What can you do to be depressed?

Depression is a serious problem for millions of people today. Is it you or the people you love? What can you do for yourself or others to alleviate the overwhelming burden of depression?

It may be helpful to discuss your emergency with someone close to you. Seeing a difficult experience through someone else's eyes can help you develop a more realistic vision. Often this will only relieve depression.

Sometimes the reason people get depressed is frustration from boring and repetitive daily activities. Does this describe your situation? In that case, simple changes in the order of your routine can help. For example, if you encounter more uncomfortable activities every day first, hours later you will have more fun activities. Another thing you can do from time to time is to look for a change of pace. Something as simple as taking a walk, exercising for a while or running a weekend or vacation can go a long way to stopping grief.

One thing that depressed people must overcome is the temptation to withdraw from others and "vegetate" into a well of despair. When the victim engages in a useful service, hobby, or other activity, he or she can not think of uncomfortable circumstances.

When you feel worthless and guilty

How about the feelings of incompetence, worthlessness and guilt that often accompany depression? Did world patterns of "success" lead you to believe that you are in no way comparing yourself to others? The biblical view of this question is worth examining. The Bible assures us that what the world thinks is popular, attractive and appealing does not come from the Father [God], but from the world. The scriptures also make it clear that each one has positive qualities that can be used for the benefit of others. The apostle Paul writes about the Christian attitude:

“Because the body is not really one member, but several. When the foot says "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body", it is not the reason why no part of the body is. And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," that is not why it is not a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If everything was heard, where would the smell be? But now God put the limbs in the body, all calm. The eye can not say by hand: "I do not need you"; or even the head can not say to the feet: "I do not need you." However, it is much more true that weaker body parts are needed. "- 1 Corinthians 12: 14-18, 21, 22.

As for the tendency to make mistakes, the scriptures put all people on equal terms. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The biblical term "sin" means "missing the mark" in the sense that it does not perfectly reflect the characteristics of God's personality. This trend has spread from the first human couple, Adam and Eve, to all of humanity. If you can not shoot a target, it does not matter if the error was due to shooting up, down or on both sides. We think we missed the mark. In the same way, your inherited weaknesses do not place you under your peers in the eyes of God.

King David, who endured many trials, said of the Creator: “Jehovah is near to them with a broken heart. and save those who are hurt by the Spirit. It is especially good to approach God in prayer in times of need. You do this regularly

What can parents and friends do to help depressed people? People who want to help should avoid things like "Oh, why do not you show up!" Confuse. It is much more helpful to follow the biblical counsel: "Speak comfortably to depressed souls." One way to do this is to observe the things they do well and praise them.When people have completely lost confidence in themselves, some have helped by assigning them simple tasks that they can obviously do. Then they give up harder things to do and gradually the depressed person's self-confidence is rebuilt. Can you help someone like this?

But what about tips like this that don't improve much? What other types of treatment are there?

Treatments that some have tried

The treatment of the insane has horrified the specter of kindness. Today, when doctors stop helping a person improve their mood through psychotherapy, they can turn to “shock therapy”. This practice dates back to the early 1930s. Manfred Sakel pioneered insulin-induced shock in psychotherapy as early as 1933. Two years later, a Budapest psychiatrist, Van Meduna, used Metazol to induce seizures. In many cases, these shock treatments have relieved the symptoms of major depression over a period of time. To be the most effective insulin shock, it lasted 30 to 50 hours and the patient needed expensive treatment. Shock with Metazol resulted in a high incidence of death and fractures.

These treatments have largely been replaced by "electroconvulsive therapy" (EST), also called "electroconvulsive therapy" (ECT). This still popular procedure involves applying electrical currents to the brain, which causes cramps in the body. Usually, medication is given in advance so that the patient does not feel anything. However, a state of mental confusion follows electroconvulsive therapy; and sometimes caused memory loss lasting several weeks and permanent brain damage. In addition, in the history of psychiatry, it is said: “Treatment of shock only relieves symptoms. You are unable to reach the underlying mental disorder underlying the disease. ""

Another way to treat depression is psychosurgery. This involves cutting some of the nerve fibers that connect the frontal lobes of the brain to the thalamus. If successful, this operation can relieve tension and anxiety. However, some patients lost touch with their past, became passive, and led an almost vegetative existence. And after that, psychosurgery cannot be reversed.

Due to the frequent failure of the above treatments, some doctors have started looking at depression in a completely different direction. What does it mean?

Dealing with faulty body chemistry

To treat depression from a body chemistry standpoint, researchers have developed "antidepressants." They are not addictive tranquilizers. With rare exceptions, people can stop or restart antidepressant medications without side effects.

How do these special drugs fight depression? Researchers have found that chemicals called "biogenic amines" are highly concentrated in the part of the brain that controls mood. "In depressed people," says Dr. Nathan Kline, "there is substantial evidence that certain 'biogenic amines' are not produced in sufficient quantities or are destroyed very quickly." A group of drugs called 'monamine oxidase inhibitors' (MAO inhibitors) have been developed to slow down the breakdown of amines that seem necessary to maintain a good mood. One drug, lithium carbonate, has been shown to be very effective in alleviating the alternating highs and lows of manic depression.

Regarding the benefits of antidepressants, Dr. Kline: “Of course, there are good reasons to try antidepressants when advanced psychotherapy has been shown to be ineffective in relieving symptoms. A growing mindset is that drugs should be tried first. In many cases, that's all it takes. Medication is often helpful in conjunction with psychotherapy. After all, a depressed person is not the best subject in the world for intensive psychotherapy. ""

However, there are a lot of people, maybe 40% of those who are depressed, who don't respond to these drugs. Medicines also have unpleasant side effects and can be dangerous if not used under the supervision of a doctor.

When it comes to healthy brain function, a reasonable precaution is to ensure that your body is properly nourished. After citing chemist Roger J. Williams' evidence that mental depression was due to a lack of vitamins and other nutrients, he explained in his book Nutrition Against Disease: "The safest hunch we can make is that all essential nutrients are needed by brain cells and that insufficient Of course, this does not mean that a person has simply been filled with a random selection of vitamin capsules. The requirements for optimal nutrition often vary from person to person. Disability must be corrected, but it is an approach to depression that is often overlooked but sometimes works.