Depression Articles

Depression can be stopped in its tracks. Pharmaceuticals aren’t the only or best way to reduce depression. Administrating drugs for what many times is a lifestyle condition is the wrong approach. High potency drugs can cause more problems then they solve. The numbers and variety of legal drugs are increasingly suspected of causing this problem. Some common drugs that are known to cause depression are: barbiturates, amphetamines, pain killers, beta-blockers, high blood pressure medications, heart medications and psychotropic drugs.

Depression Solutions

A good diet has many benefits that help with mood disorders, ADHD, cognitive function, and depression. The biggest barrier to brain health is a poor diet. After decades of of looking at mental disorders as separate from overall health, the tide is turning. There is a relationship between what you eat, how much you exercise, and what you think.

Essential Fatty Acids

Two-thirds of the brain is composed of specific kinds of fats. The two kinds of fatty acids that your body can’t manufacture and needs from food sources are the ones the brain depends on. These are the essential fatty acids (EPAs): Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) the foundation of the ”omega-3″ group of fatty acids, and Liolic acid (LA) the foundation of the “omega-6″ group of fatty acids.

These are the building blocks of brain cells. Food sources of Omega-3 (ALA) are flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, sea vegetables, green leafy vegetables, salmon, sardines, mackerel, trout, olive oil, grass fed beef and dairy. Linolic acid (LA) is found in expelled cold pressed oils, like sesame, primrose, flax, and others. The other sources are pumpkin seeds, avocados, poultry, cashews, acai berry, and spirulina. Many of the foods that have omega 3 contain Linoleic acid.

The brain makes docosehexaenoic acid (DHA) from (ALA) and (LA). Scientist at the National Institutes of Health has associated the increase in depression in North America with the decline of DHA. This is the most important fat for all cognitive functions.

B Vitamins

The B-complex vitamins are essential to both mental and emotional health. The B vitamins can’t be stored they depend on our daily consumption of them. They are destroyed by alcohol, refined sugar, nicotine, caffeine, and stress.

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is used by the brain to help convert glucose into fuel, it is the primary source of energy for the brain. Deficiencies can lead to fatigue, depression, irritability anxiety, and insomnia. Simple carbohydrates such as sugar drains the supply of all B complex vitamins.

Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) aids is the processing of amino acids. the building blogs of serotonin, melatonin and dopamine. These are know as the happy hormones.

Vitamin  B12 is important in preventing Anemia, which can cause mood swings, paranoia, irritability, confusion, dementia, and depression.. Folic Acid is need for DNA sysnthesis.

Lifestyle 

With our modern lifestyle many people shouldn’t be a stranger to depression. Depression is more than genetics. This condition is more than minor worries; it is the collapse of our agriculture system. The quality of our food supply is dismal. As our nutritional foundation is giving way our mental illnesses will sky rocket. Just by looking at the rates of autism, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and bi-polar disorders you can see the hair-curling trend. This is unprecedented and is setting the stage for a boon in prescription medications.

Moderate to severely depressed clients showed greater improvement in cognitive therapy when therapists emphasized changing how they think rather than how they behave.

Creating Good Thoughts

To create good thoughts means looking for the beauty and positive aspect of everyday life. Facing life in a way that gives you control means extracting what you want to focus on. It means being aware how your thoughts set up your reality.

Two people win a 20 thousand dollar lottery, one laments if he just had one more number he would be set for life. The other person realizes how fortune he was to come into this windfall.

Of course the winner for life is the person who enjoys what he received. You either trade down or you trade up in life. The choice is yours.

Create Your World

What has been found was that a concentration on changing behavior of patients by having them schedule activities to get them out and about, did not significantly predict subsequent change in depression symptoms.

The research suggests that cognitive strategies are what will help patients improve. Scientific research has found that perception, expectations, values, attitudes of both self and others will affect behavior.

When a person is depressed they will focus on minor negative aspects of an everyday experience. When small things seem go wrong the depressed person will see the whole experience as negative.

Creating your world starts with self talk. That is the dialog you have with yourself. The longest conversation is the one you have with yourself. Self-talk is the things we say to ourselves all day long.

Automatic Thoughts

Automatic thoughts are repetitive, statements that we say to ourselves.

Again they can be positive or negative. They are called automatic, because they are thoughts that we always say no matter what the evidence is. It is presumptions that don’t weigh any contradictions to the emotional response to people and situations.

