The Simple Guide to Eating for Depression Recovery & Prevention

February 9, 2015 by Amy 

When we’re depressed, the last thing we want to do is reach for a stalk of broccoli.

We want rich, creamy, stick-to-your-ribs foods that’ll make us feel like we’re wrapped in a soft cuddly blanky. The problem is that most of those foods bring with them a host of negative health issues, many of which can cause you to hold onto that soft, cuddly blanky around your midsection long after the depression has receded!

We’ve all heard the phrase, “You are what you eat,” right? Well, for those of us who struggle with depression, it’s something we need to take to heart. Eating the wrong kinds of foods can make our symptoms worse (or if you’re on the mend, invite depression right back in again), while eating the right ones can help us rise out of the darkness and/or prevent it from coming back!

Today, we’re going over a simple guide to eating for depression recovery and prevention. We’ll go over the foods you should definitely stay away from, the scientifically-proven ones you should add more of, and some of my favorite recipes to get these depression-lifters into your everyday diet.

We’re big on choices here at Strong Inside Out. Today, I’m providing you with the knowledge so that you can make the informed choice to feel better, or know what your actions mean if you don’t.

First of all, we need to cover what you should definitely stay away from so that your depression doesn’t get worse.

Danger, Depressives!

The following are ingredients that, as a trainer, I’d recommend you stay away from, period, whether you’re depressed or not. They’re even bigger no-no’s if you’ve been diagnosed with the big D.

Avoid these foods most of the time:

• Refined sugars
• Processed grains
• Trans fats
• Sodas (regular and diet)

The Why:

Foods that cause inflammation in the body like those listed above have been linked to depression. In fact, a recent study showed that people who ate a lot of these foods and not a lot of inflammation-calming foods (like coffee, olive oil and green leafy veggies) were up to 41% more likely to be diagnosed with depression!

Stack the odds in your favor. Don’t give depression any more power by avoiding these ingredients most of the time! You don’t have to swear them off for life, but these aren’t foods you want to eat every single day.

Get Your Nom On

Now, on to the good stuff. Let’s go over foods that will help you rise up out of depression that much faster by supporting your brain’s serotonin production and receptors!

Below, you’ll find recommended nutrient power houses for depressives. We’ll go over why they’re beneficial and then a delicious comfort food recipe so you can take action on your happiness immediately!

Omega-3’s

In three different studies, Omega-3’s were shown to be helpful in reducing depression symptoms in adults and children. A daily supplement is what I typically recommend, but why not get it in your daily diet as well? The easiest way to do so is to eat oily fish like salmon, mackerel, trout or sardines (in moderation because of mercury levels). If you’re not into the fish thing, flax seeds or walnuts can do the trick.

Salmon Burgers with Yogurt-Tartar Sauce from Whole Living

These super-yummy, super-healthy burgers offer a much-needed break from the typical beef burger on a white bun. These babies have a Greek spin that makes them just different enough to be exciting, but not too different to make picky eaters turn their noses up at them.

I recommend using a gluten-free brown rice bun (without added sugars and minimal additives) or just wrapping them in lettuce. You could also put these over a salad or a hearty bowl of quinoa mixed with feta, red onions and olives. Nom nom nom…

Read the full recipe here!

Folate

You usually hear about folate when discussing pre-natal vitamins, but this nutrient is another great one for depressives, man and woman alike. Two European studies showed that men who were low in folate were more likely to be depressed. Let’s not play with fire. Be sure to get enough of this nutrient from these sources: beans like lentils and black eyed peas; leafy greens like spinach, endive and romaine; asparagus; and fruits like mango and oranges.

Lentil Spinach Soup from The Garden Grazer (vegan)

This hearty, vegan soup is chock-full of folate. With lentils and spinach, this meal-worthy soup will warm you up even when you’re feeling less-than-stellar. Definitely comfort-food worthy, but without the guilt!

Read the full recipe here!

Tryptophan + Vitamin B6

Don’t wait for Thanksgiving to stock up on this depression-busting nutrient! Tryptophan combined with a little Vitamin B6 can actually turn into serotonin (the neurotransmitter that makes happy happen) in the brain. The combination of the 2 is what’s key; without the B6, the Tryptophan will have a hard time getting into the brain at all. Bring them together in your diet by eating foods like chicken, eggs or nuts, or pairing turkey, fish, cottage cheese, eggs or beans with green leafies, legumes, peas or sunflower seeds.

