I sincerely apologise to everyone who has written asking for our next video episode on depression treatment. We were very maliciously hacked and have had to do an extensive rebuild and repair as well as migrate to new servers.
But we’re back on track and you’ll see the next video, introducing far more effective psychological treatments, online here by the weekend.
Amazingly, depression can be caused partly (or even entirely) by what you do or don’t put in your mouth! Of course there are usually psychological factors as well, and I’ll begin to deal with those in the next few videos, but if you’re not getting good nutrition, EVERYTHING will be a struggle.
This brief video explains how to get your nutrition supporting your recovery, and you can ask questions using the comment section below. Just make sure you’re logged in first (or sign up for free!).
I’ll write more on this shortly, but for today simply wanted to get the news out that chemical depression can often be easily diagnosed with more thorough testing of thyroid hormones.
When clinicians test thyroid function, they usually omit to ask for a measure of T4, since that hormone isn’t actually produced by the thyroid gland. The thyroid produces T3, which is “converted” to T4 in the body. So you can have plenty of T3, and yet be deficient in T4.
A deficiency in T4 often indicates “sick euthyroid syndrome” which is the result of sustained high cortisol (stress) hormone. The person can have all the symptoms of severe clinical depression, with no psychological factors at play.
There is no treatment for SES except perhaps a magnesium supplement, and doctors agree that the condition should not be treated with medication. The “treatment” in fact is a proper convalescence period in which the person is allowed a completely stress-free existence, without work or other duties. With correct rest, the endocrine system (which produces hormones and which is “out of balance” in SES) quickly returns to normal function.
Insomnia is one of the most distressing symptoms often reported with depression, and in fact even when the sufferer isn’t aware of lacking sleep, often the sleep is so poor-quality due to stress or other factors that it still presents a major obstacle to recovery.
And of course insomnia alone can create chemical depression, so it’s vital that we address all the issues that can interfere with quality, restorative sleep.
Rather than produce a huge mass of notes for you here, I highly recommend you do two things:
1) Grab the free ebook “17 Solutions”, which you can download as a client or as a free member of www.realhelpfordepression.com/members. The notes in that little ebook deal with sleep issues, as well as a whole pile of other issues relating to depression treatment.
2) This one is going to sound a little odd but bear with me. There’s an incredibly cheap little book called “The Little Book of Baby Sleep Tips and Strategies” which is a real eye-opener when it comes to understanding how poor sleep patterns are created, and how to train your brain back into sleeping well again. Sure it’s meant for babies and problem children and even teenagers, but you’ll find it has excellent advice that is applicable to grownups too. There’s even a free forum to help you put it into practice. You’ll find it at www.bubhelp.com.
Anyhow, watch the video here on this blog, and use the comment section to ask your questions. As always, you know I’ll do my best to answer.
In this next video I discuss how to tell if you’re getting quality sleep or not, and you might be surprised to learn that even if you’re getting your 8 hours of seemingly undisturbed sleep, you might still be sleeping so unhealthily that it’s wiping out your chances of fast recovery from depression.
As always, ask away in the comment section below, and you know I’ll do my best to answer.
