Defeating Depression without Drugs.

One in four of us will suffer from some form of depression at some time in our lives. For most people, this means a quick trip to the Doctor, and a handful of pills. Some of us, however, do not want to use medication for personal reasons, and may be looking for a different approach.

First, though a word about anti-depressants. Just as there are many types of depression, there are many types of anti depressant medication, and they all work differently. The fact is, however, the America is one of the most over-medicated countries in the world, due no doubt to the widely held belief that there is a pill for everything. Many people are prescribed several different anti-depressants at once, a chemical cocktail that is supposed to help, but which often does more harm than good.

There are, however, alternative approaches.

One of the ways that the latest generation anti-depressants works is by changing the chemical balance in your brain, but you don't need to take pills to do that. Exercise, especially aerobic exercise, will do it for you. Exercising produces 'feel good' chemicals - endorphins - in your brain, which lighten your mood and increase your sense of wellbeing. Quite apart from making you feel better, it will probably make you slimmer as well!

Similarly, guided visualisation and yoga produce a sense of peace and balance, reducing the anxiety that often accompanies depression.

It has been suggested too that a deficiency of B vitamins, can contribute to depression, and many people have reported improvements in their depression after they have increased their consumption of B-complex vitamins.

Herbs, too, may have a part to play.

St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a bit of a weed - but it has some wonderful properties. Used for centuries as an herbal medicine, it has actually out-performed prescription anti-depressants in a series of double-blind placebo controlled studies, in that it had similar good outcomes, but without the side effects of the chemicals. In Germany, more than 50% of depressive illness is treated with Hypericum and less than 2% by Prozac!

Part of the problem with anti-depressant therapy is that while the chemicals used are pretty good at controlling the symptoms of depression and making you feel better, they do absolutely nothing to address the underlying psychological problems that are present in most types of depression.

It is here that the 'talking therapies', particularly Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, have a part to play. CBT is brief and highly interactive therapy that enables the client to re-construct and re-evaluate his perceptions of his life and environment, and in so doing, significantly improve his depression.

We don't really need all the pills - we can just get natural.

Learn more about this author, Norman Munro.
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