What do you think about antidepressants?!
Question: View the article on antidepressants on www.womentowomen.com Use the multidimensional approach to treating depression, including occupational therapy (keeping busy, so you have little time for unproductive introspection), relaxation exercises, either 4, or more Omega 3 fish oil supplements, daily, (some people take up to 10, depending on size, and potency) or preferably, "krill oil*". Work your way up slowly to 20 - 30 minutes of exercise daily, depending on age, and physical condition. Don't rely on antidepressants, which are only effective in the long term with about 30% of people, have side effects, like sexual dysfunction, and are unsuitable for young people, causing a demonstrated increase in the rate of suicide, homicide, and aberrant behaviour. You can, however, include supplements such as Inositol, SAMe, or herbal remedies, like St. John's wort (Hypericum Perforatum), which has been demonstrated through independently conducted German double blind testing to be effective in many cases, including clinical depression. American testing, which I strongly suspect of having been influenced by those with a vested interest in maintaining/increasing their billions of dollars of profits for antidepressant sales, has (not surprisingly) shown it to be ineffective in clinical (major) depression. Counselling, in the form of Rational Emotive Behavio(u)ral Therapy, or Cognitive Behavio(u)ral therapy is advisable, at least in the early stages, after which it can become a bit "same old, same old" for some people, and lose effectiveness. Closely examine the http://www.1-800-therapist.org website, and I suggest setting an initial limit with the therapist of, say, 6 months, so they have no (unconscious) reason to try to stretch it out, indefinitely, as some do. Go to the searchbar* at http://www.mercola.com and enter: "EFT". Give it a good tryout, preferably through a registered practicioner: there is a locator for the USA there. In Australia, there is http://www.findatherapist.com.au/ Phone (Australia) 1300 365 411, and www.naturaltherapypages.com.au See http://www.babcp.co.uk/ in Great Britain. In other countries, type the term: "therapist", followed by your country's 2 letter code, for example, if I was in New Zealand, I would type: "therapist;nz" and then enter it by clicking on the green "go" arrow, on the right hand side of the address bar, to use the search engine, (for those of you new to computers) or press the "enter" key. The WebFerret search engine consults several other search engines, and collates the results. Try yours, Yahoo, AltaVista, or Entireweb, otherwise. If the amount of daylight you have been exposed to recently has reduced, perhaps due to the change of seasons, instead of taking 4 Omega 3 fish oil supplements, daily; replace 2 of them with cod liver oil supplements for the winter months only! (or, as probably a better alternative to the 2 cod liver oil supplements: 1 teaspoonful of cod liver oil, with a little butter, to ensure its use; I take mine on sourdough rye bread, or toast, covered with fishpaste, and pepper, to mask the strong taste). Consider having your doctor test your vitamin D levels, using the 25 Hydroxyvitamin D test. Optimal levels are 50 - 55 ng/ml (115 - 125 nmol/l. It should be above 32 ng/ml. Those people who receive adequate exposure to sunlight, daily, won't need the vitamin D from cod liver oil, but many people, particularly those in latitudes far from the equator, find this difficult, to achieve. You can also enter "depression", or "Seasonal Affective Disorder" in the Google, or Wikipedia websites. Detailed information on the above may be found in the blogs of detlef schtraka, and shaneris, at www.myspace.com
Answers: View the article on antidepressants on www.womentowomen.com Use the multidimensional approach to treating depression, including occupational therapy (keeping busy, so you have little time for unproductive introspection), relaxation exercises, either 4, or more Omega 3 fish oil supplements, daily, (some people take up to 10, depending on size, and potency) or preferably, "krill oil*". Work your way up slowly to 20 - 30 minutes of exercise daily, depending on age, and physical condition. Don't rely on antidepressants, which are only effective in the long term with about 30% of people, have side effects, like sexual dysfunction, and are unsuitable for young people, causing a demonstrated increase in the rate of suicide, homicide, and aberrant behaviour. You can, however, include supplements such as Inositol, SAMe, or herbal remedies, like St. John's wort (Hypericum Perforatum), which has been demonstrated through independently conducted German double blind testing to be effective in many cases, including clinical