California Chicken, Veggie, Avocado and Rice Bowl by Half Baked Harvest

This yummy bowl has tryptophan galore! I’d give this recipe a few tweaks to make it a little healthier and depression-busting. Substitute quinoa, brown rice or sautéed leafy greens for the white rice, and add a chopped up hard-boiled egg on top and take out all but 2 tablespoons of the blue cheese. The result: a yummy, filling, warm bowl of flavor that’s bound to become a staple in your weekly meal prep!

Read the full recipe here!

There are a ton of healthy options out there for us to start feeling better sooner than later. Other nutrient rockstars that help you become more resilient to depression include:

• Vitamin B12 (in animal protein and eggs)
• Coffee (!!!)
• Antioxidants (like those you get from berries and brightly colored fruits and veggies)
• Vitamin D (get thee outside!)
• Selenium (from lean meat, seafood, beans and nuts)

Basically, the optimal diet for people who struggle with depression is full of colorful fruits and veggies, lean meats, oily fish, nuts and a moderate amount of non-inflammatory whole grains (and only if your body tolerates them well).

So there it is, Strongie. All laid out for you clear as day.

Now that you know what to do to start feeling better, what choice will you make? Reading about the optimal diet to fight depression is one thing. Taking action to change your own life is quite another.

Before you get overwhelmed, know this: change doesn’t have to mean a complete overhaul. You can implement simple, small changes one at a time which will add up to a cumulative lifestyle change.

You’re worth the work it takes to feel better. If you don’t choose the actions that will allow you to lead a happier, healthier life, who will?

You can do this. Start now and never look back.

Stay strong,
Amy

source: http://stronginsideout.com/guide-to-eating-for-depression/

Happy World Mental Health Day

7 Ways Depressed People Love Differently

By Laura Lifshitz

Remember: It's complicated, but it's not about you.

I'm so thankful to not be depressed. Depression might just be one of the worst things ever because it's as if you're sinking no matter how hard you try to swim to the surface. It's as if you're bound and gagged and no matter what knife you use to slice the bounds, you can't.

I'm what they call a bubbly, effervescent woman, but I've experienced depression in my life. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 14.8 million American adults have Major Depressive Disorder per year. That's a lot of people.

So, whether you've been depressed for a few days, during a traumatic incident or breakup, for months or years, or perhaps you haven't been depressed but know someone who has, chances are you've loved someone with depression before. Or been the depressed lover, as it were.

Here are some ways your depressed lover may love you differently than another:

1. We will sometimes emotionally retreat.

Depression is a tricky beast. Your lover may retreat from you due to no fault of your own in order to come with some pretty sad feelings, only to randomly return. And sometimes it may seem as if there's no rhyme or reason to this pattern.

Know this: it's not your fault. Your partner may retreat simply so you don't have to deal with his or her unpleasant feelings and return when the person feels able to give him or herself without dumping a rainy parade on your head. It's best to give your depressed partner the room to retreat as long as he or she can return without serious intervention.

If your partner is retreating to succumb to a dangerous level of depression, this is when you need to step in. One should only be allowed to wallow for so long before it becomes a huge issue.

2. We may not want sex as often as we used to.

A depressed lover may need less sex because he or she has a low sex drive, or your "blue" mate may seek out more sex to fulfill washing away that sad and dull feeling courtesy of depression. The former scenario is more common than the latter, but quite a few depressed lovers seek sex as therapeutic and will want a lot of touch, foreplay, and sex.

This is fine as long as the person isn't seeking it outside of the relationship or to avoid dealing with uncomfortable feelings like a sex addiction. On the flip side, if your depressed partner doesn't want to have sex this can be very hard on you. Talk to your partner openly about this and pay attention to your despondent lover's bedroom habits.

3. We may seek out a shoulder to cry on that isn't you.

Back in the day when I felt depressed, I had people I went to because I felt comfortable speaking to them about my lethargic mood. Your lover may decide this is you ... or not. Don't be mad. As long as your partner has someone to confide in so he or she can get past this down mood swing, that's the most important.

It would be nice if this person was you but perhaps it's better for your better half to unload on someone else — that way you don't feel as if the relationship is more of a therapy-patient scenario.

