Human Depression

Ier,

Thanks for your response, as always.

I took this to heart and have been reflecting on it since. Don’t have much to say for now, but it seems that remembering who/what I am directly contradicts a complacency to the will of ‘the machine.’ Maybe I’m wrong. If so, I hope to discover why…

Someone who is unable to adequately value himself in the terms available to him.

“Adequately” having in mind the standard of health guaranteeing the vitality to fulfill at least some of ones desires once in a while, so as to “keep hope alive”…
It’s a vague definition, but everyone has a personal threshold.

Not bad definition but I have all the above when I am depressed, it’s how I’ve learnt to keep hope alive, I’ve learnt to expect it because it only happens at certain times of the year, it means I can “ignore” the whole depression thing and just function, if barely. Without drugs I would go to sleep practically speaking from September and until the light came back. I feel very sorry for people who have psychological issues, I don’t have them. They are lucky though they can get over those, I will never do so while I live North of the tropics, so I have to just cope. My life has been a happy one on the whole so I can’t complain, and it’s only a little of the year. In a way I look on the positive of my condition, it has made me much stronger mentally than I would of been otherwise. Thank the SSRIs for that, and anyone who says the drugs don’t work is an idiot.

Interesting what you say about the tropics. That fits my definition in the most simple way imaginable; The unavailable “term” required for you to self-value adequately would simply be sunlight. ? If thats really what’s going on then I would conclude from a distance and with limited information that replenishing vitamin D in your body could do the trick as well antidepressants, but in a more direct way. I don’t imagine for a second that this is the source of all depression, but it’s true that the farther north you get, the more cases of depression you find, so perhaps vitamin D deficiency should be considered by doctors as a cause. The first google hit I get gives some bold propositions:

" One major study done with depressed subjects during Canada’s long winter showed a profound increase in vitamin D levels with supplementation of 4000 IU of vitamin D - and a corresponding dramatic increase in the subjects’ sense of well-being.

In some research done in 2007, it was found that vitamin D deficiency correlates with depression and anxiety in fibromyalgia sufferers. And mice with abnormal Vitamin D brain receptors (leading to low vitamin D levels) have increased incidence of anxiety, aggression, poor grooming habits, maternal pup neglect, and cannibalism.

Having optimal Vitamin D levels has even been implicated in the prevention of schizophrenia. Male infants who are not supplemented with vitamin D are 12 times more likely to develop schizophrenia than those who receive vitamin D supplementation.

Research shows that the elderly who are vitamin D deficient have 12 times the increase in depression risk. Elderly people with low vitamin D levels are three and a half times as likely to be admitted to a nursing home.

There are a several studies showing that Vitamin D can positively affect seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Some even say that up to 75% of SAD sufferers can reduce their depression with the use of Vitamin D.

And We Do Know that Vitamin D Has Major Effects On the Brain and Neurotransmitters.

It appears that Vitamin D may have a positive effect on the synthesis of excitatory neurotransmitters.

Summer sunlight - which is necessary for Vitamin D production in the body - also increases brain serotonin levels twice as much as winter sunlight. "

EzineArticles.com/1983857

Nice to see someone finally agreeing with me. Thank you, FC

Turtle asked:

I’m not sure I understand. Isn’t the more important question what are you talking about when you say you’re depressed?

What is ‘it?’ LOL.

I hate how I feel with depression. I hate having little or no interest in living. I hate how I respond even to a minimum amount of stress. I hate that it seems to have gone on forever.

Are there any “useful aspects” to depression? Only if you take advantage of the drugs and therapy given and work like hell to figure things out for yourself.

Thanks Fixed Cross I’ve heard of that before but have never seen any studies on it. :slight_smile:

vitamin d is a very important problem…there is some
hope here for improved health…but watch out for all the people that will cheat in order to profit…

That and the feeling of isolation or detachment. Loneliness, in a word. Unmitigated and perhaps unjustified, but seems so apparent. I generally know when I’ve become withdrawn because I genuinely want to be left alone, yet, at the same time, loneliness is about the last thing I want to feel. Perhaps loneliness is just easier to deal with than other people sometimes… I don’t know.

