Depression Days

Depression can be caused by many different things and one of the first things we need to do to help beat depression is to avoic any circumstances that might make you feel depressed or sad. In knowing the symptoms of depression and being able to tell when depression is ‘coming on’, then this is the time to use some strategies to help reduce the problem.

If depression is lingering it is very easy for it to become full blown, especially when we are confronted with sad and depressive stories every day. Even if not in our own lives, we still constantly hear sad stories in newspapers and on television. We hear stories of poverty, war, crime, destruction and despair and hearing this things daily will only aggravate depression. Read the rest of this entry »

For someone suffering from depression it is very important to realise that you do not OWN your depression and neither does your depression own you.

Depression is an illness and needs to be treated as one.  An illness that can be treated and once you realise that it is just an illness and can be treated that is the first big step to recovery.

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I know it is said that you cannot beat depression by telling yourself to ’snap out of it’. I must say I agree with this, but that’s not to say you can’t beat it WITHOUT using medications.

Its more than just telling yourself to snap out of it and it certainly wont happen overnight, it needs work. There will still be plenty of bad days, but we need to work at having less bad days and more good ones.

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Depression Blues – Why do we feel this way? What makes us feel this way? Will these feelings ever go away? I’m sure everyone suffers from “the blues” at some stage, but for someone suffering from depression, it is having the blues all day every day. Does it ever go away? Why do we have to suffer like this? How many times to you think to yourself ‘pull yourself out of it’? How many times do you think ‘if I just start walking every day, do some exercise, think more positive it will all be ok’. It is true, doing this can help, but its just not as easy as it sounds. When suffering from depression you know what you need to do but its just so hard to motivate yourself to do it. You feel so down that you just don’t have the energy to go and do some exercise. Read the rest of this entry »

There are a few side effects of anti-depressant medication, most are more of a nuisance than actual dangerous side effects.

Side effects may include:

. Nausea
. Dizziness
. Insomnia
. Headache
. Dry Mouth
. Blurred Vision
. Altered Bowel Function
. Teeth Grinding
. Jaw Clenching

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When faced with negative thoughts our bodies can enter the ‘fight or flight’ response. Our body prepares itself for either fight or flight, it prepares for a physical response. While doing this other functions are put on hold including digestion, blood cell production, some circulation, healing and immunological responses. We also produce natural chemicals to give our muscles the energy they need for the fight or flight.

The triggering of the fight or flight response can put enormous strain and stress on our bodies as our bodies are ready for action, but we don’t usually fulfil that action, we sit and seethe. Therefore we have produced chemicals that our body then doesn’t use, our other functions are put on hold when we really still need them to be working. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever had a panic attack?  Have you ever felt so scared and panicky but had no idea why?

Panic or anxiety attacks are suffered by a large number of the population and they are very, very scary.  Especially the first one, when you have no idea it is coming and no idea what is happening to you.

What are the symptoms of panic attack?

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