By Mark Hyman MD on January 27, 2012
Here’s some depressing recent medical news: Antidepressants don’t work. What’s even more depressing is that the pharmaceutical industry and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have deliberately deceived us into believing that they do work. As a physician, this is frightening to me. Depression is among the most common problems seen in primary-care medicine and soon will be the second leading cause of disability in this country.
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine provides the evidence. It found that drug companies selectively publish studies on antidepressants. They have published nearly all the studies that show benefit, but almost none of the studies that show these drugs are ineffective.1
That warps our view of antidepressants, leading us to think that they do work. And it has fueled the tremendous growth in the use of psychiatric medications, which are now the second leading class of drugs sold, after cholesterol-lowering drugs.
The problem is even worse than it sounds, because the positive studies hardly showed benefit in the first place. For example, 40 percent of people taking a placebo (sugar pill) got better, while only 60 percent taking the actual drug had improvement in their symptoms. Looking at it another way, 80 percent of people get better with just a placebo.
That leaves us with a big problem: millions of depressed people with no effective treatments being offered by most conventional practitioners. However, there are treatments available. Functional medicine provides a unique and effective way to treat depression and other psychological problems. Today I will review seven steps you can take to work through your depression without drugs. But before we get to that, let’s take a closer look at depression.
What’s in a Name?
“Depression” is simply a label we give to people who have a depressed mood most of the time, have lost interest or pleasure in most activities, are fatigued, can’t sleep, have no interest in sex, feel hopeless and helpless, can’t think clearly or can’t make decisions.
But that label tells us nothing about the cause of those symptoms. In fact, there are dozens of causes of depression, each one needing a different approach to treatment. Depression is not one-size-fits-all, but it is very common.
Women have a 10-25 percent risk and men a 5-12 percent risk of developing severe major depression in their lifetime.2 One in ten Americans takes an antidepressant. The use of these drugs has tripled in the last decade, according to a report by the federal government. In 2006, spending on antidepressants soared by 130 percent.
But just because antidepressants are popular doesn’t mean they’re helpful. Unfortunately, as we now see from this report in The New England Journal of Medicine, they don’t work and have significant side effects. Most patients taking antidepressants either don’t respond or have only partial response. In fact, success is considered just a 50 percent improvement in half of depressive symptoms. And this minimal result is achieved in less than half the patients taking antidepressants.
That’s a pretty dismal record. It’s only made worse by the fact that 86 percent of people taking antidepressants have one or more side effects, including sexual dysfunction, fatigue, insomnia, loss of mental abilities, nausea and weight gain.
No wonder half the people who try antidepressants quit after four months.
Despite what we have been brainwashed to believe, depression is not a Prozac deficiency!
How We Have Been Deceived by the Antidepressant Hoax
Despite what we have been brainwashed to believe, depression is not a Prozac deficiency!
Drug companies are not forced to publish all the results of their studies. They only publish those they want to. The team of researchers that reported their findings in The New England Journal of Medicine took a critical look at all the studies done on antidepressants, both published and unpublished. They dug up some serious dirt …
The unpublished studies were not easy to find. The researchers had to search the FDA databases, call researchers and hunt down hidden data under the Freedom of Information Act. What they found was stunning.
After looking at 74 studies involving 12 drugs and over 12,000 people, they discovered that 37 of 38 trials with positive results were published, while only 14 of 36 negative studies were published. Those that showed negative results were, in the words of the researchers, “published in a way that conveyed a positive outcome.”
That means the results were twisted to imply the drugs worked when they didn’t.
This isn’t just a problem with antidepressants. It’s a problem with scientific research. Some drug companies even pay or threaten scientists to not publish negative results on their drugs. So much for “evidence-based” medicine! I recently had dinner with a step-uncle who runs a company that designs research for drug companies. He designs the study, hires the researcher from an esteemed institution, directs the study and writes up the study, and the scientist just signs his or her name after reviewing it.
Most of the time, we only have the evidence that the drug companies want us to have. Both doctors and patients are deceived into putting billions of dollars into drug companies’ pockets, while leaving millions with the same health problems but less money.