God, the Introspection. Not just the time spent, but the sheer depth and brutal honesty of it can be pretty profound. Not always in a ‘good’ way, but I’ve certainly come to a few realizations I consider invaluable now. Most are of the sort I was taught to avoid and fight with all my life.

Clinical depression has much to do with one’s senses of past, present an future. A truly depressed person sees no future and blames self as responsible for the lack of hope. A truly depressed person’s mind “cardstacks” memories of life past, leaving only negative events for consideration. The condition is a mind blaming and attacking itself for being in a now that appears to be going nowhere.
There must be therapeutic help for those who are depressed. Given that meds can help, the next step toward healing is to gain a healthy respect for oneself. This is not an abetting of egocentricity; it is an acknowledgement of one’s right to be. You were born. Your right to be is a given, not an idea requiring any sort of proof. After that, one must attempt a more realistic view of his/her past to discover that negative events were not dominant.

one of the best cognitive-behavior tricks that i have heard------“dont believe everything you think”…

Yeah doesn’t help me I’ve always been awesome, but when depressed you are not in the same frame of mind as you are when content, for example if I was depressed I would of never of said that shockingly arrogant thing, even humorously. I would of probably just said that when I am feeling better I would probably be awesome, but then my depression comes and goes with the season and my mental state matters little. Before meds I could go down in a few days and likewise come out of it in a few days, when nothing mentally had changed for me, no epiphanies, very odd.

I have a pragmatic approach to life, when depressed I just soldier on, and with the meds its manageable, nothing I can do can lift the funk, I have to accept that. It’s about light levels, not psychology.

Thanks, Calrid. Didn’t I tell you about vitamin D3 some posts back? You must not have believed what I wrote, though, because I’m a woman! ROTFLMAO! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

what do you all know about d3?

Turtle,
I know nothing of D3. I appreciate, however, your bringing in cognitive therapy. I tell J. her mind lies to her and mine does also. All meds appear dependent on this basic revelation-- questioning what the mind says. You can take all the meds you want and still have lapses into depression if you are unwilling to challenge your negative attitude. Consequently, meds plus cognitive therapy provide the best antidote for major depression.
My friend E. once said I needed to see depression as a storm, noting-- here it comes, here it is, there it goes–all things shall pass. I realize this is difficult to think when one is in the throes of depression. With meds, however, such a thought becomes possible.

I probably missed it because I had my mind on other things, and I can’t multi task, because I am a man. :laughing:

turtle, all you have to do is read the thread and talk to your doctor.

Of course you can read everything on Google if you keep in mind that Google will publish contradictory articles because Google publishes those magazines, newspaper articles, blogs, etc. that have paid to be published. Google is a search engine–It won’t give an opinion–it simply presents data. Most times the data Google publishes are what it’s been paid to publish.

Keep in mind, also, that SAD is, by definition, seasonal. Chronic depression isn’t. Chronic depression is long lasting and recurrent and isn’t the result of D3 deficiency. It has a myriad of causes. not all of which are understood.

if, in this thread, or anywhere else, I have, in my egoism, given any sort of advice to the chronically depressed other than to say, take your meds, talk to your doctor, and work your ass off to help yourself get rid of this albatross, I apologize. I should have added, don’t ever use your illness as an excuse!

lizbeth—is it possible that d3 deficiency is the cause of some chronic depression?

Today, I’m having to fight depression by finding distractions from its grip on my mind. Had a rotten nightmare, vivid dream, last night. It’s trying to color my day black. These nightmares always occur when the air is saturated with water, even if the sun is shining. In my case, arthritic pains translate into bad dreams. This tells me that my depression is physically instigated. D3 would not help much here. And I’m on so many meds that I’m almost afraid to take an OTC pain pill.

Ier-----what is your nutrition like?

It’s not very good. I don’t eat much “junk” (hollow calorie) food. I don’t eat much in the way of fruit, either. My intake of cigarettes and beer does not help the situation. I was just wondering above what humidity has to do with the depression or how a physical problem can translate into an emotionally charged, negative, vivid dream.