4. We will experience mood swings.

I have friends and have dated men whose depression seemed to come out of nowhere, like some terroristic mood attack on their brains. Don't be surprised if your partner is happy-go-lucky one minute and then the next day, slowly sinking into the fog of depression.

Sudden mood swings between elation and lows could be manic depression, and that's not when I'm talking about. A depressed partner may seem fine and then start to drift into a sad state. Doing things to keep your partner active and less-stressed is key, but most importantly, your partner should be able to recognize the impending depression and trying to prevent being bogged down in its claws.

But if someone is severely depressed, he or she is going to have an immensely hard time doing that. You'll have to be patient if you want to deal with this.

5. We are empathetic toward others with mental health problems.

Your depressed paramour will most likely be an empathetic and kind lover. Knowing what it's like to deal with a mental health issue, your partner has a different outlook on life than Miss Mary Sunshine, which is a good thing — as long as the person isn't emo 24/7.

6. We are great listeners.

A depressed lover can be a great listener simply because he or she has spent so many hours attentively listening to the sad and not-so sad voices in his or her head, dueling out reason. Your depressed lover will want to be by your side, as he or she knows how hard it is for anyone to understand his or her own dark thoughts.

7. We can be selfish sometimes.

On the flip side, your great listener/depressed partner can sometimes be selfish. He or she doesn't mean to be, but depression has this nasty way of making you feel as if it's just you locked in your own world, with your own morbid thoughts. It's hard to see someone else's perspective when trapped in your insular world of depression.

No matter how sad or blue your partner is today, be a supportive partner and see the value in your lover's life experiences. And chances are, this depression too shall pass.

source: www.yourtango.com

7 Mental Illness Myths People Still Believe

Can we all just stop?

Lindsay Holmes    Healthy Living Editor, The Huffington Post    09/02/2015 

Mental illness stigma can lead to a multitude of false beliefs -- and it's about time to set the record straight. Negative stereotypes create a lot of misconceptions, which further alienate people in a community that already feels isolated.

The many fallacies that surround mental health disorders can make managing them all the more difficult -- after all, research suggests stigma acts as a barrier to treatment. Below are just a few of the myths no one should believe about mental illness.

Myth 1: It's contagious.

To bust this myth, it's important to understand the difference between feelings and mental health disorders. Mental illness sufferers experience a spectrum of emotions, but this is a byproduct of brain chemistry and other possible factors that led to a diagnosis.

Though studies suggest that emotions -- particularly stressful ones -- are contagious, mental illness is not. It does not operate the same as the cold or flu, circulating through a scientific process of spreading germs.

Despite this knowledge, many people still believe mental illness can be spread. A 2014 paper published in the journal Memory & Cognition found that people believe mental illness can be communicable from one person to another. This belief is unfounded and most certainly false, not to mention it could also lead to feelings of isolation for those who have mental illness.

Myth 2: Mental illness is an indication of violence.

Many people still blame mental illness for horrific tragedies like the recent shooting of two journalists in Virginia, perpetuating a stigma that's not easy to shed. But here's the reality: A mental health disorder does not mean that someone is going to commit a violent act. In fact, a 2014 study found that people with mental health issues are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than the ones committing them.

Myth 3: It's uncommon.

Wrong. Approximately one in four people worldwide will experience a mental health issue at some point in their life. That makes it very likely that someone you know will suffer from a psychological disorder.

Myth 4: Mental illness is "all in your head."

There's still a common belief in society that someone with anxiety can "just calm down" or someone with depression can "snap out of it," as if they can choose to have an episode come or go. That's simply not true. There are very real physical symptoms. Someone who suffers from depression may see changes in appetite, headaches and indigestion and someone who experiences anxiety may endure cardiovascular problems, stomach issues and a weakened immune system.

Myth 5: You can't recover from mental health issues.

Mental illness isn't one-size-fits-all, which means treatment varies for everyone. Therapy, medications and outside support are all useful tools in managing a mental health disorder and helping an individual lead a healthy and productive life.

"Depression is a treatable disorder," HuffPost's mental health editor Lloyd Sederer, the medical director of the New York State Office of Mental Health, wrote in a blog last year. "Like any serious illness, it takes comprehensive, ongoing, scientifically based care, an effective working patient-clinician relationship, and the support and patience of loving others."

Myth 6: Mental illness stems from a bad childhood.