The scientific trust is broken. What can we do? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. But I do think functional medicine, on which my approach of UltraWellness is based, provides a more intelligent way of understanding the research. Rather than using drugs to suppress symptoms, functional medicine helps us find the true causes of problems, including depression.
I see this in so many of the patients I have treated over the years. Just as the same things that make us sick also make us fat, the same things that make us sick also make us depressed. Fix the causes of sickness and the depression takes care of itself.
Here are a few things you can do to start treating your depression today.
Seven Steps to Treat Depression without Drugs
1. Try an anti-inflammatory elimination diet that gets rid of common food allergens. As I mentioned above, food allergies and the resultant inflammation have been connected with depression and other mood disorders.
2. Check for hypothyroidism. This unrecognized epidemic is a leading cause of depression. Make sure to have thorough thyroid exam if you are depressed.
3. Take vitamin D. Deficiency in this essential vitamin can lead to depression. Supplement with at least 2,000 to 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 a day.
4. Take omega-3 fats. Your brain is made of up this fat, and deficiency can lead to a host of problems. Supplement with 1,000 to 2,000 mg of purified fish oil a day. Consider a vegan source of omega-3 (such as this one).
5. Take adequate B12 (1,000 micrograms, or mcg, a day), B6 (25 mg) and folic acid (800 mcg). These vitamins are critical for metabolizing homocysteine, which can play a part in depression.
6. Get checked for mercury. Heavy metal toxicity has been correlated with depression and other mood and neurological problems.
7. Exercise vigorously five times a week for 30 minutes. This increases levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a natural antidepressant in your brain.
Overcoming depression is an important step toward lifelong vibrant health. These are just of few of the easiest and most effective things you can do to treat depression. For more information on how to optimize your health, see http://drhyman.com/.
Now I’d like to hear from you … Have you been diagnosed with depression? How have antidepressants worked for you? Do you plan to try any of the approaches mentioned here? Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
References
1. Turner EH et al. 2007. Selective publication of antidepressant trials and its influence on apparent efficacy. N Engl J Med. 358: 252-260.
2.Eaton WW, Kalaydjian A, Scharfstein DO, Mezuk B, Ding Y. 2007. Prevalence and incidence of depressive disorder: the Baltimore ECA follow-up, 1981-2004. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 116(3):182-188.
Photo credit: walknboston
Disclaimer: The opinions presented in this article are those of Dr. Hyman based on his years of training and experience as a medical doctor. This information is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease. All material in this article is provided for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you have regarding a medical condition, and before undertaking any diet, exercise or other health program.
Read More By Guest Blogger on October 18, 2011
“What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now.” – Buddha
Even though life is sometimes messy and unpredictable, there is one constant — opportunities will come and go. And the reality is that opportunities are abundant when we are open to them. When we are open to new things and eager to branch out of our safe, cozy, comfort zone, we can open up a world of new possibilities. And it all starts with one easy step: Play the game, and get on the court. Landmark Forum’s self-improvement course teaches the power of getting on the court in life vs. sitting in the stands.
Think about a sporting event. Spectators cheer from the stands but never put themselves at risk. They are not the ones taking any risks or making anything happen. Rather, they sit, watch, judge and wait, while the players are full of life. They are the doers, making life happen and work with them. They see an opportunity and go for it. They take risks and play hard. Of the two types of people, which would you rather be?
More often than not, I have been a spectator in my own life. I let life happen to me and fell into deep, moldy holes. The only way to pull me out of each depression episode was to take responsibility for my own life and start making calls – getting my butt up out of “self-pity-ville” and taking action to guide me in a better direction. It started with one single step forward, by getting onto the court of my own life.
If you look at your life as a bestselling book or blockbuster movie, how is yours playing out? What kind of picture are you in? Is it full of depression, mistakes, regrets and secrets? Or are you the hero in your own starring role? Are you in a role that challenges and excites you? Do you seize the day and make the moment matter? The opportunity here is to dream of possibilities and things beyond the traditional confines of cultural and social acceptability. Whenever there are areas of our lives we are unhappy with, often, the human tendency is to ignore them … to simply act as if they are not an issue; out of sight, out of mind.
