I'll second that!

hi all (esp. my teammate satguru):)
today's paper stated that the depression gene affects negative brain area. this gene may enlarge an area of the brain that handles negative emotions.
this study shows that the brains of people with depression are structurally different from brains of folks not depressed.
[research= univer. of texas southwestern medical center]--the serotonin transporter gene has 2 forms: short SERT (SERT-1) and long (SERT=2)
Those with two SERT-s had pulvinars (brain region which handles negative emotions)with 20% more cells than folks with 1 or 2 SERTs-1 gene.
i won't go into exactly how this gene affects serotonin (but it does) serotonin is associated with mood in a positive way. depression drugs slow serotonin down (purpose: to make serotonin available longer to make you feel better longer)
One other note: worldwide depression numbers about 120 million; in the usa, about 20 million. In terms of the population, depressed folks number about 0.095 percent of our (USA) population. these figures come from the World Health Organ.

I'm sorry to be chiming in here almost a year after this conversation started!

I,too, have experienced the depths of depression and have lived a" life of quiet desperation" for many years. But, I really just want to cut to chase and let people know what has worked for me, because I know how urgently they need relief.It is just too horrible to think of anyone suffering with this horrible illness.Drugs just made me feel worse, so I went with my gut feeling that there must be some food or natural product out there that would give my brain the nutrients that it must be deficient in (seratonin being the main one I guess).I kept my eyes and ears open for any information on foods or herbal remedies that could either just help me stay afloat or,better still, turn me back into the joyful, energetic, fun-loving person that I once was. The following is a list of things that you can get anywhere and may really make a difference in how you feel:

St. John's Wort (herbal capsules from natural health store)- don't stay on this permanently, only until you start feeling better. Then just take it whenever you feel like you're going downhill again.That horrible sinking feeling.

Gotu Kola (herbal capsules from natural health store)

dark chocolate (Just a bit each day. I eat chocolate that contains 99% cocoa! That's very dark!)

Brazil nuts, walnuts (maybe other kinds as well - fresh out of the shell is best)

sweet potatoes (yams)

cranberry juice ( really great, have it every day if you can, get the type with no sugar added)

salmon ( fish oils)

olive oil

vitamin D

Vitamin B-12 ( and all the other B vitamins are supposed to be good too)

Potassium ( daily recommended dose)

avocadoes ( they are high in cholesterol but it's the good type of cholesterol apparently)

granulated lecithin ( it has the added bonus of being a natural way of reducing the bad cholesterol in your system!)

turkey ( along with cranberry jelly no wonder you feel so good after a turkey dinner!)

chicken livers (yes, chicken livers! maybe because they're high in B12)

Of course I don't eat all these things every day! I pick and choose, but I notice a real difference in my mood and feeling of well being when at least one of these items is somewhere on the menu.
And at times when I start feeling down I stop and realize that I have actually forgotten to include at least one or two of these foods for a few days in my diet.Then I start having them again and feel normal again within a day!

I really hope that this will help somebody else to be free of the helpless, hopeless, utterly horrible feeling of severe depression.

Medication would be my last resort. But if you have to have anti-depressants then you will have to have them.


All the best to you.


Edited to add that care should be taken when taking any medication not prescribed. Herbal preparations can interact with other medications and advice MUST be sought. Even cranberry juice can interact with some medications such as wafarin. Funtrivia.com can take no responsibility for suggestions made by members. Please seek professional advice.

Don't be sorry, please keep this one going as it's always going to be relevant and new people will keep arriving and see it.
That looks like good advice based on your personal experience, and I'll add that any chemical additives and others like trans fats, artificial colours and aspartame in food will affect people one way or another and cutting them out, and going organic wherever possible can only help as they won't allow anything unnecessary in food.

Yes, absolutely! I am big on avoiding food additives of all kinds and I eat drug-free meats whenever I can get them.And, Aspartame is one of the many things that give me migraine headaches, which has been another huge nightmare of a problem in my life; but I won't even get started on that one!

The sad thing is that the people who are sick and incapacitated have the added burden of trying to figure all this out for themselves. The medical institutions are only just beginning to concern themselves with some of these"invisible" yet devastating conditions.

I am grateful to all the people who feel compassionate towards those of us in such predicaments.

hi all

i get a daily mail from eft [seems to take care of everything which puts it in the very questionable list but real people seem to be reporting cures from a brief 10 minute or so tapping--most of the time brief)
because i downloaded a free (think it was 87 pages) how to do booklet.

reading this material is fascinating. tapping on various portions of (chinese meridians i believe) seems to do wonders from everything from ptsd (i go to a group focused on this at the veterans home) to just about anything.

i am thinking of buying the dvd/cd about how to do it (visual stuff) just to see for myself (after i reup for mensa--all my money goes for cost of care except a small return and i have to be careful of my expenditures).\

anyway, my post here is not to advertise on behalf of eft but rather to ask if anybody here has actually tried it and if so, with what results. thank you.

i sure hope i haven't violated any rules here by the above post.
if i have just delete and if i see it here still i will figure it was ok and etc. thanks for reading

hi all
almost forgot--in my downloading of stuff i printed out for today's reading was an article (sorry i don't have it in front of me--my nurse has it) there was a fascinating article about the ability to delete one single memory without harm to one's other memories (which would seem a possible answer to ptsd and perhaps other areas?

anybody else know about this? (i hope.)

hi all
ok here is source:
joseph ledoux of the center for neural sciences in new york university and his colleagues

question was:
could the transfer of one specific memory be meddled with without affecting others?

procedure was:
trained rats to fear 2 different musical tones--played at same time as giving the rats an electric shock.

half the rats given a drug causing limited amnesia (won't say what) which is not approved for people use) and reminded the animals [half still under the influence of the drug above] of one of the fearful memories by replaying just one of the tones.

testing with both tones a day later, untreated animals were still fearful of both sounds (as if expecting a shock).

but those treated with the drug were no longer afraid of the tone reminded of under treatment.

the process had wiped out that memory completely, while leaving their memory of tone number 2 intact.

the team also confirmed the idea that a part of the brain called the amygdala is central to the communication between neurons here and the same increases when a fearful memory forms but decreases in treated rats (shows fearful memory is actually deleted and not simply a breakage of the link between the fearful response and the memory of it.)

thus the conclusion: vets and others

(actually the ladies often have ptsd more frequently than vets even--i am sure you can think of multiple reasons why this might be true-- i hope few of you all have experienced anything remotely like this!)

may in some future date may be given a version of this drug as an adjunct to therapy (cognitive therapy is often suggested and maybe eft?--see above for my bit on that).

this could be a major part of future therapy in psychiatry.

thanks to a few scared rats.

i know, i know, it is not kind to these rats (but these are not being slaughtered like those dolphins and the results could be excellent for many suffering human beings.)

please feel free to post rebuttals and comments etc. i have had my say, now is your turn.