Mental illnesses and allergies dominate the health issues in this 21st century.Every 1 in 20 in USA is suffering from depression in a survey done in 2006.In India recently there was a lot of controversy about WHO declaring a 36% depression prevalence.Suffice to say we need to look at this and more so because(in India) a large percent(80%) of people do not seek medical help.
Depression in general is the low mood or down mood feel.Feelings of worthlessness, low self esteem, guilt, which last for long time can be said to be depression--say 2-3 weeks or more.Usually these are transient feeling states that come and go and can be considered normal-after a break-up,loss of near and dear ones,loss of job etc.Person picks himself up and gets going again. However many of us are not able to and continue being in this state.When this is along with reduced activity like not going out, not sleeping and not interacting with others it could be bordering on depression.Sometimes there is an obsessive element to it-like one of my patients could talk about her stools for 15minutes or there would be undue urgency /anxiety about small things.As this prolongs the body begins to respond to a sick mind with aches and pains with no pathological diagnosis.
An evaluation is required to find out the other diseases-related causes like Lyme disease, Addisons, thyroid.When these are treated depression gets treated as well and problem is solved. When no other cause is found patient is put on anti-depressants. Now its all a problem especially if no added councelling is given and there is long-term use of anti-depressants.The problems are
1)No study of the long term side-effects of these anti-depressants have been done.(imagine how we need to have to study so many depressed people on anti-depressants..)-so this could be potentially dangerous.
2) With the chemicals all in your blood you never know where you stand or how you actually are without the anti-depressants.
http://chriskresser.com/the-dark-side-of-antidepressants
For me this mode of treatment seems very superficial and in general going no-where.Let alone the side-effects what do these medicines actually do? They create an artificial ambience in blood that sort of elevates your mood.They help no doubt more so in extreme cases as it prevents suicides etc but for how long--till the next pill is popped.And what about trying to correct the feeling of worthlessness ? The reasons why the person goes into this state is not addressed and hence he can go back into it.
Many times we are not doing any value addition in life and our self worth gets eroded.I call it house-wife-at-40 syndrome.The problem is not being a house-wife but being a house-wife and NOT liking house-work.Sure recipe for disaster.So we need to create pathways wherein the self-worth is increased.Or the lurking guilt-ex had this patient who was guilty of leaving his Father behind while he went abroad.He had to be told that how could he take his father when he refused?-thats life -it would actually be wrong to take him away when he did not want to.Both are right in their own ways..
Depression has more to do with how you think and how much you can cope (and taught to)with adversity,set backs.As homeopaths we look into all this and guide.The main issues are the understanding of self-person does not know that he is feeling worthless and what can be done.As a homeopath I also face difficulty in treating patients who are on anti-depressants as we never know how serious the problem is as anti-depressants mask all symtoms and person looks ok when he is NOT.
Our medicines do a wonderful job but clinical understanding is important and the homeopath has to be vigilant in treating such cases.There should be gradual reduction of anti-depressants after our medicines have contributed significantly to the case and there is improvement in the reasons that got him into it in the first place.
If not treated at all borderline depression is not a problem at all but homeopathic consulting and treatment is required so that it does not happen again.Depression is notorious for recurrence and these recurrences then will have genetic effect which we then call family tendency.We can help stop this...
watch this video http://www.youtube.com/embed/wIWuEAFlg1Y
Depression in general is the low mood or down mood feel.Feelings of worthlessness, low self esteem, guilt, which last for long time can be said to be depression--say 2-3 weeks or more.Usually these are transient feeling states that come and go and can be considered normal-after a break-up,loss of near and dear ones,loss of job etc.Person picks himself up and gets going again. However many of us are not able to and continue being in this state.When this is along with reduced activity like not going out, not sleeping and not interacting with others it could be bordering on depression.Sometimes there is an obsessive element to it-like one of my patients could talk about her stools for 15minutes or there would be undue urgency /anxiety about small things.As this prolongs the body begins to respond to a sick mind with aches and pains with no pathological diagnosis.
An evaluation is required to find out the other diseases-related causes like Lyme disease, Addisons, thyroid.When these are treated depression gets treated as well and problem is solved. When no other cause is found patient is put on anti-depressants. Now its all a problem especially if no added councelling is given and there is long-term use of anti-depressants.The problems are
1)No study of the long term side-effects of these anti-depressants have been done.(imagine how we need to have to study so many depressed people on anti-depressants..)-so this could be potentially dangerous.
2) With the chemicals all in your blood you never know where you stand or how you actually are without the anti-depressants.
http://chriskresser.com/the-dark-side-of-antidepressants
For me this mode of treatment seems very superficial and in general going no-where.Let alone the side-effects what do these medicines actually do? They create an artificial ambience in blood that sort of elevates your mood.They help no doubt more so in extreme cases as it prevents suicides etc but for how long--till the next pill is popped.And what about trying to correct the feeling of worthlessness ? The reasons why the person goes into this state is not addressed and hence he can go back into it.
Many times we are not doing any value addition in life and our self worth gets eroded.I call it house-wife-at-40 syndrome.The problem is not being a house-wife but being a house-wife and NOT liking house-work.Sure recipe for disaster.So we need to create pathways wherein the self-worth is increased.Or the lurking guilt-ex had this patient who was guilty of leaving his Father behind while he went abroad.He had to be told that how could he take his father when he refused?-thats life -it would actually be wrong to take him away when he did not want to.Both are right in their own ways..
Depression has more to do with how you think and how much you can cope (and taught to)with adversity,set backs.As homeopaths we look into all this and guide.The main issues are the understanding of self-person does not know that he is feeling worthless and what can be done.As a homeopath I also face difficulty in treating patients who are on anti-depressants as we never know how serious the problem is as anti-depressants mask all symtoms and person looks ok when he is NOT.
Our medicines do a wonderful job but clinical understanding is important and the homeopath has to be vigilant in treating such cases.There should be gradual reduction of anti-depressants after our medicines have contributed significantly to the case and there is improvement in the reasons that got him into it in the first place.
watch this video http://www.youtube.com/embed/wIWuEAFlg1Y
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