For example, maybe you are unhappy with your job. I was the queen of bitter job certainty. I lived the “this is how things are” card to its death, meaning I was a victim of the negative perpetrations of my job. I worked with people who didn’t understand me or respect my contributions. They always made me feel like an outsider, and I always had a boss who seemed to have ulterior motives. I could never trust them. No matter where I went, what city, this job was where I was. I’d quit one company and start working at a completely different company, sometimes even different industries and would always find myself crying in the bathroom on lunch break.
I would tell myself it is normal to cry at work and this is just how life is supposed to be. I would come home and complain to whoever would listen about how bad my job was, how lame the people I worked with were and how I wasn’t getting what I deserved. That’s a lot of “me, me, and me” talk if you ask me. I was pretty self-consumed and exhausting the victim role. I kept playing out my same reality over and over until one day I was talking to a friend. I was complaining about my new boss and the work I was doing, when she gently said, “Sounds like your last two jobs.”
I realized then and there that the only thing all these nasty, toxic environments had in common was me. I was the connecting thread to all of these mishaps in the workplace. I took mental stock and realized I am accountable for everything in my life. All of these patterns that kept surfacing were a common thread of my life, not theirs. I asked myself, “What have I been doing to create this reality?” Quite simply, I hadn’t been getting on the court or playing a starring role in my own blockbuster. I had been letting life happen to me vs., co-creating with life and being accountable for my own actions and patterns. These patterns were really an inner cry for help. I kept living the same reality of moving between jobs, states and countries to get away and start fresh. But I wasn’t able to look at the big picture. No matter where I went, these patterns would keep recurring until I learned to recognize each situation as an opportunity to learn something new. Each new job was a lesson. And the lesson would keep coming up until I recognized it and greeted it full-heartedly.
Is there a situation in your life that is causing you frustration? Challenge yourself to look at the situation with fresh eyes and ask yourself, “What is this situation trying to teach me? What can I learn from this?” By opening your mind up to the potential of new possibilities, life can reward us in ways we never expected.
Shannon Kaiser is an inspirational travel writer, author, adventure junkie and art director. Shannon is founder of playwiththeworld.com, an adventure site dedicated to helping others love life fully. Connect with her there.
Photo credit: Evan Jackson
Read More By Leslie Carr Psy.D. on August 19, 2011
For a couple of months, two years ago, I was depressed. A profoundly rainy San Francisco winter, coupled with the heartbreak of yet another failed relationship, just left me feeling blue. Three-thousand miles from my family and my closest, oldest friends, it also left me crying in jags, with a lonely, nagging ache inside.
This time in my life would have been relatively unremarkable (in the sense that I wouldn’t otherwise feel inclined to blog about it two and a half years later) if it weren’t for the fact that I met my partner, Chris, during these months. Because I happened to meet him during a time that can be legitimately referred to as a “depressive episode,” it’s part of our story that it was not love at first sight, and I sometimes reference it that way in conversation. “Sparks did not fly,” I jokingly say to my girlfriends. I like telling people this version of the story because I think it speaks well to how love can sneak up on us when we least expect it. I got the love sneak-attack in that instance because I was … distracted.
What makes this story blog-worthy, in my opinion, is actually the way people respond to me when I “admit” that I was depressed. People’s faces always light up a little bit – not in a sadistic way, exactly – but in a way that seems to say, “You get depressed too? Oh thank God you’re admitting it! I’ve been depressed too. I feel so much less alone now.”
My question is, what’s up with that? Why do we feel like depression is this shameful thing that we shouldn’t talk about? I don’t doubt for a second that they feel doubly relieved that I’m admitting it because I’m a shrink, as if therapists don’t get depressed too. Well, I do get depressed sometimes, and I’m going to tell you why – it’s actually the same reason why almost everyone else does from time to time:
It’s because I’m human.
