What's Your Problem?
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Please read our Golden Rules of self help before considering the information on this page.
Depression
About a third of the people who come to see me are depressed. As a wholistic practitioner the first thing I tell them after having listened to their story is that they are right to be depressed. Consider this: a woman has left her country to follow her new husband, it turns out after their new baby is born that he is an alcoholic and a wife basher, she is stuck with no work, no relatives, with a baby under one. A man has been made redundant with no pay out, because of his age he finds it impossible to find another position, he has a huge mortgage, a wife and four children. A very busy career woman gets a chronic condition, because of her work commitments she can't the holiday she needs to get better, she goes to work, comes home and collapses daily. A sixty five years old man who was looking forward to his retirement suddenly looses his wife of forty years to cancer…..
Do you think these people get depressed? Do you think their depression is legitimate? Of course it is! The worse thing that can happen to these people is for people around them to tell them to pucker up, chin up, get on with their life and to snap out of it. Yet, this is exactly what they are told to do: they are given anti-depressant and their well-meaning friends and relatives constantly try to “cheer them up”.
One of the first law of natural medicine is to assess a situation as it is not as we want it to be. The best way we can help someone who is depressed and anxious is to first of all respect and honour their emotions and allow them to ‘sit in the dark'. If you get hit by a bus no one expects you to be able to run a marathon, not for a while anyway; just because it is invisible, emotional trauma is no less handicapping than physical trauma. Emotions become visible when they affect the body..
Mind, Emotions And Body
In Chinese medicine, each organ is the seat of specific emotions. If the organ becomes sick or weak, then the person will experience the negative emotions; in the same way, a particular emotion will affect particular organs
Take the liver for instance: the emotions associated with the liver are: anger, depression and frustration. We have all experienced people becoming aggressive when they have had too much to drink, but look at what we do when we are depressed: we tend to drink. True, the alcohol will appease the emotions for a short while but as the liver gets aggravated, we will get more depressed. Chocolate is another ‘drug' which has a deleterious effect on the liver and so is cannabis. Yet they are the most common ‘fixes' that people go for. Alcohol, sugar and cannabis also have an effect on the pancreas: in Chinese medicine, this is the seat of worry and anxiety. These two emotions go hand in hand with depression. People tend to smoke more heavily when they are depressed and anxious, this affects the lungs, which are the seat of grief. And so up come the tears. When you are depressed, anxious and tearful you become fearful. Fear is expressed in the kidneys and adrenal glands, so eventually you will be exhausted.
By that stage it feels like you will never get out of the snake pit.
That's why it is so aggravating when people tell you to snap out of it.
So what do we do while we are sitting in the dark? How can we help
ourselves and how can our friends and relatives help us and help themselves through the difficult time?
STRENGTHEN THE BODY
This is the time when you really have to do exactly the opposite of what you want to.
Don't drown your sorrows in alcohol, sugar, chocolate, cannabis and coffee. They will make the situation progressively worse.
Do bolster your physical strength:
Remember the big breakfast, big lunch, light dinner rule because this will give you energy when you need it rather than keep you awake at night.
Take B vitamins: the best source of B vitamins are wholegrain cereals but a very good natural supplement is Brewers yeast tablets. You need to have 2000mg twice a day.
You need an extra B vitamin to help with stress, which is B5 (Pantothenic acid) 500mg twice a day. You may need to continue B5 for three months.
Vitamin C is really important because it helps to detoxify the liver. If you get the powder, take half a teaspoon a day. In tablet form: 2000mg a day.
Calcium is important because of its role in the nervous system: 500mg a day.
When you are under emotional stress, the endorphin receptors in your body shut down. The amino acid d-l-Phenylalanine help manufacture endorphins, which are your natural feel good hormones. Take 1000mg twice a day.
Digestive problems are almost always the companion of depression and
anxiety, so make sure you recolonise your gut with friendly bacteria
such as is found in Inner Health , one capsule twice a day.
CALM THE MIND
Some people want herbs to take the place of antidepressants. Herbs don't do that (unless it's opium!) but herbs can help soothe your nerves and elevate your mood and because they have a positive effect on your body they stop the emotions from spinning out of control.
Herbs:
St Mary's Thistle ( Syllabum marianum) is the first herb that I prescribe because it is the best herb for the liver. Remember, we must support the liver if we want to get over depression. Take 1ml twice a day.
The classical nervine herbs are: Skullcap, Passionflower, Linden flowers, Withania. These soothe the spirit without knocking you on the head (I never prescribe Valerian for this reason, it tends to make people more depressed). You can take them as tea, fluidextract or herbal tablets. These are herbs, not drugs and therefore you need to take them regularly to experience their benefits. They do not interfere with other medications.
St John's Wort is a very fashionable herb for depression and it does work but remember you cannot take it if you are on heart medications, high blood pressure medication, anti-coagulants or anti-depressants.
Essential Oils:
This is where essentials oils really come into their own. Their effect is as gentle and subtle as it is powerful. Use them in the bath, in a burner or sniff them ( don't take them internally or you'll aggravate the liver ). Clary Sage is one of the primary anti depressant, carry a little bottle and just sniff it. Other essential oils with calming properties are: Lavender, German Chamomile, Bitter Almond, Rose, Neroli.
Exercise:
Exercise can be a double-edged sword: if you use it to wipe yourself out, you will exhaust yourself and feel worse. On the other hand, when you feel depressed you tend to roll into a ball and sit in a corner. This blocks all your energies: blood circulation, digestion, lymphatic, and also your emotional energy, this in turn makes you feel worse. It is important to move, at the least go for a walk, when you can swim or join a yoga, tai chi or stretch class.
Music:
Music has a very positive effect on your pituitary gland, but of course not any music. Heavy rock has the opposite effect but Mozart has been demonstrated in studies to have a really beneficial effect on the emotions.
All of the above won't cure depression. Only you can do that, depending on the cause of depression circumstances need to be changed before you can be out of the grip of the dark black cloud. Sometimes, when the depression is caused by grief, only time can help. Meanwhile if you look after and nourish yourself well you will find a way out of the darkness and into the light.
For a personalised treatment please contact me here.
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