Kjsacramento

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Thu, Dec 01 2011 at 7:24 PM

Frankly there should be a law that only people who have experienced a disease can write about it, but freedom of speech prevails. It is sad that just about everyone who has had a day of the blues thinks they know about depression. This article should be rephrased to "11 Ways to Beat the Blues Naturally", since it is an absurd suggestion to anyone with chronic/clinical depression that these could cure the illness they are on meds for. They are, however, all good suggestions for anyone who does or doesn't have chronic depression, if they are capable - it is certainly good for a case of milder depression (ie the blues). I wish, however, that more people would write about the difference between the two to wake up the uninformed - clinical depression vs 'the blues'. I have struggled with chronic depression for over 20 years - 20 years that I have spent researching in an attempt to cure it. Prior to that I used to be intensely energetic, athletic, in shape, and highly social. I organized physically-active events and I used to get all the people with the blues up and active, making them nearly as happy as I was doing it. Then suddenly this disease hit me and my friends couldn't even shake me awake. After 20 years I am up, active, working and much better due to a long battle of nutrient supplementation (primarily massive amino acids), psychotherapy and undoing the psychotherapy, but I am still not the energetic person I was and am still trying to get back in physical shape against a force much more powerful than when simply fighting weight and lazy habits. The hardest thing to deal with throughout all these years was listening to uninformed people telling me to do the things on the above list. They were oblivious to my disease and it was just plain hurtful, especially coming from people who had seen me change so drastically. I was angry that the medical associations didn't give the clinical disease a separate name so that everyone didn't have the misguided notion they understood. Taking care of myself better may have helped reduce the onset, but that is doubtful given my extreme health and my substantial activities prior. Undoubtely the history of abuse and bodily damages I've suffered in life outweighed all the good those could do. Certainly I've learned the modern diet has a lot to do with my brain chemistry. Just like it affects the numbers with weight problems, the poor American diet might explain the high numbers experiencing clinical depression. Avoiding the doctors and their unhealthy antidepressant prescriptions would have also helped me more, although I really needed the meds in the beginning. I had to throw those out to start getting better though, but not until I got my mind functioning a little first and out of the UNNATURAL mode of wanting to harm myself. People don't seem to understand that thoughts and physical ability are changed by brain chemisty related to clinical depression, not just the mood. Depression isn't self-pity or a mood. Also, the psychotherapy did more harm than good because it focused intensely on past pain instead of future possibilities and it took years to unwind that damage. Self-awareness doesn't require dredging up every painful memory in life and making you hate everyone who ever let you down. I could write a book and would if I had the time and writing skills. But PLEASE! all of you well-intended but presumptive writers and friends who haven't experienced severe uncontrollable chronic depression, STOP writing as though your blues from divorce, work or daily malady has anything to do with REAL depression!!!!

MNN - Mother Nature Network

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