I have a bone to pick with my own profession. I think that we have done society a major disservice by medicalizing depression and calling it a “disease.” We have taken a normal (albeit very unpleasant) part of the human condition and encouraged people to see it as an aberration. We did this, in large part, so that insurance companies would be required to pay for its treatment, and unfortunately in doing so we’ve changed the way that people look at depression entirely.
I’m not saying that depression isn’t problematic, and I’m not saying that it isn’t something that needs to be treated, but this change in the way that we think and talk about depression has a way of robbing us of something that is vitally important: our ability to use our own internal experience as a source of information.
There are different levels and types of depression and, accordingly, there are a variety of tools that we as mental health professionals have in our tool boxes for it. While my own experience with depression has not been particularly severe, I’ve worked with individuals who have been so profoundly depressed that they’ve undergone ECT (electroconvulsive therapy, or shock therapy — yes, we still use this, although it’s come a long way from what most of us imagine) in a last-ditch effort to try anything that will pull them up from the depths of despair. I’m thrilled to report that I’ve seen that intervention successfully restore people’s functioning, but in my personal and professional experience, most of the time that people are depressed it’s because there’s something happening in their lives that needs their attention.
In my clinical work I help my clients to understand how their depressive thoughts and feelings are related to underlying issues in their lives. Sometimes those issues are current, and a course-correction is in order. At other times there’s something bubbling up from deep within, and I’m able to be helpful by listening empathically, connecting dots, and providing a human connection; I remember how invaluable it was for me to have that myself. Sometimes people need a little extra support, and anti-depressants can be helpful, but above all I believe that our feelings are never, ever random.
So, do I know what it’s like to feel depressed? Of course I do. I’ve had to course-correct. I’ve had to face the skeletons in my closet, and I don’t mind admitting it, because going to see a therapist who’s never experienced psychological suffering would be like going to an auto-mechanic who’s never owned a car.
This is what makes us human, and unfortunately it’s a problem that’s getting more pervasive as we become increasingly isolated and individualistic as a culture. By calling depression a disease, and by focusing our attention on the faulty wiring in each individual, we fail to respond to what elevated rates of depression are saying to us about our society as a whole. We are beings built for human connection in an increasingly isolated world.
Modern isolation is not the sole cause of depression, but if there’s anything that I hope people take away from this article, it’s this: Anti-depressant medication alone is not an effective way to treat depression. Anti-depressants are a boon to the pharmaceutical industry, partially because they’re often prescribed by general practitioners and other kinds of doctors who don’t refer their patients to any kind of psychiatric follow up care. This practice needs to stop. The dirty little secret about anti-depressant medications is that they barely outperform placebo in clinical trials. While they seem to be more effective outside of the lab (about 60 percent of patients respond well to anti-depressants in clinical practice), studies show again and again that therapy increases the effectiveness of these medications.
Have I gotten your attention yet? Please, if you’re reading this and you’ve been feeling depressed lately, know that you aren’t alone. You also aren’t, in my opinion, diseased – but now that you have more information, what are you going to do about it?
For more on optimal living, visit http://lesliecarr.com.
Photo credit: John Davey
Read More By Guest Blogger on August 30, 2010
“I’d rather be naked.” These were the words on the t-shirt I saw in Walgreens. It was a size that could only be worn by a young child. I smiled, thinking how self-love comes so naturally for young children. We are born loving ourselves soul, mind, and body, but as the years go on, we tend to forget that unconditional love and acceptance.
For many, many years I did not love myself, especially my body. It was difficult for me to even look in the mirror. I did not re-learn how to love myself from church, my family, or traditional school. In fact, I learned the true meaning of self-love through conquering a raging addiction. I was not addicted to drugs, or alcohol, or men; I was addicted to dieting. I spent six years of my life in the throes of a nasty addiction to trend diets and compulsive exercise.
How did this addiction begin? In October of my freshman year in college, after a series of negative dating experiences, questionable “friend” choices, and a coke-addicted roommate with a habit of punching holes in the wall, I fell into a depression unlike any other I had previously experienced. This lasted about two excruciating months, where I did not leave my dorm except to eat and go to class. I lost touch with my center, gained a bit of weight, and was completely unmotivated.
