Topic Title: Ive made myself un-depressed!
| |  "Ive made myself un-depressed!"
, Mon 8 Aug 10:09:
The last time I visited this site was probably over 3 years ago, when I was gripped with depression, panic, and anxiety and social anxiety at university, before crumpling and having a nervous breakdown.
It was a very hard time and nothing can convey the pain and feelings I went through.
I had tried St Johns wort, and all the pharmaceutical anti-depressants and they in fact seem to make me worse, but I very pleased that some people find that these help, and hopefully, more sophisticated St Johns wort and pharmaceutical drugs will be released onto the market to ease our problem. *NEW USERS TO SJW dont be disheartened, it could really help you!*
Basically, to get to my main point though, for people who have tried different drugs and they havent worked, or for people who are on SJW and find it helps them, I wanted to tell people of a type of therapy that really, really helped me to almost prevent moodswings and anxiety and depression, which will work even better if youre depression or anxiety is mild. The therapy is called "Rational Emotive Therapy" and the book that has helped me most is Albert Ellis's "How To make yourself happy and remarkably undisturbed" and Windy Drydens "How To Accpet Yourself" and these have worked wonders for me. These books get straight to the point of what causes you to be depressed and how to help practically to overcome this, and have revolutionized my way of thinking, and therefore feeling. And I have been looking for some kind of answer for so long.
I also use "hemi-sync" cds for relaxation, (www.hemisync.com) which balance the hemispheres of the brain, and rosemary essential oils, and changed my diet to eliminate foods which catalyse my moodswings. Unfortunately, there is no fixed "cure", which I would love to give people, but all these approaches have really helped me. In my opinion, we live in a culture of the fast answer and immediate answer (e.g the pill) whereas, depression and anxiety or social phobia require steady work and unconditional self acceptane. I would love people to read this book and see how they get on.
I am recovering and a lot happier and more content now!
Incidently, rhodiola is a herb which has helped me, though it can increase anxiety, but Kava kava was good, although I cant get hold of it anymore!
C
[this message was edited by verveverve on Mon 8 Aug 10:22]
Posts: 3 | | Registered: Mon 8 Aug 2005 9:49 |
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| |  "Feeling Good, the New Mood Therapy"
, Sun 28 Aug 01:41
I haven't posted in a long time either...
I'm not taking anything at the moment. I've been reading Feeling Good, the New Mood Therapy by David Burns, MD.
I've been doing the exercises in the book, everyday. Its a type of cognitive therapy...
Using the depression rating scales, I've gone from severe depression, to moderate, to now... normal, but unhappy.
I've only been doing it a month. The testimonials on Amazon are what got me excited for it. I've been putting in the work, and results have come.
Challenging your irraional automatic thoughts is the basis, but he also talks about beliefs, which he say remain hidden in your psyche, even when your not depressed. These beliefs leave you susceptible to depression down the line, so there are chapters on changing them.
Anyways, its only been a month. Many good things are happening in my life, and I haven't felt depressed in awhile.
I'm hopefull what the next month will bring, and so on...
I'm not 100 percent convinced yet, as I am a big time skeptic of many things... and actually completely wrote off Cognitive Therapy and this book a few years ago. I used to believe that depression was purely biological. I've had severe depression for long periods of time in my life. I've used many herbs, different SSRI's, and even medical marijuana.
In fact, not 7 or so months ago, I took Paxil, and smoked medicinal marijuana throughout the day. I definitely didn't feel depressed, but I thought I had to use those things to feel normal.
Now, without those substances, I'm feeling pretty normal. So, go figure. But it wasn't until I started doing all this Cog. Therapy work outline in the book.
Just my 2 cents... maybe I'll come back later and post my continued experiences..
Posts: 81 | | Registered: Tue 11 Feb 2003 10:6 |
| | "Re(1):Ive made myself un-depressed!" , Mon 8 Aug 14:58
I think good books on the subject can go a long way to helping someone figure out what causes their depression. I've been thinking about this lately... not wanting to be tied to St. John's Wort, or any other drug for that matter, forever. Thanks for suggesting two books that could be useful... I was able to find the first one in a search, but not the second one, perhaps it's now out of print?
It's true that some people may need to take medication for their entire life - but I also believe that many of us with more moderate forms of depression can use therapies, counselling, books, exercise, meditation and other approaches as a long-term way to deal with depression as well.
Anyone have other book suggestions to add?
Posts: 768 | | Registered: Thu 5 Oct 2000 21:48 |
| | | "Re(2):Ive made myself un-depressed!" , Wed 7 Dec 20:54
quote:
I think good books on the subject can go a long way to helping someone figure out what causes their depression. I've been thinking about this lately... not wanting to be tied to St. John's Wort, or an
...
You asked about books we liked - here are mine:
My fav is "Happiness Is a Choice" by Barry Kaufman. Wow, what an amazing man and what a great book about changing your perspective about life and deciding that you really do want to be happy.
Second fav is "Emotional Alchemy" by Tara Bennett-Goleman. This book is sort of "advanced" because it assumes that you've already got the self-understanding to understand your issues and how you wish to change your conditioned responses to stressfull situations. The problem she addresses is that problem we all face of actually USING this and actually DOING it. Doesn't that always happen? You know what you should do, but in the heat of the moment, you do what feels safe, which, often, isn't the healthiest response. She incorporates her experiences as a clinical psychiatrist, her knowledge of western science regarding neurological processes, and lots of eastern wisdom about human nature and especially the benefit of meditation.
