Posted by bleauberry on August 19, 2009, at 18:01:57
In reply to Alternatives to medication?, posted by john51 on August 19, 2009, at 9:22:45
> I realize that this forum is about medication, but I am wondering if anyone has had any success without meds. I am talking about psychotherapy, meditation, hypnosis.....and "changing the way you think to change your life"
Alternatives to medication involve detective work for the cause of the depression.
If it is low serotonin, a small dose of 5htp will have you feeling better in 15 minutes. If it doesn't, you don't have low serotonin.
If it is low dopamine, a small dose of tyrosine will have you feeling better. If it doesn't, dopamine isn't going to help.
If a tiny dose of Yohimbe has you feeling good, you have a norepinephrine problem.
If a researched brand of St Johns Wort such as Kira or Perika don't help, then try at least 2 other cheap brands such as WalMart Spring Valley. People do amazingly well on one and not the other, similar to ADs. Dosing times make a difference too. Brands are very different in therapeutic effect. Many people try SJW without good result and abandon it, not realizing they should have switched brands a couple times before resorting the psych merrigoround.
Rhodiola can work wonders. It has to be one of the world's two real therapeutic brands. The Swedish one is not available to us, but the Mind Body Spirit brand is and works well for most people who try it.
If regular daily doses of Oil or Oregano, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Olive Leaf, Caprylic Acid, or very high doses of garlic give you symptoms of the flu within a couple days to a week...you have yeast overgrowth hidden somewhere or a malignant bacterial situation (the flu-like feeling is a Herxheimer reaction...the flooding of toxins from dying microbial invaders)
If regular doses of Dr Clarkia (Black Walnut/Wormwood/Cloves) gives you a Herx, you have parasites and/or yeast and/or bacteria such Babesia or Bartonella (all common co-infections of Lyme)
If regular doses of Samento, Cats Claw, or Cumanda give you a Herx, you have a malignant bacterial infection with Lyme as one of the suspects.
Of all the infectious agents that spill neurotoxins in our brains poisoning our receptors (more serotonin aint gonna help that), Lyme is the most popular. But...the CDC estimates that for every 1 case diagnosed, there are 9 others walking around (or bedridden with a flawed diagnosis) who have not yet been diagnosed. So you can imagine how underdiagnosed all the other neurotoxic infectors are. Highest on the suspect list is Candida. Our diets, sugars, starches, stresses, pollutions, and illnesses give those things an absolute heavan to thrive and party.
If any of the above have you feeling better but no Herx, you have either an infection of some kind that is being subdued by the herbs and/or an unknown source of brain inflammation being eased by the herbs.
If you can work with a naturopath or alternative MD or integrative MD, ask for a provoked urine test of heavy metals. You'll collect urine before, then take a single large dose of DMSA, then collect urine for the next 6 hours or 24 hours. A lab will compare the amount of mercury/lead/arensic/cadmium and others in your normal urine compared to the amount of hidden metals DMSA pulled out of your tissues. Most people, especially with psychiatric issues, are probably a lot more toxic than they think they are. Drinking water, lead solder joints, fish, air migration from industrial countries, polluted rain, insecticides on produce, insecticides cows eat in the fields, silver fillings...it's all around us. Some people have genetics that excrete very well. Others accumulate. The ones most likely to accumulate are the ill because their systems are already compromised.
A 24 hour 4 sample saliva test of cortisol can paint a good picture, but what I have discovered is that while cortisol controls all of our neurotransmitters, if it is out of whack, low, whatever, it is because of one of the above reasons.
And of course thyroid free T3, free T4, and thyroid antibodies.
I am a long way from remission. I may still seek a retrial of SJW or Rhodiola or Tumeric. But in all honesty, I am better off meds than at any time during the 15 years of psych med augmentation merrigorounds or ECT.
People say, "oh, that's too expensive, oh, that's too hard, oh, that takes too much time, oh, my doctor doesn't know about that", so they take the easy way out and schedule a psych visit, get a prescription, and spin the merrigoround one more time. Tens years later, it turns out not to be the easy way out, but instead a very hard road, they are no better, maybe worse, and have spent thousands of dollars. Too expensive? Too hard? Geez.
Your original question...
Hypnosis...never tried it. I don't trust turning my spirit over to someone else while I am not aware.
Meditation...I've heard it is helpful for anxiety and insomnia if one knows how to do it right.
Psychotherapy...helpful to cope with the difficulties, helpful to grasp reality that we may never be what we used to be. Helps to learn how to live here and now instead of grasping for history.
Accupuncture...never tried it, but there is decent evidence it can actually help...somehow stimulates opioids and immune system and hormones, all impacting the brain in a positive way.Of course, none of those things are going to convince infectious organisms, mercury, or lead to pack up their bags and leave.
For anything to work, it needs a pristine menu of food choices. Heavy of raw/slightly cooked veggies, fruits, proteins, and very low in sugars and starches. Low to modest caffeine. Lots and lots of purified water, accompanied with generous amounts of iodoized sea salt on your food.
Modern medicine is but a speck of sand in the course of history. It is in infancy. A few decades at best. Mysteries and flaws are the norm. We do the best we can. Modern medicine has a fair share of miracles as well as failures. You asked if life is possible without meds, and I say yes.
poster:bleauberry
thread:912947
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090818/msgs/913027.html