Life circumstances certainly can play a role, but other factors also have an influence on mental health disorders. Take anxiety, for example: "It's not that having a difficult childhood is completely unrelated, but having a difficult childhood can be related to all kinds of things, not just anxiety," Joseph Bienvenu, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University, previously told HuffPost. "Some people have great childhood and still have anxiety."

Research suggests that some mental health disorders may be caused by chemical imbalances in the body. Seasonal Affective Disorder, which affects nearly 10 million people at certain points of the year, fluctuates based on seasonal changes.

Myth 7: You can't help someone suffering from a mental health disorder.

Loved ones are paramount in helping someone with a mental illness get treatment. According to a recent nationwide mental health analysis, social support plays a large role when it comes to intervening or preventing suicide.

"It requires a little reflection and thought to be supportive," Gregory Dalack, chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, previously told HuffPost. "Family members, friends and significant others have an opportunity to help in a way that's not judgmental -- even if it's just helping them get to appointments, take medications or stick to a daily routine."

source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Depression and illness: Chicken or egg?

When depression strikes, doctors usually probe what’s going on in the mind and brain first. But it’s also important to check what’s going on in the body, since certain medical problems are linked to mood disturbances. In fact, medical illnesses — and medication side effects — may be behind nearly 10% to 15% of all cases of depression.

It’s not uncommon for a physical illness to trigger depression. Up to half of heart attack survivors and those with cancer report feeling blue, and many are diagnosed with depression. Many people who have diabetes, Parkinson’s, or other chronic conditions become depressed.

It works in the other direction, too. Depression can affect the course of a physical disease. Take heart disease—depression has been linked with slower recovery from a heart attack and an increased risk for future heart trouble.

Here’s another chicken-or-egg example. Two common thyroid disorders are well known to affect mood. If the thyroid makes too much hormone (hyperthyroidism), manic symptoms can result. If the gland makes too little thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism), exhaustion and depression can appear. Treating thyroid disease can often relieve the mood problems.

The list doesn’t stop there. Other medical conditions associated with mood disorders include certain neurological conditions (multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s), other hormonal imbalances, and some nutritional deficiencies, such as a lack of vitamin B12.

The take-home message is that if you have depression, or think you might, a thorough physical exam and careful medical history could help pinpoint a physical source of the problem—and the most appropriate treatment.

August 18, 2015

source: www.health.harvard.edu

How Friendship Fights Depression

A new study shows that a healthy mood can spread through friend groups.

The Atlantic Daily newsletter     JULIE BECK  AUG 19, 2015

“As everyone knows, depressed people are some of the most boring people in the world,” Mindy Kaling writes in her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? “I know this because when I was depressed, people fled. Except my best friends.”

In a section titled “Best Friend Rights and Responsibilities,” she vows, “If you’re depressed, I will be there for you … I will be there for you during your horrible break-up, or getting fired from your job, or if you’re just having a bad couple of months or year. I will hate it and find you really tedious, but I promise I won’t abandon you.”

Having a relationship with someone who’s depressed can be difficult. It’s hard to hear a friend say negative things about herself; it’s hard to know how to help. These are among the more noble reasons people might have—or they may just not want to be brought down themselves by spending time with someone who’s depressed.

There’s an idea out there that you can “catch” depression, that it’s contagious. (One self-help book unequivocally declares in its title that Depression Is Contagious.) Some research supports this idea—one study found that depressive symptoms tended to appear in clusters in social networks, and another found depressive thought patterns spread between college roommates (though positive thinking spread as well).

But a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B challenges that notion. Depression doesn’t spread, it found, but a healthy mood does. The researchers looked at data from more than 2,000 high-school students who took a survey of depression symptoms, and who also reported who their friends were, over a period of six to 12 months. Kids who initially scored as clinically depressed did not “infect” their friends, but if they had enough friends who had what the study called a “healthy mood” (in that they didn’t meet the criteria for depression), that doubled their chances of recovering from their depression. And for people who weren’t depressed in the first place, having enough mentally healthy friends halved their chances of developing depression.

“Your friends can protect you from depression and help you recover from it.”

That’s a pretty large effect, and supports previous research saying that high-quality social relationships lower people’s risk of depression.

Thomas House, one of the study authors and a senior lecturer in applied mathematics at the University of Manchester, says he believes this model has an advantage over the studies that find clusters. When you find clusters of friends who are depressed, it’s possible there’s a third factor at play—maybe “they're all heavily drinking or they’re all doing something else that makes them more predisposed to depression,” House says. “Our method wasn't susceptible to that because we looked at direct changes of state. We were pretty much directly observing this process of your friend influencing you. And the nice conclusion that we got was that your friends can protect you from depression and help you recover from it.”