A book that just helped me get out of another recent jag is "The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power" by Vernon Howard. He wrote it back in 1965, so the language and perspective are pretty dated (very male-centric, vague references to Christianity that I don't share - but I can certainly read without feeling offended). Its kinda cheesy and full of silly analogies and quaint stories. I guess they help to illustrate his perspective. Anyway, he's GREAT. His big thing is removing your expectations. Its usually always un-met expectations that create dissatisfaction with life. Its really helped me to let stuff roll off my back.
A clinical book that I loved was by Margaret Linehan about Borderline Personality Disorder (my thang) and her therapy called Dialectic Behavior Therapy, in which the subject can accept two different thoughts at the same time - "I don't necessarily approve of my current response to this situation but its the best I can do now, and I know I can change this response to be healthier in the future." Thats one of the biggest problems I've faced with changing my brain chemistry - the disappointment in my current behavioral responses to situations. Its a catch-22 sometimes!
Anyone else with suggestions? I'm especially looking for books these days about how to deal with all the external (aka, uncontrollable) issues in our world that bring me down, such as war, poverty, political oppression (yes, I'm a socially progressive person and I feel like my whole life is under attack by my government right now). Yes, I've read tons about not letting behaviors of other individuals get to me (like friends and family). I've read about positive self-talk. I'm talking big-picture issues here, not just the personal interaction stuff.
BTW, I also loved "Feeling Good". I agree that it really gets to the heart of the mental processes that we go through in response to situations, and how to change those processes and responses to be more mentally healthy. You are what you think and say!
Good luck to all and happy reading!
Posts: 0 | | Registered: Wed 7 Dec 2005 20:28 |
| | | "Re(2):Ive made myself un-depressed!" , Tue 23 Aug 15:10
FYI - there were a few inappropriate posts in here that I deleted... so the messages that are being referred to below are gone. :)
Kelly
Posts: 778 | | Registered: Thu 5 Oct 2000 21:48 |
| | | "your website" , Tue 27 Dec 04:33
Just a quick note to you Kelly. Your site rocks! ;) Honestly I have been searching and researching for weeks SJW, Sam-e and 5H...I have found more information here in just one sitting than I have for weeks of scouring multiple sites! Thank you!!!
Posts: 1 | | Registered: Tue 27 Dec 2005 4:21 |
| | |  "Im afraid not!"
, Tue 9 Aug 04:16:
Youre all right to feel sceptical, but I'm afraid I am not a commercial advertisment! If only I could make money!!!!!
In response to the previous guy, RET is a cognitive therapy, but instead of just looking at Automatic Thoughts, it concentrates on changing the Beliefs that trigger the automatic thoughts.Gets straight down to the cause that is creating the automatic beliefs and hence emotions. If your automatic thoughts are prone to procrastination (worry),feelings of hurt (anger) etc changing your beliefs to more rational ones has certainly helped me with my depression. Albert Ellis (who invented cognitive therapy along with Beck,Burns, and many other people asssociated with CBT) looked at philosophy and how it could be used to eradicate depression. Serious Depression is a mood which is telling something is wrong. Our thoughts are recognised to create 85% of our moods. For instance, think about a happy time in your life if you can; see how you feel, and then think about a sad time. It si no co-incedance this happens. It is as if our moods are rating systems to which thoughts are helpful to achieve our goals and which ones are harmful or unflexible to achieving our goals.Our subconscious processes everything in an instant and then our conscious minds react, so changing our underlying beliefs to ourselves, others and the world helps greatly.As humans we have found it most helpful to understand our world through language, words; thoughts.
It is also no conincidence that one of the principles of REBT is unconditional acceptance of the self and others, which is something also found in Buddhism, and eastern philosophies.
One of my beliefs was "I shouldnt be depressed. Why am I depressed! This is awful!" These absolutist, black and white and catastrophising self talk statements cause even more depression, anxiety and low frustration tolerance. I changed it to one which is more flexible;- "I would rather not be depresseed, but unfortunatley my mood is low today.But I can stand it." Stop and think, and see which one you would say to your best friend if he/she was depressed, or a loved one or your child. I was skeptical about this kind of thing, thought it was pedantic or too subtle, but it really really worked for me.There are hundreds of beliefs. and no, im not a testamonial for hemi-sync, essential oils (ha ha!,) or RET neither!
Someone else asked which hemi-sync cd i used, it was the Human Plus "Relax" cd, which guides your brain into beta/theta sate (deep relaxation nearly into sleep, where your metabolism slows right down and thoughts are released, whilst stress chemicals are reduced in the bloodstream) and uses an association word, so that when you want to relax in everyday life, you can use this word at meetings, at the bar, in a shopping centre etc etc, and bring on the same feelings of relaxation. There is also a "sound Sleeper" cd which produces the same brain frequencies as an asleep brain and is associated with healing through the release of human growth hormone and deep delta sleep, where the brain is shut off nearly from REM sleep (where people tend to have nightmares). Unfortunately this Cd didnt work for me but relax is brill. For people who wake feeling fatigued, it could help to get the best quality sleep because one model of depression suggests that there is too much REM sleep and not enough deep delta sleep. REM sleep is considered the same as doing hard maths in an awake state.If you suffer with nightmares this could be a helpful suggestion.
oopss, sorry about posting on the other boards, I just felt positive about my experience, and if I can help anybody else I thought I would try!! Depression and mental illness is bl**dy horrid when youre in the thick of it, and I think after many years I am beginning to see the light. so I want to offer sugesstions that have really worked for me. I would like to think this a site where we can all benefit and help each other.
Best of Luck
C
[this message was edited by verveverve on Tue 9 Aug 04:42]
Posts: 5 | | Registered: Mon 8 Aug 2005 9:49 |
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