If you suffer depression, or know someone in your family that does, then you know the roller coaster ride it can be. You hate seeing your loved ones suffer and if you are the one with the disorder, then you know how alone and dark you can feel at times. Everyone wants a solution. For some, that is medication but more and more people are now looking for a holistic treatment for depression.
This can range from changing diet, adding exercise or magnetic therapy to retraining the brain with different responses to stimuli. For some, medications add to the illness, giving side effects that just complicate life. Going the natural way means that you have a chance at making life better or even finding a cure without foreign substances going into your body.
But How Do I Know if a Natural Approach is For Me?
Firstly, you need to know what type of depression you have. Is it seasonal (as in Season Affective Disorder) or unseasonal? Is it clinical depression caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain or depression caused by circumstances? If it is clinical depression and you are self diagnosing and trying to treat it with natural treatments, then you may not find a solution that helps.
It might be that you need a combination of natural and medical interventions. Either way, it is important to get a proper diagnosis from a medical professional so you know exactly what you are dealing with. It is not the intention of this website to diagnose in any way, only to provide information on what is available for you to make an informed decision.
Millions of people at any age all over the world are experiencing different kinds of depression. Different treatment and methods used in different types of depression are given to help one cure this illness. Antidepressants and mental hospitals were created to aid this illness that can ruin one’s life. For anyone who has suffered or watched a love one suffer from depression, you know just how much it can affect every aspect of your life. Medications can have side effects which can lead to other serious sicknesses. So you may be considering a holistic treatment.
So What is Depression?
Depression is a strong mood involving sadness, discouragement, despair, that can last for weeks, months and even longer. It is generally ranked in severity- mild, moderate or severe. Low-self-esteem is common with depression. It more common on women than men and is especially more common during teen years.
Depression often runs in a family, genetically. In the past, alternative or holistic treatment was often disregarded by Medical establishments and the FDA. Their common argument against it was there is not enough research or hard evidence to demonstrate their efficiency. By the year 2008, there came out a major study proving that in many cases, holistic treatment can be far more effective than many anti-depressant medicines. When antidepressant medication is introduced to the human brain, the outcomes are unknown and can vary from person to person dramatically.
Holistic treatments approach an illness by addressing the mind, body and spirit. It uses traditions of several cultures such as use of alternative medicines and herbal treatment. If you want to get rid of depression, the first area is the body. It is necessary that your body is able to deal with external stress. Improve your body’s ability to fight against depression by doing exercise, diet and taking homeopathic remedies.
Light therapy can be a great addition to these. If the issue is partly a serotonin/melatonin imbalance, then light therapy can help. Often with depression sleep is disrupted, exacerbating the depression and so it becomes a viscous cycle. Light therapy with a 10,000 lux daylight lamp can assist in working with the body’s circadian rhythms and help to restore sleep to a more balanced timetable.
The second area is the mind. Depression not only affects the body, but also the mind. Negative emotions are the number one problem of a depressed mind. Psychotherapies, journaling, drumming therapy, and mindfulness meditation will slowly correct the negative thought that is keeping you depressed.
Once again, light therapy can help here because daylight light therapy with a 10,000 lux light lamp has been proven to improve mood. It is an easy to implement therapy with sitting infront of a lamp once a day to try to see if it improves mood over time. With lamps ranging from as little as $30, it is also a non-invasive, cost effective way of trialing to see if it helps.
The last area is the spirit. Holistic treatment for depression uses several techniques to improve the body and mind. These techniques will help you have more faith and hope that you will get through and fight against depression. Thus, holistic treatment involves your whole being to become part of the process to get you back to normal. It uses only natural methods and generally avoids harmful side effects for it does not use any drugs or medication.
Holistic treatment for depression includes homeopathic remedies, herbal medicines, chiropractic, acupuncture, and psychotherapy, light therapy or magnetic therapy. All these treatments have one thing in common and it is to get the body, mind and spirit work harmoniously for good health and to get back on track without forming any physical or chemical dependence.
When you choose a holistic treatment, it is always essential to be open-minded and careful with this approach. Evaluating which holistic medication to choose will be the easiest way. Holistic treatment alone may not eliminate your depression, but it may be a good compliment to other therapies you are engaging.
