Navigating the Path to Wellness from Depression
Let us begin with trying to understand what depression is, we know the old story that depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain and this has been the prevailing mainstream view. Recently however a whole host of new studies have come out showing evidence that depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance, although there may be some aspect of brain chemistry involved. Interestingly, before 1945 people had ten times less depression than they do now indicating that your environment, life circumstances, families, relationships and work have a far greater impact on depression than any chemical imbalance.
However studies in epigenetics show that our cells adapt to their environment which is the chemistry of the body. We are like extremely complex chemistry sets. So over periods of time living in an unhealthy stressful environment the cells can adapt to have fewer receptors for happy peptides and instead become accustomed to stressful living. The good news is by changing your thoughts and learning to recalibrate the feelings in your body the chemistry that our cells reside in can go back to having more cells receptors for happiness. We don't even need to be in a perfect external environment for this, our conscious thinking has been proven to have more effect on the body than any external stimulants.
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So can we now let go of the old victim story that we have been telling ourselves. Think in new ways so that we have the ability and energy to look at the things that need addressing in our lives, take back control and create our own happiness so that our body biologically adapts to this new life that we are living, promoting the cells to recalibrate so they have more receptors for positive feel good chemicals so you can become a naturally happier person?
People who have plans, desirable visions and take action towards building that life will find it hard for depression to continue to dwell inside them. Of course this is easier said than done and I absolutely know that at the beginning of this journey it is very hard to summon the energy to do anything let alone change all these big things that need addressing in life. But over time the energy does become available to you, once changes begin its starts the snowball effect which generates momentum. Happiness really does come from within and the inner and outer world tend to mirror. So although you don't feel like it now how can you think differently, feel differently, be more active and connect with life differently?
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I can't make your depression go away only you can do that but I can provide you with the tools and knowledge you need on your journey when you've finally had enough and decide that your ready to take back control and start living again!
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Symptoms of depression
Depression can be really quite horrible, when left unchecked it becomes a general apathy to life, you may wake up and sigh and say to yourself "what's the point?" Over time this happens because your cells become numb, things that used to feel good now probably don't give you that nice feeling anymore and things that need changing don't make you feel anything so you have no motivation to change anything and procrastination and avoidance become common practice. This generally plays out in any of the following ways:
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- Insomnia, or perhaps sleeping to much
- Isolating yourself from others
- Becoming snappy with family and friends about even the smallest things
- Binging hours upon hours of TV trying to escape
- Weight gain or weight loss
- Looking outside at all the things going on in the world trying to find someone to blame
- Unable to concentrate
- Loss of all motivation and a lack of energy
- Become obsessed with negative thoughts about the world and yourself
- crying and feeling overwhelmed for no reason
- Addictions of all kinds trying to get any sort of feeling from life
You may look at these as being issues within themselves and the medical world will agree with you and provide medication to alleviate these problems however, these are often the symptoms. Unfortunately though the treatment given only treats the symptoms and in some cases only masks them without ever trying to understand the actual cause of the problem, it is a lot easier and more profitable to give you a sleeping tablet than to spend time addressing the root cause of why you can't sleep and helping you go back to a natural state of health where you will then sleep with ease.
Fortunately in lots of cases with some inner contemplation and help processing underlying issues it is possible to return to a healthy and happy state where these symptoms may simply disappear or at very least lesson their impact in your life. Have you noticed how these symptoms lessen when things in your life are going well and get worse during stressful times? Imagine how much these can change if you really get to the bottom of things and profoundly change yourself.