Natural Remedies for depression

Hey, it's Christina. Something I don't love talking about, but I should do more often is talking about mental health issues, specifically depression. I know anxiety is a huge one for people. I have had my own struggles with battling bouts of depression and I used to, and I say used to because I think I've overcome this. In fact, I know I've overcome it. I had undiagnosed PMDD. So for those of you who don't know what PMDD is, it's premenstrual dysphoric disorder. What ends up happening is anywhere up to a week, even two weeks for some people, but for me, it was usually about four days of intense depressive symptoms and for me, it was pretty serious. I even had, you know, suicidal ideation and I lived with that for years. Like every week before my period. So what happens in the body is that there's a huge hormonal fluctuation in both estrogen and progesterone, which leads to fluctuations in serotonin and later, I learned through serendipity that supplement called SAMe, acidenosylmethionine, which is a methyl donor and acts like an upper. It's part of the B12 folate cycle. It's your DNA replication cycle and my SAMe would just drop out, tank, and be practically non-existent around that time. And so for anyone who has methylation issues, and they can learn about them through genetic testing, supplementation, and also, of course, dietary change will vastly improve the situation and eradicate the situation. I do have occasional, you know, bouts of being blue, but I take my SAMe. I take magnesium, which is a precursor to SAMe. It's really imperative to focus and dial in on sleep. I also have struggles with sleep, so when sleep isn't right, I'm not gonna be right. Also, sunlight. So if you live in a climate that doesn't have a lot of sun, please get a light box. These really help a lot, and they have been studied. So something that even simulates blue light is gonna be super helpful. In the wintertime, I keep it on my desk. You can keep it in the bathroom, wherever is convenient for you. I also use quite a bit of aromatherapy in the form of a diffuser, and I use citrus smells. So orange, the scent of orange, the scent of lemon, grapefruit. These are really uplifting. But sunlight, sleep, oh, and sugar. Nearly eradicating sugar from your diet is gonna go a long way towards eradicating sugar blues. So when you're on the roller coaster, on the insulin roller coaster, you're also gonna be on a mood roller coaster. Sugar really does not help your mood at all. If you've ever seen a little child hopped up on candy and then subsequently having a temper tantrum, you know what I'm talking about. So when you switch the focus over to protein, protein's gonna give you the amino acids that you need to make serotonin, dopamine, GABA. GABA, for the anxious folks out there, is the inhibitory calming neurotransmitter. So there are tons of good natural supplements also, like Ginkgo, Bloba, St. John's Wort, things that will, L-theanine, omega-3 fatty acids, and you may need to take methylated folate, methylated B12, especially if you have methylation issues. Again, genetic testing, nutrigenomic testing can be super helpful to identify. Also B6. B6 is an important cofactor for different cycles and is an important one when it comes to food. What else? Exercise. Getting outside walking is super beneficial, and any kind of exercise, whether it's yoga, whether it's dance, whether it's strength training, whether it's a hard cardio sweat, you are gonna feel so much better after moving your body. Because folks in a depressed state tend to curl into themselves and be very lethargic and low energy. So the more you can change just even the expression of the body, then you are speaking to yourself in a different way. Having some kind of gratitude practice and a meditation practice. This way when you are meditating, you are noticing thoughts. You can observe, learn to observe them, not judge them. You're not going to empty your mind. That is not the purpose of meditation. The purpose of meditation is to become a really good observer and to come back into the present. Because folks who tend towards depression tend to look to the past and wish things didn't turn out a certain way, like wish for a different outcome. And folks who are anxious tend to be in the future, worrying about the things that have not happened yet and things we certainly have no control over. Anything you can do that brings you back into the present moment, into the now, where generally everything is okay, is a good practice. And anything that's distracting, like exercise, is also super helpful. With a gratitude practice, what I like, and I got this from somewhere and I don't remember where, is you want to have a string of like a journal where you write five things that you're grateful for that day and you do it every day, but without repeating. So you have to start, what this does is it trains your brain to seek out new things to be grateful for. And it could be tiny things, like the person that smiled at you, you know, the cashier that smiled at you, or finding a great parking spot, or reconnecting with a friend you haven't talked to in a long time. So really small and big things to be grateful for. Being alive is a gift. It really is a gift to be here. So if you're not living to your full potential because you're living in this dark stormy cloud, you're not able to give to others. Which does remind me that when you are focused on others as opposed to focusing on yourself, this is also very very helpful for taking you out of your own depression. So especially if your depression is circumstantial and not biochemical, if you know you have crappy circumstances, focus on someone else because there are so many other people that have it way worse than you do. So the more you can give to others and help others and focus on others, the less you're worried about yourself. But do you practice great self-care? And if it is biochemical, of course, there are pharmaceuticals. But many folks don't need the pharmaceutical line of defense. That's low-hanging fruit that of course the pharmaceutical companies would want you to go for. But unless you're like a really severe clinical case, there's so many natural things that you can do. If you need personal assistance, please reach out. I have a private practice and would be delighted to work with you one-on-one.