Prozac or Protein? A Holistic Approach to Dealing With Depression Without Antidepressants
Photo: shattered.art66
After a year or so in therapy, my therapist recommended I start taking an antidepressant. It was Elavil, an older one that “has proven itself,” she said. “It works especially well for people like you, that have underlying low-level anxiety.”
I started crying uncontrollably. I felt like…I had failed. I was 25, and was trying and trying and trying to get better – through food, through supplements, through talk therapy, through meditation. You name it. But I obviously hadn’t gotten anywhere. At least according to my therapist.
Dealing with depression makes a person desperate for relief. Or even dealing with constant anxiety, which is what I had. While I understand the DSM-IV and most of the clinical medical industry classifies anxiety the same as depression, I think that though they are inextricably linked, they are also very different. I was happy and hopeful a good deal of the time; I could just easily spiral out of control when the anxieties built up. Often, it would take months of building up, and then I would experience three or so weeks of total meltdown.
I just thought this is the way it would always be. This was the way it always had been.
Mental States of the Past
When people say to me now how they wish they could go back to high school or college, I say no way. High school wasn’t bad for me; neither was college. I had many good times in both. But I dealt with inexplicable anger and annoyance, bouts of crying fits that could last for days, and general low self-esteem. I never was quite good enough (to myself) in my own skin.
The culprits for me? I’ll never know for sure, of course, but I can take a few wild guesses: low thyroid (probably my whole life and probably passed down from my mom), even though my blood tests always came out fine (see Julia Ross’ recommendation on getting full thyroid panels); low self-esteem generated from a multitude of places, experiences, and genetics; lack of true spiritual connection; lack of emotional connection to those whom I was supposed to be the most connected.
I believe that emotional sensitivity, of which I was always told I had too much (I remember being hit on the arm by a few kids when that was the thing to do–don’t ask–and when I protested and showed the bruise marks, I was always told “you’re too sensitive”), leads to physical sensitivity in the long run if it doesn’t have a proper outlet.
If, along with depression, you struggle with food allergies, eating disorders, sensitive skin, or auto-immune disorders, I think it is worth taking a look at if you were considered a sensitive child. And I believe you can heal those physical sensitivities now by becoming emotionally strong, WHILE feeding yourself foods that support physical and emotional strength.
What to Do Now
Whether you believe that depression and anxiety are one in the same, or you think that just because they reside on the same street doesn’t mean they live in the same house, the cure might still be one in the same.
Here is a holistic approach to dealing with depression or anxiety based on what has worked for me:
Nutrition
Food allergies. Celiac. Too much sugar. Too little protein. All of these nutritional conditions can be linked to depression.
For most of my life, I ate a whole lot of pasta, fast food, soda, and a few wilted, usually canned, veggies here and there. We truly are what we eat, and if you don’t eat the foods that feed your brain, hormones and thyroid and do eat the foods that feed bacteria, leaky gut, and keep your liver hard at work, depression can easily become a major player. Need an PhD to connect food and digestion to depression? Check out Digestive Wellness: How to Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion
Whole, organic foods. Eliminating or greatly reducing wheat and other grains (yes, even “whole” ones). Lots of lost of greens, and a green supplement of some sort. Protein: eggs, hemp, nuts, yogurt, cottage cheese, beans, and small amounts of fermented soy if you are vegetarian; wild, oily fish, organic, free-range lean chicken, turkey and beef, buffalo, and other game if you are not (organ meats are great if you can stand to eat them). Veggies all colors of the rainbow, but don’t go too crazy with potatoes and other starches. Coconut. Small amounts of fruit and dark chocolate. Did I mention greens?
Supplements. I know that St. John’s Wort has been all the rage the past few years as the “natural” antidepressant. It certainly has worked for some. But I believe you can do far more with amino acid therapy (once again, see Julia Ross for her seriously life-changing book, The Diet Cure
DO NOT try any of these supplements if you are currently taking an antidepressant, and consult an MD or Naturopath that understands supplementation AND has you take certain blood tests to determine if being low in these nutrients might be the problem.
Also, have tests done for B12, anemia, and Vitamin D, all of which have been linked to depression.
Understanding your own psyche
Photo: nicasaurusrex
There are many ways to figure out more about yourself, your past, and how you’ve come to the place you are. Talk and body therapies are helpful, as is energetic work. But I’m going to focus on something you can do yourself: use typing systems to help you understand your depression.
The Myers-Briggs test tends to fit more into forward-thinking companies and certain psychology programs, but none the less, Facebook seems to be taking it to a whole new audience as a current popular quiz. Based on the work of Carl Jung, M-B delineates whether you are an extrovert (E) or introvert (I), sensing (S) or intuition (N), thinking (T) or feeling (F), and judging (J) or perceiving (P). Here’s one online test.
My personal favorite is the Enneagram, but other great systems include also Astrology, Numerology, Ayurveda, and Chinese Medicine. All can be used from physical, emotional, mental and spiritual standpoints. They can help you in all facets of life, from the career to which you are inclined to understanding that you are prone toward being sensitive or depressed.
Meditation
I know this one is hard. I know it. But believe me, once you’ve felt the peace and calmness you can attain with meditation, you will realize you don’t need to take drugs to survive the rest of your life, legal or otherwise. They just do not compare.
