One of my international students said
Westerners are soft…there is no
depression in his village... indeed, he
smirked, there is not even a word for
it in his language…In
earlier discussions, the student shared
stories of rural struggles with wild
animals, sand storms and other human
loss dilemmas. So I took it upon myself
to pontificate at length on the
likelihood that any unusual lion death
may actually have been a
depression-induced suicide, or anyone
wandering away from the village during a
sand storm, never to be seen again,
might actually have suffered a
depression-induced
fugue and so on. The intended
lesson of my
Health Talk recommends the
following self- treatment steps
for the prevention of milder,
short-term bouts of depression:
~
Get enough
sleep.
~
Follow
a healthy, nutritious diet.
~
Exercise regularly.
~
Avoid
alcohol, marijuana and other
recreational drugs.
~
Get
involved in activities that make
you happy, even if you don’t
feel like it.
~
Spend
time with family and friends.
~
Try
talking to clergy or spiritual
advisors.
~
Consider prayer, meditation, tai
chi or biofeedback as ways to
relax or draw on your inner
strengths.
~
Add
omega-3 fatty acids to your diet
from cold-water fish like tuna,
salmon or mackerel.
~
Take
folate (vitamin B9) in the form
of a multivitamin (400 to 800
micrograms).
~
Try
light therapy using a special
lamp that mimics the sun for
seasonal affective disorder.
~
Get
counseling during times of
grief, stress or low mood.
~
Family
therapy may be particularly
important for teens and the
elderly who feel blue.
http://www2.healthtalk.com/go/mental-health/depression/disease-basics/10-key-questions-about-depression/page/9-can-depression-be-prevented-
…And
one of my personal favorites
‘fake it 'til you make it!"
J
.
Smile! Seems the upturned
facial muscles increase the
production of our ‘feel good’
neurotransmitters, and
help us actually feel better. Dr. B |
lengthy repartee
was that mental illnesses are not always
easily identified and that just because
a community doesn’t name it or
acknowledge it, doesn’t mean that it
doesn’t exist.
My student’s misplaced ethnocentricity
annoyed me, but I spoke softly and
reflected on the community I’d grown up
in that believed (and still to a great
degree, believes) somewhat the same;
i.e. that mental health illnesses are
not real illnesses. That mental
disorders represent personal weakness.
That if you see a psychologist you must
be really crazy! That we don’t publicly
air our dirty laundry and that these
kinds of problems are best taken care of
within the privacy of the family.
These beliefs have made psychology’s
struggle for creditability, in many
communities, long and
wearisome (see:
Army regulation denies Purple Heart to
troops suffering from PTSD).
In fact, in graduate school as we
struggled to learn the required myriad
of psychological disorders and
therapies, we often joked of growing up
with the simplicity of our mother’s
universally accepted, all encompassing
therapeutic solution to psychological
pain:
"Eat something, take a
walk, take a nap, get over it!"
Which interestingly enough, sometimes
worked! But sometimes it didn’t and as
was the probable case for the
non-believers of my student’s village;
valuable souls were lost because we
didn’t accept a name or a treatment for
a likely ailment.
Depression, according to last month’s Channel
7 News
Special
by Brad Douglass, affects
20 million Americans each year and is
one of our most often unacknowledged and
untreated psychological disorders. It is
distinguished by feelings of sadness,
hopelessness and helplessness and "some
say, feels as though
a dark curtain
comes down over their lives."
A brief search of the web reveals an
abundance of support for the News’
Special, including a detailed discussion
on
Webmd
that lists the basic
types of depression as: Major Depression ,
Bipolar Depression, Chronic Depression
or Dysthymia , Seasonal Depression ,
Psychotic Depression,
Premenstrual
Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD),
and Postpartum Depression; and explains
that each disorder is distinguished by
varying combinations, intensities and
durations of the following symptoms:
·
Sadness
·
Loss
of enjoyment from things that
were once pleasurable
·
Loss
of energy
·
Feelings of hopelessness or
worthlessness
·
Difficulty concentrating
·
Difficulty making decisions
·
Change
in sleep patterns (i.e. insomnia
or excessive sleep)
·
Stomachache and digestive
problems
·
Sexual
problems (for example, decreased
sex drive)
·
Aches
and pains (such as recurrent
headaches)
·
A
change in appetite causing
weight loss or gain
·
Thoughts of death, suicide, or
self-mutilation
·
Self-mutilation or attempting
suicide
|
Note: Most psychologists
emphasize the importance of
distinguishing true clinical
depression from just feeling blue.
It's pretty normal for everyone
to feel blue from time
to time. Feeling blue shares the same symptoms
as true depression, but true
depression is
distinguished by greater
intensity, longer duration (two
weeks or more) , and often, an inability to
function in a normal everyday
manner (tie your shoes, go to
the grocery store, prepare a
meal, handle every
day conversations, business,
work and parenting) . |
Though depression is a product of
both
nature and nurture current research
consistently supports the overriding
influence of nature in
depression. Such findings often conclude
that the
brain chemistry is out of balance
and the associated decrease in the availability of
neurotransmitters results in depression.
Environmental influences on depression,
however, can be very powerful as well
and include: alcohol, prescription and
recreational drugs, nutritional
deficiencies and as summarizes in the
Channel 6 newscast:
"…situations in life such as
divorce, loss of a loved one,
abuse as a child, abuse as an
adult… anything that can impact
somebody, [including natural
disasters i.e.] the role of
storm damage,--for west
Tennessee, [in which] one major impact
, recently, has been
the series of storms that have
raked across the area leaving
[people to deal with the sorrows
of ] what’s
left of their homes and
belongings".
Biological or environmental,
depression can be treated successfully
and
treatment methodologies include
medication,
psychotherapy or combinations of
both. As well, in milder cases, a
variety of
alternative treatments
such as
acupuncture, guided imagery,
chiropractic care, yoga, hypnosis,
biofeedback, aromatherapy, relaxation,
herbal remedies and massage are
promising.
Though most often found in (or at
least most often reported by) women,
it’s important to acknowledge that
depression affects
men and
children as
well and is of increasing concern for
the
elderly. Clarifying questions about
depression with a trusted professional
(i.e. counselor, pastor or teacher) may
be useful, however, due to the strong
biological component of the disorder,
the first and most crucial point of
contact should be the family doctor. An
abundance of reliable help is available
and there’s just no reason to get eaten
by a lion, lost in the sand
storm or for
this particular type of dark
curtain, to suffocate anyone’s
otherwise productive life
Yours in psychology and wellness, Dr.
B
|
