What techniques do you guys use to get rid of anxiety or depression without meds?
01-10-2016, 10:17 PM
I'll throw in my $.02, as I have particular personal interest in this topic.
IMHO, there is no panacea for something like depression. Most likely the causes are multivariate. As others point out on this thread, adequate and restful sleep is undoubtedly huge. So is stress and self-esteem (the *real kind.)
* What I mean by self-esteem is this: if you don't do anything productive or meaningful for the majority of your life, you should feel like shit cause you 'aint doin' shit.
But all of that aside, I'll focus on the dietary aspects of depression and how you can treat it
We got two main fronts when it comes to diet and depression: nutritional deficiency and systemic inflammation.
Vitamin D deficiency, and a diet bereft of adequate healthy saturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids are key contributors to not just Depression but a host of other health problems.
Worse yet, in our inverted mass media mind controlled society, all of the foods we are told are "healthy" are exactly the opposite. All the low fat, non-fat, "cholesterol free" processed foods not only fail to provide the vitally important fat soluble vitamins, they actually cause your body to deplete it's stores of what you do have when you keep consuming them.
Eat lots of wholesome sourced saturated fats. Meat, dairy, eggs and fat from pastured free range (grass fed) animals are best. Grass fed/free range beef, bison, chickens, pigs, goat, lamb, kangaroo or yak. Any ruminant that eats grass.
Get as much mid day sunshine as your skin can handle without getting burned, and without using any sunscreen. That's your best source of Vitamin D, period.
Eat lots of fatty fish rich in Omega 3 fatty acids in EPA and DHA form. This is the best treatment for systemic inflammation caused by eating too much Omega 6 fatty acids (mostly found in abundance in processed foods), as well as from too much sugar.
Speaking of which, cut out sugar and any processed foods.
Don't eat any foods made with modern processed vegetable oils, as they also contribute to inflammation. Soybean (often labelled "vegetable oil," Rapeseed (often labelled "Canola oil"), Corn, Cotton seed, and even non-extra virgin olive oil are all inflammatory. Most are also mass extracted from the plant material by boiling in the solvent Hexane...which is most assuredly not natural nor healthy.
Ignore vegan/vegetarian propaganda about seed vegetable sources of Omega 3s like hemp, sunflower, flax etc. Those are in the form of ALA and the human body has a very hard time using ALA. Animals like chickens, cows, buffalo, fish and pigs eat ALA sources omega 3s and convert it into EPA and DHA and store it in their fats.
Do cook with and eat lots of healthy oils like Extra Virgin olive, coconut, avocado, macadamia nut, or other non-GMO oils. Avoid all hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils.
Bone broth soups and stock for sauces and gravy made from the boiled bones of grass fed animals. In addition to Omega 3's stored in the fat, also has a wealth of other beneficial nutrients like glutiathone, methianone, collagen, etc.
Another good thing that is often overlooked with diet, is minerals. More importantly, find a good source of unprocessed sea salt (pink himalayan is starting to get really popular). Fresh ground sea salt makes all your food taste better and gives you all the trace elements and minerals your body needs. Never mind the "salt gives you high blood pressure" propaganda.
Once you change your diet to incorporate all the nutrient dense foods and you stop consuming the nutrient depleting and deficient foods, you should start to feel better.
That being said, once you're properly fueled, the next best step is to get active and do something ANYTHING that makes you sweat and also makes you release adrenaline and sweat out bad shit (I hate the term "toxins" as it's overused by quacks and bullshit "cleansing" gurus) from your lymphatic system. Your activity you choose needs to make you give your maximum possible exertion of energy and physically exhausts you when you're done. Then eat good after your exhaustion, then get good sleep.
TL;DR
The best way to combat depression is:
*Eat clean
*Exercise
*Get mid day sunlight exposure
*Get good sleep
It's not an overnight cure, but it is the only true one you'll get. Pharma meds are just a means of addressing the symptoms and not fixing the root problem of eating shitty, not exercising properly, and not getting good sunlight. Fix those three, and you'll most likely fix any sleep and stress issues you over the long term.