Irrational Thoughts

Irrational thoughts are ideas that are based on false assumptions. These are usually unrealistic, and incorrect. Fundamentally they make no sense, and are illogical. These can take you the brink and are the profile of many maladaptive responses to the world. Thoughts that put conditions on your ability to be joyful are usually irrational.

These are I can’t be happy unless I either loss weight, get into my bikini, win the lottery, and please a boss, husband, friend, or relative. These aren’t what your happiness depends on.

Neither does getting into a bikini or winning the lottery guarantee happiness. Many lottery winners can attest to that fact. These ideas aren’t conductive to any long lasting future happiness.

Instrumental Thoughts

The good part is many of these beliefs are not etched in stone. It takes intuitive work to develop a correct thought pattern. Awareness is something that is needed.

Instrumental thoughts are ones that supply you with sheer delight. They become effortless if you make it a point to entertain them.

Learning the right and empowering way of thinking has a profound change on your self view.

The world you live in is inside your mind. You create your thoughts, and you should be the master of them. If not then the thoughts are your master, and that may not be the best program to go though life with. If you have been previously programmed, then you may be going through life with other people’s voices leading the way.

Going Nuts

Depression and anxiety treatment has proven to be ineffective. An increasing number of U.S. adults are being prescribed combinations of antidepressants and antipsychotic medications, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Facts

To examine patterns and trends in psychotropic polypharmacy-or the prescription of more than one psychiatric medication-Ramin Mojtabai, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., of Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and Mark Olfson, M.D., M.P.H., of Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, analyzed data collected from a national sample of office-based psychiatry practices. The number of medications prescribed and specific medication combinations were assessed from a total of 13,079 office visits to psychiatrists by adults (18 years or older) between 1996 and 2006.

Overall, there was an increase in the number of psychotropic medications prescribed during office visits. Between 1996 to 1997 and 2005 to 2006, the percentage of visits at which two or more medications were prescribed increased from 42.6 percent to 59.8 percent and the percentage of visits at which three or more medications were prescribed increased from 16.9 percent to 33.2 percent. In addition, the median (midpoint) number of medications prescribed at each visit increased from one to two (an average increase of 40.1 percent).

“While the evidence for added benefit of antipsychotic polypharmacy is limited, there is growing evidence regarding the increased adverse effects associated with such combinations,” the authors write. For example, some combinations have resulted in increases in body weight and total cholesterol level, whereas others may be associated with an increase in fasting blood glucose level.

Truth

A small new study provides more evidence that, on average, antidepressants may be little more effective than a sugar pill in most patients who take them.

“I think we’ve made decisions (about how to treat depression) more difficult,” says co-author Robert DeRubeis, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings are published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association. “I hope we have.”

“The health establishment needs to take stock and ask about costs and benefits” of antidepressants, DeRubeis says. Meanwhile, he says, his study “should give one pause” about prescribing antidepressants to mildly, moderately or even severely depressed patients. Instead, he says, doctors might want to consider non-drug options, such as exercise or psychotherapy.

Better Yet

Brain function is a product of nutrition. It is a known fact that a diet high in sugar and refined carbohydrates causes depression. Omega 3 fatty acids are needed for proper brain function. According to research published in 2003, kids that consumed soft drinks and sugary snacks performed at the level a 70-year-old in tests of memory and attention. Studies have shown that B vitamins have brain-boosting powers.

Sugar depletes vitamin stores, and causes nutritional deficiencies. A diet high in vitamins, minerals and omega-3 has been shown to affect psychological health. This is what holistic depression and anxiety treatment is based on.

There is a direct relationship between nutrition and aggression. In 2002, Bernard Gesch, a physiologist at Oxford University tested nutritional supplements on inmates in British prisons. He worked with 231 detainees for four months. He gave half the group of men, ages 18 to 21, multivitamins, minerals and fatty-acid supplements with meals. The other half were given placebos. Violence among the group taking the supplements fell 37 percent and minor infractions fell by 26 percent.

“Fruits and vegetables are like Mutual funds,” says university of Kentucky professor of neurology David Snowdon, PHD. “They’re a big pot of literally thousands of compounds that offer protection against a variety of diseases including Alzheimer’s disease.” Fresh fruits and vegetables have been proven to lower the risk of dementia.

Nutrients that feed the brain help it handle stress and stay alert. Good nutrition feeds body, mind and spirit.

Glen Olsen a Fomer Pharmaceutical Rep-Spills The Beans