To anyone dealing with depression

Gosh, Exile, reading all those tragic stories, its hard not to get upset.

For others, please don't make any diagnosis unless you see a clinician, whether it is a mental health nurse, your general practitioner, psychologist, registrar or psychiatrist! You need to have a face to face consultation, even a phone consult is inadequate.

Like Onion said, one must be careful about labelling someone with a mental illness, alot of the time they're going through a rough patch. We have to take into account current and recent psychosocial stressors (your current situation in context of your current mood and feelings) your plans and risk, family history, drug and alcohol use etc.

Charan, if you're over grieving and mourning, it most likely what we call 'an adjustment disorder'*.




(*Not a diagnosis until you get a proper mental health assessment (consultation) as detailed above)

I'm not into big words and I may be one of those who isn't strong enough to share his story/feelings, but I definitely want to thank for this thread and all the nice comments.

Thanks everyone :)

We're all here for each other. To listen and not judge. I believe we're all here
for reasons and many times that is for each other.

"

VALHALLA1240 wrote:

We're all here for each other. To listen and not judge. I believe we're all here
for reasons and many times that is for each other.

Agreed

To just add another slightly different angle on this thread I want to make people aware of what more 'natural' options are out there for them to try. I say 'natural' with apostrophes because supplements, even though generally much safer with less sides than prescriptions, are simply chemical structures no different from any medication, they are just ones that no one company can patent and make a fortune off, so they are left floating in the realms of the free market and ignored by the FDA or institutions as treatment options.

Longecity is probably by far the best forum online that extensively goes over most supplements, there are also many threads dealing with trying to treat mood disorders or cognition (nootropics). A good place to start is this great thread looking at Uridine, Choline and DHA omega 3's for mood and cognition,

http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/51802-gpc-choline-uridine-dha/

Pubmed abstract on Uridine for bipolar in adolescents,

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21486171

An article here looking at Uridine and creatine to treat bi-polar in adolescents,

http://www.brainphysics.com/news/depression/new-substances-being-tested-in-depressive-illnesses

Most people would assume creatine is some supplement used by body builders but there are studies showing it improving the IQ of college students and improving the cognition in the elderly.


The key of course to any trials with this kind of stuff is to try and stick with it, cycle them off and on over time, all too often people have too many short term expectations. It is also important to try and stack these so they work together, as explained in the initial uridine, choline, dha discussion, which also recommends a B complex deeper into the discussion. Also a simple thing like having a good omega 3 base before adding other things can make the world of difference, always make sure of the quality control of fish oils as well due to containments; cheap is not really good IMO.

With my battles over many years, having CFS you have the most diabolical cognitive decline and limitations you could imagine. I have experimented with so many things over the years, eventually refining regimes and coming back time and time again to what I know are reliable supplements; I have no doubt this has saved my health in the end.

My daily regime, just for brain/cognition/mood is,

2 teaspoons nordic natural cod liver oil
5g creatine (need 4-5 litres of water a day with this)
250mg uridine taken sublingually (dissolved under the tongue)
500 mg GCP-choline
B complex every second day
B 12 shot once a week
250mg Idebenone twice a day (very similar to CoQ10 but more bio-available)
2g acetyl l-carnitine a few times a week

I do cycle on and off many of these, sometimes taking 1-2 months break for any individual thing. Of course diet can be a big factor as well but is a whole other discussion, I have no doubt many illnesses and conditions these days, including many mood/mental diorders are due to the terrible diets of the average person. Keto/Paleo style high protein high greens for me, avoidance of useless hollow carbs/sugars, but that is easier said than done.

Hope this all may help someone, it is all an interesting area if you make an effort to delve into it, even for the average person who may be looking for better cognition/concentration/energy/mood nootropics can be an interesting area. Piracetam is probably the most famous and effective nootropic, a company many years ago even tried to patent it and claim it for their own because they saw its potential but failed; ironically that left it out of realms of a potential treatment for different conditions.

Do your own research :)

"

ZeroHate wrote:

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Not to derail this thread, as ZeroHate made a lot of good points. But I'd like to add what he/she states.

First, I'd like to advise that while looking at natural means of dealing with stress and depression is a great step in starting the process of healing, a medical professional should still be visited. These problems can occur from both biological and psychological issues, and it should be properly diagnosed.

Also, another note I'd like to make is on the natural supplements themselves. Working for a laboratory that takes great care in this particular point, as well as drug use and agricultural testing I want to make aware that everything that you find at your local supplement store may not always be healthy for you. Due to the FDA not recognizing herbs as something that they test prior to putting on shelves (I won't get into the politics of this, but it's based on federal laws that were imposed earlier this century and not the FDA's) these supplements could come from anywhere and contain anything. Including harmful substances, synthetic structures that while their natural counterpart is healthy - the correct dosages are not used, among other things.

The FDA only intervenes on these 'herbs' after multiple deaths are usually reported, just googling FDA Supplement Bans you'll see exactly how many there are and how serious the implications can be.

This is not to say all natural supplements are bad, just warning that proper study and research should be done on what you take (I take Cod Liver Oil just like ZeroHate).

My company is working on trying to index all the different supplements that have entered the US and are on shelves for safety and abusive substances, but there are so many from so many different countries(China is a major contributor) that it's a major undertaking.

Anyways, just be safe :) It seems like we hear this all the time but it's definitely a warning with merit!

"

Elynole wrote:

"

ZeroHate wrote:

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I agree with most of that, to different extents. Looking at supplements you really need to inform yourself and become comfortable with the whole field, it is more an option for someone who has tried to tackle a problem like depression for sometime with little success. Although it can be problematic and a non option once someone is on a prescription drug like an anti-depressant already, but IMO if the issue is only minor to moderate trying some supplements in the short term could save someone from years of being stuck on prescriptions.

This is also where I take issues with the system, in grey areas like some mental health issues, especially in the minor to moderate range, where anti-depressants have been shown to barely work better than a placebo but some so called professionals hand them out like candy, you need to spend longer periods of time on them and their side effects can be problematic. When I see studies come out like the uridine creatine one it is just appalling this is not followed up on a large scale (but no profit for anyone), what doctor would not want to try something much safer, easier to tolerate and will shown effectiveness or not in a short space of time.

I also take issue with the FDA and the drummed up fear over supplements, which over a period of time have a much cleaner record than prescription drugs. Prescription drugs may have better quality control but that has never meant the drugs themselves are effective or safe, just look at the amount of deaths and complications there are from prescription drugs each year. The idea that the FDA and drug industry is some tight knit system with good oversight and your health as their top priority is a big fantasy, companies basically pay to do and put their own research out, do their own oversight while the FDA red stamps them.

Do not get me wrong, I am not a far left conspiracy nut or anything, for most serious health issues conventional medicine will always be the best option, I just take massive issue with certain aspects on the industry which is clearly bias and money fuelled.

A little research and it is also very easy to find reliable supplement companies who have been around a long time with clean records. Body builders have been experimenting and pumping themselves with endless amounts of crap for decades as well and they are not dropping like flies.

Of course nothing beats good exercise and good micros from a quality diet, as opposed to a good balanced FDA food pyramid diet :) Do your own research.

Sorry for the derail, but once someone gets me started on this... :)

kill yourself and your problems with depression will be over

@ jamesl

Not funny.