Dr. Jed Diamond has experienced and studied depression for years. Here he offers some additional strategies to help fight it.
Depression runs in my family. Out of work and unable to support his family, my father became depressed and tried to take his own life. Though he didn’t die, our lives were never the same. My mother experienced depression differently than my father. Where he became irritable and angry, blaming others for the problems he was having, she became sad and unhappy and blamed herself for not being a good enough wife and mother. I seemed to have inherited both my father’s “acting out” and my mother’s “turning in.”
Over the years I’ve seen a number of therapists and I’ve been on anti-depressant medications. I’ve been helped by both, but there have been new discoveries in the treatment of depression that can increase the options that are available to us. In his new book, Spontaneous Happiness: A New Path to Emotional Well-Being, Andrew Weil, M.D. calls these approaches “integrative mental health.”
“The new integrative model of mental health does not ignore brain biochemistry,” says Weil. “It takes into account correlations between imbalances in neurotransmitters and mood disorders. Nor does it reject psychopharmacology. Integrative treatment plans for depression, particularly severe depression, may well include medication, but my colleagues and I prefer to try other methods first and to use antidepressant drugs for short-term management of crises rather than rely on them as long-term solutions.”
I’ve been using integrative mental health practices for myself and my clients for many years. When I find things that I’m confident work, I write books that can help others. In my forthcoming book Stress Relief for Men: How to Use the Revolutionary Tools of Energy Healing to Live Well, I offer men, and those who love them, guidance for reducing stress in their lives. We know that 80% to 90% of all illnesses are stress-related. Everything from rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s to chronic pain and depression. Here are four practices I’ve found particularly helpful.
(1) Earthing or Grounding
For millions of years, our ancestors moved across the landscape either barefoot or in moccasins made from the hides of animals. The women walked to gather food. The men walked to find animals for food. We slept connected to the Earth. But in modern times we’ve begun wearing rubber-soled shoes that keep us insulated from the healing energies of the Earth.
According to cardiologist Stephen Sinatra, MD, coauthor of the book Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever? “Earthing involves coupling your body to the Earth’s eternal and gentle surface energies. It means walking barefoot outside and/or sitting, working, or sleeping inside while connected to a conductive device that delivers the natural healing energy of the Earth into your body.”
In some ways, all the major problems we face today—from global warming to peak oil, from obesity to depression, from joblessness to the increase of divorce—could be helped if we were able to reestablish our connection to the Earth.
(2) Heart Coherence
According to David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, author of The Instinct to Heal: Curing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy, there is an intimate connection between the heart and the emotion centers in the brain, and by learning methods that produce heart coherence, we can not only protect our hearts but the rest of the human body as well.
The Institute of HeartMath, founded in 1991 by stress researcher Doc Childre, has been doing cutting-edge research on heart coherence under the leadership of research director Rollin McCraty, PhD. Researchers found that people could maintain extended periods of physiological coherence by actively generating positive emotions. There are a number of simple techniques I describe that can help you connect positive images to breathing and change heart rhythms that are out of sync to ones that are smooth and calm.
I’ve found that focusing on my heart, imagining I’m breathing through that area of my chest and holding a positive thought of someone I love or an experience that was healing can shift angry or depressed feelings towards a more positive outlook. It sounds simple, but it really does work.
(3) Attachment Love
Attachment love is based on the latest scientific findings that show we are emotionally attached to and dependent on our partner in much the same way that a child is on a parent for nurturing, soothing, and protection. Most of us understand that children need a secure attachment to their parents in order to grow up be healthy and happy. But many of us believe that we outgrow these dependency needs when we become adults.
In his book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, Andrew Solomon says, “Depression is the flaw in love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair.” Attachment love reconnects us to those closest to us. It reconnects the bonds of reciprocity, of give and take, that are the cornerstones of what it means to be human.
(4) Emotional Freedom Techniques (Also known as EFT or Tapping)
EFT is a powerful new discovery that combines two well-established sciences so you can benefit from both at the same time: Mind/body medicine and Acupuncture (without needles).
I learned about emotional freedom techniques (EFT) when an acupuncturist I had gone to for shoulder pain told me about EFT. I wanted help in the worst way, but I couldn’t tolerate the needles. She assured me they wouldn’t hurt (and in fact, they didn’t hurt), but I still got light-headed and nearly passed out. I faint at the sight of blood and needles. You can fully understand why I dropped out of medical school.
I was immediately drawn to EFT because the founder, Gary Craig, was a hands-on kind of guy. He says, “I am neither a psychologist nor a licensed therapist. Rather, I am a Stanford engineering graduate.” I found that EFT not only was able to address chronic physical pain, it also could deal with chronic emotional pain associated with depression.
Depression can be a debilitating illness and some people, myself included, benefit greatly from medications. Most everyone can benefit from talking to a caring and skilled psychotherapist. But it’s good to know there are also integrative mental health practices that are powerful and effective in treating mild, moderate, and even serious forms of depression.
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Thanks, Jed. Your quartet of built-in remedies makes deep sense. There’s a saying: “In the wound is the medicine.” I recall my first twinge of understanding what depression is: I was in my early 20s (about 30 years ago) and found an article, I believe by John Welwood, called “Depression as a Loss of Heart.” YES. I’ve lived with basal depression my entire life — essentially the glitch is based in brainstem activity that was damaged via a very premature birth, anoxia, and neonatal cardiac arrest. Still here! … and living one day at a time. I see depression as… Read more »