Quote: (02-11-2012 05:27 PM)Smitty Wrote:
Work out and get your diet in order. I recommend 5 days/week on the weight and cardio and a gluten and grain free diet. If you remove gluten and wheat from your diet, you'll find your energy levels high and stable.
If you want to take some natural supplements, take N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) and Rhodiola Extract. The combination of both of these will make you feel real stable and positive. Can be bought in any vitamin store.
Most of all, stay away from any bullshit chemicals that a shrink will give you. You don't need to rely on pharmaceuticals. Fuck them.
Actually that is not true for all people. If you have persistent clinical depression, and have a very good doctor who can carefully find the right medication and the right dosage for you, it is a game changer.
Throughout my 20s I suffered 4 separate episodes of clinical depression. I refused to take medication because of irrational fears based on some misleading statistical metanalyses of the clinical efficacy of SSRI/SNRIs, instead exercising even more than I did when I was a competitive swimmer, and bulking up with body building, and going through these awful crash and burn cycles and periods of drug abuse.
The medication I am taking now, and will likely take for the rest of my life or until medical advances render it obselete, enables me to live a normal life, and feel in control of myself, and gives me no noticeable side effects (I'm one of the lucky ones on this count).
Of course antidepressants are overprescribed.
I think it is criminal that a general practicioner precribes these powerful medications to some poor schmuck with a crappy HMO, and has no specialized knowledge of them, and does no follow up.
Not much better are the majority of psychiatrists now. The economics of the godawful clusterfuck of a healthcare system that the USA has, has forced them to structure their practices in such a way that they do 5-10 min visits which are just medication checks, and they in no way engage the patient.
I was able to find a wonderful doctor who does an initial visit of two hours and then subsequent visits on an hour, and combines his extraordinary medical knowledge and experience with a deep patient history and talk therapy.
Definitely has changed my life massively for the better, and for those with moderate to severe persistent clinical depression, medication is a good option.