Then, I took up jogging. This helped alleviate my depression. It didn’t happen overnight, but running each morning gave me a reason to wake up, allowed me to set attainable goals, and connected me to a community of others who shared my passion.
However, the passion soon took on obsession-like qualities. My fixation with exercise began to include restriction and fascination with food. The diet addiction was in full swing: I began to stand on the scale once a day, sometimes more. If the number went up, my day was ruined.
Whatever the trendiest diet craze, I became their most valuable customer. I jumped from Atkins, eating all protein and meat, to an unhealthy vegan diet, eating no protein and meat. I tried South Beach and the Zone. I never ate dessert. I completely lost touch with my inner wisdom, guidance, and sense of balance.
I was buying into everyone else’s money-making “Health Plan” and completely separating from my soul, which was the intuitive part of me that knew what I needed to be healthy, at peace, and truly in love with my body and self. Furthermore, I spent a lot of time and effort “feeding” this diet/body/weight obsession. I had no energy or time left for cultivating my creativity, my spirituality, my zest for life, and my love for myself.
Just when it felt like there was no hope, I began to read and learn about Intuitive Eating, Exercising, and Living. This was a revolutionary concept for me. With the help of authors like Dr. Dorie McCubbrey and Geneen Roth, I tapped into my own inner guide and began to follow these “anti-diet” guidelines:
-My body knows exactly what it wants to eat, how much, and when.
-I can trust my body’s wisdom, hunger, and full point.
-My body knows what type of activity it wants to do and for how long.
-Following someone else’s plan only leads me further from the wisdom of my authentic self.
The most important aspect of this newfound strategy was to LOVE MYSELF FIRST and love my body NOW; not after I lost ten pounds or fit into a smaller size. I practiced daily affirmations: “I am loving and accepting myself fully right now.” I made gratitude lists of everything about my body that I appreciated. “My legs carry me through amazing jogs through the park.” I threw away my scale, refusing to sacrifice my power to a random number. I spent time naked in front of a full length mirror and noticing the beautiful curves of my body. At first, I had to “fake it till I make it,” as the saying goes, but soon I was truly loving myself and practicing self-care to show my body and soul how much I appreciated them.
I can now say that I am done with diet addiction. My body has taught me what foods help me feel energetically alive. I eat dessert, and I usually eat just enough to feel satisfied. I recognize my full point, and I try not to eat too far past it.
Furthermore, as my mind/body/soul connection grew through intuitive living, other areas of my life were positively impacted. I finally allowed myself to accept the love of my best friend, the man of my dreams. My confidence grew and I was able to move on from an exhausting job and into owning my own business, one that feeds my soul and gives back to the world.
Sometimes I have the urge to go back to that time in my life and hug that 22 year old, tell her that she is fine the way she is and that no amount of diet/weight obsession will create self-acceptance and love. Sometimes, I wonder what my life would have been like without that war I waged against myself… but I trust there was a deeper, Divine purpose.
Also, I do embrace that young woman from the past in my own way, each time I work with a client or witness a friend as she searches for self-acceptance, for her inner wisdom, and begins to love her body and self more completely. Together, we are part of a revolution of women who are choosing to love ourselves fully mind, soul, and BODY! I’m going to check if they have the “I’d rather be naked” shirts in larger sizes…
Cora Poage lives in New York City with her incredible husband Ben (her “other” soulmate) and her two crazy kitties. She is the owner of Super Woman Health, a company offering wellness coaching for learning to eat, exercise, and live intuitively.
Photo Credit: insearchofbalance
Read More By Guest Blogger on August 5, 2010
“Remember sadness is always temporary. This, too, shall pass.” -Chuck T. Falcon
It has been said that creative persons, such as authors, artists, actors, musicians, performers and poets are more often plagued with the demon of depression than the general population. One of the possible explanations for this is that creative types tend to feel powerful emotions which aid their creative endeavors. In other words, some experts believe that being sensitive to one’s surroundings, including sounds, colors and people’s emotions, has been associated with both creativity and depression. Such hypersensitivity can lead people to worry about things with which other people aren’t typically as concerned, thereby increasing the potential for depression.
