D E P R E S S I O N A N T I D O T E S - June 1999 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A unique newsletter to support, inspire, inform and encourage anyone who is recovering/recovered from depression. IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Notes from the CoachWhen Trying Harder doesn't work!For many years I tried really hard to overcome my depression - to fight it, beat it, get over it. The harder I tried, the more I failed, the less I thought of myself and the more stuck in depression I became. It reminds me of a story from You2 by Price Pritchett.
I’m sitting in a quiet room at the Millcroft Inn, a peaceful little place hidden back among the pine trees about an hour out of Toronto. It’s just past noon, late July, and I’m listening to the desperate sounds of a life-or-death struggle going on a few feet away. There is a small fly burning out the last of its short life’s energies in a futile attempt to fly through the glass of the windowpane. The whining wings tell the poignant story of the fly’s strategy - try harder. But it’s not working. The frenzied effort offers no hope for survival. Ironically, the struggle is part of the trap. It is impossible for the fly to try hard enough to succeed at breaking through the glass. Nevertheless, this little insect has staked its life on reaching its goal through raw effort and determination. This fly is doomed. It will die there on the windowsill. Across the room, ten steps away, the door is open. Ten seconds of flying time and this small creature could reach the outside world it seeks. With only a fraction of the effort now being wasted, it could be free of this self-imposed trap. The breakthrough possibility is there. It would be so easy.
For many years I was like that fly - seeing the world though a pane of glass and trying to force my way through it. Across the room of my life the door was open. So why didn't I turn around and pass through it? For years I thought my depression was my fault. There were plenty of people on the other side of the glass so I thought I just needed to try harder, be a better person, to join them. I didn't know the another way out existed because I wasn't looking for it. I assumed my journey was the same as those of the people the other side of the glass. So all I needed to do was be like them and do what they did. I started to consider that depression might not be my fault. That it might be an illness I was susceptible to. It was at this time I noticed the door marked "antidepressants". Even so, things had to get really bad and I had to get really desperate before I allowed myself to walk through it. What I'm beginning to realise now is that the other side of the glass is not the whole story. The fly was not trying to break through the glass just to get outside. It needed to get out in order to live. The antidepressants had taken me to the other side of the glass but they have not given me a whole life. In the early days it felt like they had done just that but as time passes and I notice my self-defeating habits and familiar thoughts and behaviours I realise that the drugs protect me from slipping back into depression but they do not transform my life. That's another challenge! The secret of getting through this door is not only spotting that it is there but now: That's not as easy as it sounds. When I am depressed I will do anything to feel better, to get out of it, to have my life back. But is this the whole truth? Like the situation of the fly, my struggle has also been part of the trap. By fighting and fighting I have missed the positives of my depression - what it protects me from, what it gives me etc. When I'm depressed certain people look after me. I feel better about doing nothing. I can escape from the inner turmoil and confusion. I can avoid challenging situations. Sometimes I avoid responsibility. I hate being depressed. I don't want to be depressed but sometimes it protects me from something worse. Depression has been a large part of my life for years - it has been a large part of me for years. Leaving it behind requires a major readjustment to my view of my life and my self. I have come to realise that truly being free of depression is very scary. But I DO really want to go through that door. 2. Depression Antidote No. 12Hug a Tree!Yeah, I know. For many of us this sounds a little wacky but anything's worth trying once. Some people swear by it. 3. Alternative ApproachResetting your Body Clock(As reported in Television News Service/Medical Breakthroughs #1387 at ctor at ivanhoe dot com ©Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. 1999) In a major step forward, University of North Carolina researcher Aziz Sancar, Ph.D., has discovered a light-absorbing chemical in our retinas called cryptochrome. It bonds with vitamin B-2 to control our body's internal (circadian) clock. The discovery gives researchers new ideas for the treatments of many disorders, including seasonal affective disorder. "If you don't have enough of this pigment, you cannot synchronise your circadian clock with the light-dark cycle," says Dr. Sancar. Out-of-whack body clocks can disrupt sleep, hormones, blood pressure and thought processes. A sufferer of a common winter depression called seasonal affective disorder (SAD) said "I was really tired, and normally I have a lot of energy. I was sleeping really late, and normally I'm an early riser." Bright-light treatments helped the condition. "It really put me back to my old self again." The use of light boxes has been known to be useful in the treatment of SAD. But no one seems to have known why they work. Cryptochrome might well explain it and suggests new treatments. One idea is to eat food with vitamin B-2 -- cryptochrome's partner. It's found in whole grains. Dr. Sancar says that the discovery of cryptochrome may also help in cancer treatment because the effects of some anti-cancer drugs depend on what time of day they are taken. If you would like more information, please contact: 4. ResourcesDo you have questions you were afraid to ask or never found the correct forum for posing them? This unique experiment creates a new way of finding out how and why people are different from each other. GIVE PEACE A CHANCE - The National Forum On People's Differences http://www.yforum.com/ ** Medicine Help Line (UK) ** - 0171 919 2999 (If any readers in places other than the UK know their country's equivalent, I'd be very grateful for the information and will share it in the next newsletter). 5. Just for FunHumorous Quotes of 1999Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body. Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that but not with all those flies and death and stuff. "I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president." China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese. I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law. Things are more like they are now than they ever were before. Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas. We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees. Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana.... The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two, but can't remember what they are. Half this game is ninety percent mental. It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago. The streets are safe in Philadelphia. It's only the people who make them unsafe. Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life. The president has kept all of the promises he intended to keep. After finding no qualified candidates for the position of principal, the school board is extremely pleased to announce the appointment of David Steele to the post. That low-down scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it.
Nancy
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