depression. American testing, which I strongly suspect of having been influenced by those with a vested interest in maintaining/increasing their billions of dollars of profits for antidepressant sales, has (not surprisingly) shown it to be ineffective in clinical (major) depression. Counselling, in the form of Rational Emotive Behavio(u)ral Therapy, or Cognitive Behavio(u)ral therapy is advisable, at least in the early stages, after which it can become a bit "same old, same old" for some people, and lose effectiveness. Closely examine the http://www.1-800-therapist.org website, and I suggest setting an initial limit with the therapist of, say, 6 months, so they have no (unconscious) reason to try to stretch it out, indefinitely, as some do. Go to the searchbar* at http://www.mercola.com and enter: "EFT". Give it a good tryout, preferably through a registered practicioner: there is a locator for the USA there. In Australia, there is http://www.findatherapist.com.au/ Phone (Australia) 1300 365 411, and www.naturaltherapypages.com.au See http://www.babcp.co.uk/ in Great Britain. In other countries, type the term: "therapist", followed by your country's 2 letter code, for example, if I was in New Zealand, I would type: "therapist;nz" and then enter it by clicking on the green "go" arrow, on the right hand side of the address bar, to use the search engine, (for those of you new to computers) or press the "enter" key. The WebFerret search engine consults several other search engines, and collates the results. Try yours, Yahoo, AltaVista, or Entireweb, otherwise. If the amount of daylight you have been exposed to recently has reduced, perhaps due to the change of seasons, instead of taking 4 Omega 3 fish oil supplements, daily; replace 2 of them with cod liver oil supplements for the winter months only! (or, as probably a better alternative to the 2 cod liver oil supplements: 1 teaspoonful of cod liver oil, with a little butter, to ensure its use; I take mine on sourdough rye bread, or toast, covered with fishpaste, and pepper, to mask the strong taste). Consider having your doctor test your vitamin D levels, using the 25 Hydroxyvitamin D test. Optimal levels are 50 - 55 ng/ml (115 - 125 nmol/l. It should be above 32 ng/ml. Those people who receive adequate exposure to sunlight, daily, won't need the vitamin D from cod liver oil, but many people, particularly those in latitudes far from the equator, find this difficult, to achieve. You can also enter "depression", or "Seasonal Affective Disorder" in the Google, or Wikipedia websites. Detailed information on the above may be found in the blogs of detlef schtraka, and shaneris, at www.myspace.com
I think that it can take a lot of trial and error to get the right one, but when you do, it can have a tremendous benefit to your life.
Antidepressants are best combined with therapy, exercise, diet, fresh air and socialising.
Crap. I'm taking Prozac now and it's making my life a misery. I can't just get off it because I will get withdrawal side effects, so I have to decrease the dose slowly.
Ya' know there's a difference between not being depressed and actually being happy.
they work well for some and not for others. They had a segment on this morning's news about how the effect of antidepressants are mainly attributable to the placebo effect. I disagree however because they work by restricting the re-uptake of seratonin in the brain, which helps you to have a more pleasant mood. They certainly helped me to see that there is light after the dark and that life does go on after a tragedy.
Not for me. I've gotten much farther with my anxiety/depression through counseling, exercise, and lifestyle changes than I ever did with medication. Never again.
If you find the right one, they are wonderful!
Myself, spouse, and many others have had Great results from Lexapro.
Never knew the bad thoughts were something that is not normal until I started Lexapro and it went away. Great Drug!!!
Depression is multi-factorial
Some is related to bipolar disorder. Some is situational or stress related. Some is unipolar major, related to HPA axis. Some is related to the brain-altering effect of chronic painful stimuli.
Antidepressants will work when they are targeted at the correct cause. It is naive to imagine that each and every person can be treated by a single "cure all" strategy. Some drugs work for some people, other drugs work for other people, and there are some people for whom drugs are simply not going to work. I have seen ECT (shock therapy) work amazingly well in patients with the slight side effect of short term memory loss around the time of the ECT (but hey, why would you really want to recall your time in the hospital?)
More research
More money
More treatments are much needed, IMHO