If we examine the lives of accomplished artists, we will observe that many battled depression at some point in their lives. A few prominent examples are Vincent Van Gogh, Charles Darwin, Virginia Woolf, William Styron, Anne Sexton, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath. If you’ve ever been depressed, you probably understand the sense of helplessness and numbness which accompanies this illness. Sometimes this sense of helplessness drives creative individuals to the drawing or writing pad, but other times, it can be immobilizing.
The life of writer David Foster Wallace offers a more recent example, as he committed suicide secondary to depression. Experts have identified certain characteristics in his writing—such as hypersensitivity, constant rumination, and persistent contemplation—which researchers say can connect creativity with mental illness, especially bipolar disorder and depression. In this case, mental illness does not necessarily cause creativity, but a certain ruminating personality type may contribute to both mental health issues and artistic ability.
Some Theories Linking Depression and Creativity
First, some artists and writers admit to engaging in their craft as a kind of self-therapy for depression. In this way, their efforts to avoid depression may provide an incentive for their creative work that wards off melancholy.
Second, the experience of depression provides subject matter for artistic creations: Edvard Munch’s famous painting “The Scream” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “There’s a Certain Slant of Light” are two examples.
Third, some believe that one cannot truly comprehend or convey the human condition unless one has experienced the highest emotional highs and the lowest lows. Thus, depression provides the existential angst from which great art arises.
Approximately seven percent of the general population is affected by depression or bipolar disorder, and studies have shown that this number tends to be higher among creative types. Bipolar disorder is characterized by episodes of mania and major depression. Typically, someone who is manic depressive tends to swing from excessive highs (mania) to profound hopelessness (depression). In between these episodes, they experience feelings of normalcy. Some people can also have mixed symptoms of both mania and depression simultaneously, while others may have manic symptoms that are more moderate.
In his book “Van Gogh Blues,” Eric Maisel proclaims that virtually one hundred percent of creative people suffer from episodes of depression. He supports this claim by asserting that every creative person came out of the womb ready to interrogate life and determine for herself what life would mean, could mean, and should mean. He believes that depression in creative individuals is thought of as a crisis caused by chronic, persistent uneasiness, irritation, anger, and sadness about the facts of existence and life’s apparent lack of meaning. In fact, those who try to understand the reason for their own existence will most likely be more prone to depression.
Kay Redfield Jamison, a foremost expert on bipolar disorder who has also suffered from the disease since childhood, believes that most artistic geniuses are manic depressive. Jamison is the author of “Touched with Fire” and a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her book makes a powerful link between depression and creativity.
When a writer is depressed, he or she may turn to their craft to ease the pain. The writing process can help the creative person make sense of their lives and validate what they are feeling. Writing brings us face-to-face with reality. The act of moving the pen across the page or the fingers on the keyboard can be meditative and calming. Expressing feelings helps to give meaning to life, which is helpful for us all!
Personally, I have found writing to be very therapeutic during tumultuous periods in my life. Writing my own recent memoir/self-help book, “Healing with Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey,” proved to me that in times of depression, it is very helpful to try to be creative. Pick up a notebook and just start writing!
If you haven’t tried this before, here are ten things to keep in mind:
1. Find a quiet, uninterrupted time and place to write.
2. Choose an inspiring notebook and pen.
3. Create a centering ritual (light a candle, meditate, play music, stretch).
4. Breathe deeply.
5. Put aside your inner critic.
6. Date your entry.
7. Begin by writing your feelings and sensations.
8. Write nonstop for 15-20 minutes.
9. Save what you have written.
10. Write regularly.
Diana Raab is a author of eight books and teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and in various conferences around the country. She frequently writes and speaks about journaling and her most recent memoir is Healing With Words: A Writer’s Breast Cancer Journey (June 2010).
Photo Credit: Derek Gavey
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