requesting the raw solution to beat depression

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Permalink Reply by Alexa on July 10, 2008 at 12:55pm

Chris, I think this perspective is going to help me a lot... looking at depression and anxiety as a friendly reminder to put my efforts into staying on a healthy and positive path, instead of thinking I'm just "cursed".

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Permalink Reply by Clement on July 10, 2008 at 3:02pm

Yeah Chris, this makes a lot of good sense. I remember when I was amidst serious depression and people like Anthony Robbins would say the same thing. It really did change my life, and I'm quite surprised that I failed to mention that in my original post.

Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Chris on July 17, 2008 at 1:26pm

Glad I could help and thank you both for the kind words :-)

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Permalink Reply by Adam on July 10, 2008 at 1:13pm

Im sorry to hear youve been having a tough time of it Julie. I think there is definately a dietary influence on depression. Upto 80% of serotonin, the feel good neurotransmitter, is produced in the intestines. For this to happen properly, your intestinal flora needs to be balanced. This requires a diet rich in Fructo-oligosaccharides, which is what these friendly bacteria feed off. You can find loads in fruit, bananas are a particularly good source, and contain serotonin.

In addition, Carbohydrate meals have been shown to be more effective at raising tryptophan (an amino acid precursor to serotonin) levels in the brain, than eating tryptophan rich foods. This is because tryptophan cannot cross the blood brain barrier easily without insulin, which is responsible for ushering blood sugar into the cells. Since glucose is the primary fuel of the brain, insulin is needed in high levels in the brain. This means that tryptophan can be more easily carried to the brain by insulin.

Careful on the fats and grains, if you consume them. Digestion is imprtant here. If you mix fruits and fats or fruits and grains or fruits and sprouts, (or eat within too short a time frame) you run the risk of fermentation, of which a byproduct is of course alcohol and gas. This would mess up bacteria levels and not be a good thing.

Make sure to eat plenty and regularly to ensure your blood sugar levels are balanced. When your blood sugar levels go out of balance, your body produces cortisol, a stress hormone, to compensate for energy expenditure and to increase appetite. Best to reduce stress as much of possible in a chemical way.

Exercise is also a must. Exercise has been consistently shown to be more effective in beating depression than psychotherapy, pharmaceutical drugs and diet change, singularly or combined.

Another important thing to remember is that diet and exercise are not the only factors influencing depression. We feel sad when its time to mourn/grieve, and when our emotional needs are not being met. Human Givens Institute in the UK are doing some great work on depression and emotional needs at the moment.

An example of some of our innate emotional needs are:

# Security — safe territory and an environment which allows us to develop fully
# Attention (to give and receive it) — a form of nutrition
# Sense of autonomy and control — having volition to make responsible choices
# Being emotionally connected to others
# Feeling part of a wider community
# Friendship, intimacy — to know that at least one other person accepts us totally for who we are, “warts 'n' all”
# Privacy — opportunity to reflect and consolidate experience
# Sense of status within social groupings
# Sense of competence and achievement
# Meaning and purpose — which come from being stretched in what we do and think.

It can also be a sign that we are not using our innate skills such as
* The ability to develop complex long term memory, which enables us to add to our innate knowledge and learn
* The ability to build rapport, empathise and connect with others
* Imagination, which enables us to focus our attention away from our emotions, use language and problem solve more creatively and objectively
* Emotions and instincts
* A conscious, rational mind that can check out our emotions, question, analyse and plan
* The ability to 'know' — that is, understand the world unconsciously through metaphorical pattern matching
* An observing self — that part of us that can step back, be more objective and be aware of itself as a unique centre of awareness, apart from intellect, emotion and conditioning
* A dreaming brain that preserves the integrity of our genetic inheritance every night by metaphorically defusing expectations held in the autonomic arousal system because they were not acted out the previous day.

One important thing to remember also is that an emotional state only lasts at peak for 1.5 minutes. This means that to prolong a state, you have to be doing something, consciously or unconsciously to be maintaining the state. This most likely is because your unconscious or conscious mind feels that there is some unfulfilled need that must be addressed and so it is trying to communicate to you in the best way it can. Remember that all emotions are our motivational driving forces. Hence the word e-motion. to move. Take the usefulness from the emotion to recognise what it is that your unconscious is asking you to do.

Hope this helps :o)

Take Care

Adam x

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Permalink Reply by RawZi on July 10, 2008 at 1:27pm

If you mix fruits and fats or fruits and grains or fruits and sprouts, (or eat within too short a time frame) you run the risk

Very good Adam. Thanks. I have one qualm though. I find ingesting a small portion of unripe fruit, along with a little unheated honey, and a medium portion of raw animal fats does wonders for mood a person's, for hours and hours. No digestive upset either.

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Permalink Reply by Adam on July 10, 2008 at 1:54pm

Good for you Rawzi :o)

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on July 10, 2008 at 3:29pm

Hi Rawzi, I just had a bunch of watermelon rind juice. I think you once said it's nutrient dense huh? Any other goodies in it?

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Permalink Reply by Clement on July 10, 2008 at 3:25pm

Very nice, I like this input. Thanks Adam.

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Permalink Reply by Julie on July 13, 2008 at 5:48pm

very very thoughtful. thank you

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on July 10, 2008 at 3:28pm

Digestive enzymes kick butt for for depression too. I know depression all too well and they helped me do a complete turnaround. I also use systemic enzymes (vitalzymes) which from what I understand, are almost the same as digestive but the case is harder and takes longer to open which allows the enzymes to be released further along the digestive tract. Pretty cool huh? :-)

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Permalink Reply by Julie on July 13, 2008 at 5:49pm

do you see a difference with taking enzymes? i've thought about doing that before.

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Permalink Reply by Julie on July 13, 2008 at 5:51pm

thank you everyone. you are right about exercising, i haven't done it too often in the past few months and i always felt so good after i did. i'm going to start doing that and trying to eat better, and also trying to be more aware of my feelings and what's causing them.

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