That’s if mentally healthy people are there for their depressed friends, which could be easier said than done. Even if you can’t actually catch depression, that’s not to say spending time with a depressed friend doesn’t take its toll. As the cartoonist Allie Brosh, of the site Hyperbole and a Half, wrote in her astute comic about depression, “It's weird for people who still have feelings to be around depressed people. They try to help you have feelings again so things can go back to normal, and it's frustrating for them when that doesn't happen.”

“We’re not saying you have no negative effect on your friends’ mood but just that it’s not enough to push them into really full clinical depression,” House says.

And people suffering from depression may be inclined to withdraw anyway, to retreat and ruminate alone. That can be exacerbated by their friends’ misguided attempts to cheer them up.

“People want to help,” Brosh writes. “So they try harder to make you feel hopeful and positive about the situation … The positivity starts coming out in a spray—a giant, desperate happiness sprinkler pointed directly at your face. And it keeps going like that until you're having this weird argument where you're trying to convince the person that you are far too hopeless for hope just so they'll give up on their optimism crusade and let you go back to feeling bored and lonely by yourself.”

One theory of social support and depression suggests that whether relationships have a positive effect depends on whether the person feels like the relationship is meeting their basic psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This article gives the example of friends helping a depressed person with chores and errands. That could make the person feel better, but only if he sees it as an expression of love, rather than something that’s taking away his control over his own life.

We don’t know the details of the friendships in this new study—exactly what they talked about around the cafeteria table, what gestures were made, which were appreciated. But nonetheless, it seems that just being there was enough to have ripples.

source: www.theatlantic.com

Why Depression Needs a New Definition

The Disturbing Relationship Between Sleep, Depression and Suicide

At least 3/4 of clinically depressed people struggle with sleep,
and insomnia is a well-proven risk factor for suicide.

By Theresa Fisher / Van Winkle's August 18, 2015

Original published by Van Winkle's, a new website dedicated to smarter sleep & wakefulness, published by Casper.

This past March, Graham Mitchell, a 48-year-old British psychiatric nurse, hanged himself in his garden. During the subsequent inquest, family members expressed surprise at Mitchell’s decision to commit suicide, as reported by the Macclesfield Express. They knew Mitchell’s mental health had deteriorated, as he’d become noticeably depressed in the wake of a few personal setbacks. During the weeks before his death, Mitchell’s sister said he seemed shell-shocked.

But the inquest revealed issues of which Mitchell’s family was unaware, including his longtime struggle with chronic insomnia. In recent years, his shift-work schedule had apparently amplified his battle with rest.

The story mentioned Mitchell’s insomnia several times, but didn’t flesh out the dialectical relationship between disturbed sleep, mental disorders and suicide, perhaps understandably.

For more than a hundred years, experts have recognized interrelated connections between sleep, depression and suicide: At least three-quarters of clinically depressed people struggle with sleep, and insomnia is a well-proven risk factor for suicide across different cultures and age groups. Moreover, sleep disturbances increase the likelihood of non-depressed people becoming depressed. We don’t yet have any tidy divine theory to tie these pieces together, but researchers are working hard to get us there.

Doctors have treated poor sleep as a hallmark symptom of mental disorders for the better part of the last century. The Diagnostic Statistic Manual (DSM), first introduced in 1952 and now in its fifth edition, is used to diagnose all mental disorders. Since 1994, the DSM has explicitly instructed doctors and therapists to ask about irregular sleeping patterns in diagnosing depression.

An emerging school of thought, however, frames the relationship between sleep and depression differently. Non-depressed people who sleep poorly for a long period of time have an increased risk of developing clinical-grade blues. This progression suggests that not sleeping may contribute to the onset of mood disorders that might otherwise lay dormant.

Depression rarely boils down to any single factor. Instead, the abstruse disease rears its head thanks to some combination of genes, environmental factors and personal experiences. Increasingly, experts are seeing disrupted sleep as part of the recipe.

