put on a mild strenght. It so happens that when being on them for so long the seritonin in the brain does not function like it should after being on a uptake for so long. I had depression I have had lots of set backs in my life. Now I am divorced of 28 years with a husband that had cheated on me several times in our marriage, He had given me a STD through his fun. I am tring to make the bills that were in my name that he had purchased things and now has all of the purchases. I have nothing and no support at all. The economy has no work and I am having to go to court to pay these old depts., Yes I work two jobs making mininmin wage and paying my rent on an apartment, along with a new car payment insurance, and food, electric and gas for the car.I have one daughter that I have to take care of. Yes I pray all the time. Am I depressed over the food I eat , which I cant afford to eat or situations that have happened in my life. If it wasnt for prayer and knowing the Lord I do not want to be here this life is hell here on earth.
Im so sorry Debra for what you are going through and what you have had to endure. I am praying for you and your daughter. Our Father wants you to know He loves you and your daughter very much, He will never leave you or forsake you and He will supply all of your need. May you be richly blessed with His love today, may He carry you far over your pain and burdens and may you have peace…….
hugs and prayers to you, your sister in Colorado….hang in there!!!!!
drbra i have walked in your shoes in the past.been through a couple relationships that was very abusave.one night i sat in my chair and said god please help me i dont know what to do.i dont even know how to pray.do i candle lite prayer ect ect. the next morning i got a call from a place to go to work.oh my thank god.email me anytime.pammiekay02 hotmail
Don’t lost hope, your high hopes that recovery is possible yes, it is really possible with GOD,GOD,GOD. Open your BIBLE read HIS promising WORDS and claim it. Jeremiah 33:3, Jeremiah 29:11, etc… There are so many many words that HE promised and if you believe you can have it. I’ll or we’ll pray for you. GOD BLESS… Sorry for my english i’m not good enough but HIS grace is enough. Read also John 1:1-4 and John 1:14. Praise the Lord!
Sometimes, though, you do know what is causing your depression…the fact that you may be dying and there’s nothing you can do about it. February 14, 2011, I confirmed with the doctor that cancer had returned to my body…not only that but it had spread to my liver. I have high hopes that recovery is possible, but in reality, I know it may not happen. No amount of ‘talk’ is going to change this. My doctor put me on anti-anxiety meds for the days I can’t handle the stress and Prozac every day for depression. I wish it were otherwise…I HATE taking meds, but I do need them (along with prayer) to help me handle this stress (along with having three teenagers still at home and a handicapped adult son).
I’m not sure what to say, except that I pray you beat that monster and will go right now and pray for your recovery
To start with I agree with much of this list that having deficiencies in things that used to be normal in our diet or alergic to things that used to not can make one feel worse and taking care of those problems can help one to better deal with the real causes of unhappiness. However, I wonder why society more and more these days overlooks the elephant in the room, that is perhaps many people are UNHAPPY, not “depressed”, but unhappy; AND not just unhappy but unhappy because of various real conditions that have occured outside of their bodies such as legitimate things that have happened to them. It’s always about ‘blame the patient’ and not what they experienced. It seems like the psychological ethos is trying to downplay that or ignore it all together, that is ignore the fact that there are actually real problems outside of them that have caused their unhappiness. It is a widespread denial about the fact that for many people there is a lot to be unhappy about and that denial itself of giving legitimacy to the way they feel about things AND the denial about the legitimacy (or lack of acknowledgement) that things are not so good is an added reason that causes further unhappiness.
For example, the Fukushima disaster in Japan is a legitimate reason for many people to be pretty darn unhappy. It is not because they need to stop eating gluten nor are deficient in Prozac or need more vitamin D! It is because 1. there is a HUGE reason to feel unhappy and 2. that problem needs to be addressed (by the whole world). But because this society where the problems that need to be addressed are ignored and where it’s so commonly heard, “Oh you’re just depressed there’s nothing wrong with what is happening” the problems just get worse! Taking this example, after they hopefully are able to contain the meltdown in Fukushima the obvious lesson to Fukushima would be to shut down and decommission all nuclear plants around the world. But because of this denial maybe this may not happen and so we’ll have more to be unhappy about. If people had addressed the very real cause of the unhappiness over nuclear plants in the past this problem would have never occured in the first place.
There is a LEGITIMATE REASON to feel unhappy about those things, and when those things are buried under either drugs or excuses like “oh you don’t have any reason to be depressed you need more fish oil” those problems become worse. This denial itself appears to be a collective madness throughout mankind which could bring on our extinction. Unhappiness is a survival instinct and plays a very real roll in telling us that something is wrong and that those things that are wrong need to be solved. It almost seems people who are “depressed” about things are the ones that see things clearly where as the masses are out of their minds and that’s definitely a good reason to be unhappy.
I agree, C Sky! It takes self-awareness and often a great amount of courage to know, and then persuade others if need be, that one is not depressed but reacting to events or situations not stemming directly from one’s health or brain chemistry. True, depression is a disease and as such can have a variety of causes (as this article states), and it is important to note that “unhappiness” can easily slip into or cause depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, but unhappiness exists independently, as well.
Sooooooooooooooo TRUE!
This is so true. For years I was told by doctors that I was depressed, and was given lots of different medications. One day I decided that the doctors were not giving me anything but a nice big fat bill. And the medications were not doing anything to help me, just giving me something else! I’m so glad I woke up to see that no amount of praying,seeing shrinks or taking pills was doing me any good. I had to take my life back, and find out what was making me unhappy. I did find out and corrected the problems all by myself. Let’s face it, people do get depressed,and are unhappy everyday, but you can’t wallow in it. TAke minutes to see what you can do to help solve your own problems. I promise you can do it. I did, and I was pretty far gone.
Very helpful. Thanks.