Posted by JLx on April 2, 2003, at 8:03:01
In reply to Thank you Ron Hill, posted by kara lynne on April 1, 2003, at 14:12:46
[Kara Lynne to Ron Hill]
> I'd like to thank you for your honest feedback. It's important for me to have a balanced viewpoint of something, especially because I rarely get these miraculous responses and expecting one leads to an inevitable letdown. You don't deny its benefits, but don't promise profound results either. Thanks for reporting.
I agree that expectations can easily lead to letdowns and personally I don't trust anyone's promises about anything.
When I read George Eby's site, I was cautiously somewhat hopeful enough to rouse myself out of my depressive paralysis to take the steps necessary to give it a try BECAUSE when I evaluated my life in terms of the information he presented I could see how it might pertain.
I checked my multi-vit/min and saw that I was taking a not-very-absorbable form of magnesium. I looked at the list of magnesium rich foods and saw I wasn't eating them at all OR I was craving them -- such as peanuts. Then I looked at the list of calcium rich foods as well as the list of foods where the amount of calcium exceeds the amount of magnesium and roughly evaluated just how much calcium I was getting in my diet -- a LOT. I had also had a calcium kidney stone in the past.
Considering more of his information and the rest of my diet, I was drinking multiple cans of aspartame sweetened, caffeinated cola's each day (to stay awake on Zoloft). I was eating plenty of processed foods with glutamates.
Looking at my past, I could identify the times in my life when I was least depressed and they coincided with "healthy eating" times characterized by eating magnesium rich foods such as wheat germ and much less calcium than in my recent diet. I noted too that my past good times and "better times" were very specifically undone by stress, despite my best efforts to remain positive.
So, I tried it and yes, it's been miraculous. Obviously, if one is already getting magnesium in adequate amounts in one's diet, then taking more will not be miraculous.
But for me magnesium is not the end of the story. When I read the books I've mentioned earlier, "Depression Free Naturally", "The Cortisol Connection", "Your Miracle Brain"as well as numerous websites, I realized that the information is out there for me to learn and utilize so that I need not fear becoming depressed again.
The most meaningful psychological book I've read on depression was Richard O'Connor's "Undoing Depression". He has a another book called "Active Treatment of Depression" that's written for professionals also, that people on Amazon say is even better. I ordered it from the library, but by the time I received it I was no longer depressed so I didn't read it. :)
In Undoing Depression, O'Connor, himself a depressive (and psychotherapist) said something I really didn't like hearing but felt I had to face -- that as depressives we get good at doing depression. I began to try to will myself to follow all of his advice. When I was no longer depressed several days after magnesium supplementation, I was elated, incredulous and then I also felt like a fool. This thing that had dominated my life so profoundly as to ruin it, this thing that had so significantly defined me for so many years, this thing that had estranged me from people and meaning in life, this thing that seemed so hideously meaningful in itself, this thing that using all my previous best efforts to "undo" -- had just gone "poof".
When I read George Eby's site the first time, my teeth were grinding and my hackles rose every time he said "Depression is not a disease". "Outrageous", I thought, "He obviously doesn't understand." Now I am the one who understands. And I would say to Richard O'Connor that the BEST and certainly easiest way to undo depression is to change/undo the brain chemistry that CAUSED it.
Of course, magnesium is not the answer for everyone, but perhaps another natural remedy IS. Neurotransmitters in the brain come from required nutrients -- they are created by what we eat/don't eat, drink/don't drink, or in some other way do or take into our bodies (sunlight, excercise, supplements, etc.).
In years past, I had tried St. John's Wort, SAM-e, folic acid, amino acids like tyrosine (which gave me the same negative reaction as Wellbutrin) and anything else I heard about. But I didn't have the benefit when trying those things of what more recent research and certain practitioner's experience have now contributed to the whole picture.
I am convinced today that whether I am depressed or not is entirely my responsibility -- not in terms of what I need to "work on" with "issues" or self-defeating modes of thought and behavior or anything at all psychological. (I think the many tools one learns from good therapy are invaluable, btw, but in my case it's "been there, done that" -- for years.) I believe now that my responsibility to myself regarding depression is entirely dependent on the choices I make about my physical health. That simple.
And with that, I am leaving this board. Richard O'Connor also said that "The opposite of depression is not happiness, it's vitality." I wish all of you freedom from whatever pains you and holds you back from vitality and the life of your dreams. :) JL, jlwest@operamail.com
poster:JLx
thread:214008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030402/msgs/215359.html