DEPRESSION PREVENTION
Depression is a common and serious mental disorder that afflicts up to 20% of Americans during their lifetime. The symptoms of depression can include feeling sad, negative thinking, excessive guilt feelings, feeling defective or shameful, lack of initiative, excessive sleeping and/or eating, loss of interest in pleasurable activities, physical lethargy and thoughts of suicide. A depressed person often feels hopeless about the future, has a sense of failure about the past and feels despair about the present. People who are depressed believe that there is something wrong with them but fail to realize that they are depressed.
Depression can be brought on by excessive stress and worry, sudden losses, rapid life changes, chronic pain, many prescription medications, certain medical illnesses, hormonal changes and genetic factors. Once a person has experienced an episode of depression, the risk of another episode is increased. Untreated depression is likely to become a chronic illness.
The best prevention against depression is a sense of optimism about life. This involves adopting positive beliefs about yourself and your future. Laughter and physical exercise are superb antidepressants and should be practiced daily. Since stress is a major factor in many depressive episodes, people need to be aware of their stress levels. The ability to self-regulate your mind, emotions and nervous system is essential to the lowering of stress. Meditation, self-hypnosis, biofeedback, visualizations, prayer and other techniques are all effective in lowering the tension level in the autonomic nervous system. This will lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and raise levels of serotonin. Serotonin is the brain chemical that most prescription antidepressants try to raise in order to combat depression.
Proper nutrition support for the brain and body is needed for normal function. Nutritional deficiencies and toxic foods both contribute to lowering resistance to depression. Eat a diet of whole unprocessed foods and take a high quality omega-3 fish oil supplement. If using vitamin supplements, choose ones derived from concentrated food extracts instead of synthetic vitamins.
Social support is very important in preventing or treating depression. If your family is a constant source of stress, consider family therapy. If your friends and acquaintances leave you feeling worse after seeing them, consider finding more supportive people to associate with. Finding and following your passion in life can be curative of depression.
Major depression is a serious illness and people should find a therapist skilled in helping to address the issues and finding solutions. Medication is sometimes helpful but healing from depression is incomplete without psychotherapy. Psychotherapy can be as effective as medication and helps teach how to prevent future episodes of depression.
Daniel Blodgett MD