Movement
It ups your thyroid. It helps with the production of serotonin. I know I get tired of hearing “exercise, exercise, exercise–it’ll make you feel better,” so I’m assuming you are tired of hearing it too. I figured out I hate all hearing about exercise because they’re usually referring to boring-ass stairmasters and running machines, or some crazy ex-Marine personal trainer that makes you do crunches until you pass a kidney. No thank you.
But guess what? I’ve always loved to dance. Hiking and just walking in general is all I want to do when I get some new tunes on my iPod. Being back in a place that has a summer (no offense, San Francisco) has made me fall in love all over again with being in the water and playing tennis.
Now, I understand I don’t have kids or a 9-5 job, and there are many of you out there that have one or the other, or both. But the truth is, people have plenty of time to watch the many reality shows on TV every night, even when it is light outside until 8:45pm. Take your kids on a walk after dinner. Hit the pool with them after you get home from work. Try out their skateboard. Whatever. Just find some type of movement that excites you, makes you want to do it because it is fun–NOT because it will burn calories–and sprinkle it into your week. It makes a huge difference, I promise.
Then vs. Now
I’m not 100% against antidepressants anymore. In fact, I decided during my last big trip abroad that once I returned to the United States, I would get a prescription from my doctor. The anxiety was still there even when I had “gotten away from it all.”
Somehow, this release of refusing to try antidepressants created the opposite effect: I no longer needed them. After years of work, trying different combinations, something clicked. But I do believe it takes a lot of work to no longer feel anxious or depressed the natural way. So it is perfectly fine to take antidepressants in the mean time. Just remember, you don’t have to take them the rest of your life, and you can “do the work” while on medication.
I promise you, the work will take you so much further than you ever thought you could go.
For further reading, check out Using Antidepressants vs. Finding the Underlying Medical Causes of Depression, How to Beat Depression through Diet and Nutrition, and Fat Is Not The Enemy: A New Perspective On The Pros And Cons Of Oily Foods.
About the Author
Christine Garvin is a certified Nutrition Educator and holds a MA in Holistic Health Education. She is co-editor of Brave New Traveler and a featured author at Healthier Talk. When she is not out traveling the world, she is busy writing, doing yoga, and performing hip-hop and bhangra. She also likes to pretend living in her hippie town of Fairfax, CA is like being on vacation.
These are excellent tips, Christine! I think exercise is especially key – it’s astonishing how movement can affect our states of mind.
Of course, the catch with nearly all of these points (though the food options are more manageable, perhaps – buy the good stuff on a good day and have no bad stuff to binge on, on a bad day) is that when you’re severely depressed, you can’t make yourself exercise or any of the other good stuff. Inertia (paralysis, whatever you want to call it) becomes a self-sustaining symptom.
“this release of refusing to try antidepressants created the opposite effect: I no longer needed them.”
Very interesting- just read a passage in The End of Your World by Adyashanti, and he speaks directly to this. He says the very act of trying to not need something makes it stronger, because you are in effect, making it real through your struggling. As you discovered, as soon as you release the struggle, the need disappears.
Eva, I absolutely agree with you. And that’s why I actually believe nutrition — and specifically good quality supplements — actually has to come first. Whether or not a person’s depression was caused in part by nutritional deficiencies doesn’t really matter–their body will become deficient due to being depressed. It’s definitely a chicken or the egg situation.
L-tyrosine, which helps with energy and a clearer outlook, is one of the first things that got me out of bed when I was pretty sick (and depressed) with candida. Tryptophan was used for many years before Prozac, and then was banned in a pretty shady way because of contamination issues right as Prozac hit the market. But it has been available again for the past few years (there is also 5-HTP, Tryp’s precursor, which works better for some people).
Sometimes when you are depressed, you don’t even feel like eating or shopping period, much less cooking yourself or family a healthy meal. The helpful thing about these supplements is that for most people, they will feel an affect in 15 minutes, which gives them the energy and where-with-all to start to do some of the other things I mentioned. It still takes a great deal of time to heal, but it *can* be easier to quickly find a supplemental approach than the right medication. Still, other people I know have had to go on medication nonetheless.
Ian, I definitely think this is true in all walks of life–restriction creates a stronger longing. I do want to note that for me in this situation, the release allowed me to fully integrate what I had been doing, and for other help to arrive in my life. Without that release, though, I don’t think anything else would have worked, since one of my lessons to learn was to let go of the idea of perfection.
Christine! You continue to amaze me with your spot on information and your ease of explaining it. I love this piece! Julia Ross’s book changed my life too. Majorly important info. Just wanted to throw out that if you have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (which is often misdiagnosed as hypothyroidism), L-Tyrosine can make you feel better at first but then can “blow” out your thyroid.
Emotional sensitivity and depression can also be hidden copper toxicitym, which affects many vegetarians. I really love Anne Louise Gittleman’s book on that subject: Why am I always so Tired?
Really loved this post. I think you might be interested in a book called, “The Highly Sensitive Person” by Elaine Aron. It speaks to some of the issues you raise about “being too sensitive” in great detail. As a very sensitive person myself, reading this book allowed me to understand more about the trait and past experiences.
Best of luck with everything!
Peace and light,
Anne
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