Q, How do I deal with the symptoms of depression?

A.  If you suffer from depression you are not alone, and there is hope. This short article is written for you, as well as for physicians and mental health professionals who sincerely want to help their patients and clients to truly heal from depression in ways that transcend simply prescribing or taking anti-depressant medication.

 

I have personally experienced a deep, seemingly never-ending depression — fatigue daily sadness, misery, and hopelessness. In the winter of 1984/’85, I experienced no pleasure and doubted that I ever would again. My depression was precipitated by a crisis in my business and by a betrayal by someone I cared for deeply. This, combined with a predisposition towards hypoglycemia and a history of extreme attention deficit, kept me rolled up in bed much of the time. Though I was able to take care of my fundamental needs, I did so as if trapped in a dark tunnel. This book is not specifically born out of that experience. Yet the opportunity to write this book brought forward in my mind my experience with depression — an experience I had almost forgotten about.

 

 

Depression is not a selective disease. This awful disease can affect an individual of any race, religion, nation, economic class, and political persuasion. Composer Cole Porter fell into a deep depression in the late 1940s that plagued him to his death in 1964. Winston Churchill suffered through most of his life in a struggle with depression that he came to call “the black dog.” Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, began suffering from a type of depression he called “the melancholy of things done.” The great writer and storyteller Mark Twain suffered from a period of great depression towards the end of his life; Abraham Lincoln, considered by many to be the greatest of all American presidents, suffered from what was then called melancholy throughout his life; and poet Emily Dickinson wrote a poem about an emotional breakdown she experienced, saying, “I felt a funeral in my brain.”

 

Depression often seems to have a life of its own. Like some creature from one of those “Alien” movies, it grows inside of you and begins to consume you. Friends and family want to help, offer support, but what they say just doesn’t get in.  When you are depressed, you feel completely isolated. Depressed individuals sincerely want help and yet they often seem paralyzed in acting on that desire.

 

The Takeaway

People with the best of intentions will tell you to “get on with your life,” “snap out of it,” “think positive,” and “exercise!” It isn’t as easy as that. Depression, and the treatment of its symptoms, are both basic and highly complex at the same time.

Begin by applying these 4 steps.

1. Do ½ an hour of yoga and/or Tai Chi.
2. Watch 15 minutes of comedy in the morning and evening.
3. So something creative daily – singing, dancing, painting.
4. Cut out sugar and junk food and create a whole food natural food diet.
5. Get an Ott Light – This is a special full-spectrum light that can positively affect your brain function

 

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Author: Lewis Harrison is a business futurist, author, speaker, seminar leader, and Results-Oriented Life Coach. He has a passion for helping individuals, and organizations, solve problems. He has a passion for personal growth, self-improvement, applied game theory, and Transmodern Zen.

Contact me at LewisCoaches@gmail.com (I promise to respond to you personally)

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