“In many cases, we often see insomnia and then later on, depression follows,” said Dr. Peter Meerlo, a behavioral physiologist at the University of Groningen who focuses on the relationship between the brain and sleep. “This doesn’t in itself yet prove that there’s a causal relationship. It still may be that disrupted sleep and mood disturbances are both a result of some third underlying process, but [the observed relationship] has at least put the issue on the map.”

Meerlo uses rodents to study the sleep-depression relationship. He’s seen changes in the brains of chronically sleep-deprived mice analogous to those in depressed human patients. Among other changes, Meerlo has observed the generation of new neurons — a process called neurogenesis — in specific brain regions critical to cognitive processes and emotion regulation. He’s also seen reduced volume in the hippocampus, a change observed in depressed patients that's considered an important signifier of clinical depression.

The theory underlying Meerlo’s research depicts depression as a disease of plasticity rather than biochemistry. The current biochemistry model identifies low serotonin levels as the neural basis of depression. A plasticity-based explanation, however, focuses on the way nerve cells are wired, which informs how brain regions communicate with one another. Attempts to clarify the function of sleep — still an enormous mystery — have also increasingly focused on plasticity. The most popular modern theory, explained Meerlo, says sleep functions to strengthen connections between nerve cells (plasticity).

“Depression theory and sleep theory are meeting now,” said Meerlo, “so the way disrupted sleep affects depression is by impairing plasticity and the connections between brain regions.”

Yes, discussion of neurogenesis is the sort of inside baseball neuroscience that makes most people’s eyes glaze over. But, the implications of these brain changes are fairly concrete.

“It could change our view on treatment,” said Meerlo, “because many drugs now used to treat depression aren’t really helping you sleep better. In fact, some make it worse. So, we want to see the development of drugs that not only target aspects of mood disorders, but also target and improve sleep.”

But it's not all about drugs. Understanding the sleep-mood relationship can also help us fine-tune non-pharmaceutical treatment methods, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), an increasingly popular, seemingly effective and low-cost path to better rest.

Presumably, Mitchell was severely depressed when he hanged himself. And, in some way, insomnia played a role in his despondence — perhaps as a symptom, an exacerbating factor, a cause, or some combination of the three.

His tragic situation is hardly unique. Experts have called attention to the troubling insomnia-suicide link since at least 1914, when opthalmic surgeon Ernest Pronger penned an editorial in the Lancet lamenting the frequent mention of insomnia in news reports of suicide. “Probably if all the cases in all the papers were collected,” he wrote, “we should find that annually very great wastage of human life from this cause alone goes on which might to a great extent be prevented.”

Now consider what Meerlo describes as the ultimate paradox: While long-term insomnia and depression go hand-in-hand, short-term sleep deprivation is used as a last-ditch effort to revive suicidal patients.

“While evidence is accumulating that chronically insufficient sleep may be a causal factor that increases the risk for depression,” wrote Meerlo in the preface to his new book on sleep and neuronal plasticity, “once people are depressed, many of them respond positively to a night of sleep deprivation. Although this phenomenon seems contradictory, it clearly underscores the importance of sleep-related processes in the regulation and dysregulation of mood.”

How could short-term sleep deprivation curb anguish if long-term deprivation might both cause and exacerbate it? We don’t really know.

“It’s a rather acute effect,” said Meerlo. “Most of the drugs now being used to treat depression only become effective after weeks, and sleep deprivation can work after a single night.”

The confusing remedy isn’t a new discovery, but decades of research haven’t done much to clear the fog.

“The downside of treatment is that it works very fast but it’s also short-lasting, so in most cases, when people go to sleep again the next night, there’s an immediate relapse in depression.”

But here’s one theory: Sleep-deprived people get hyper-emotional. Severely depressed people, however, tend to be hypo-emotional — they fall into a state of steady, rudderless sadness. Sleep-deprivation therapy may work, at least in part, by temporarily restoring emotional reactivity stolen by depression.

“In healthy people,” Meerlo said, “sleep deprivation causes hyper activity in the amygdala, making us emotionally unstable and disinhibited, but in depressed patients who have hypoemotionality, sleep deprivation simply has the same effect, just starting at a lower level.”

As more research takes place and the fog continues to lift on the tangled relationship between sleep, mental illness and suicide, scientists and doctors will hopefully be able to make sense of tragedies like Michell’s before it's too late.

source: www.alternet.org

some days

I'll bet most people get the impression I'm "living the dream".
Unfortunately, some days the dream seems really more like a nightmare.

Many days I am able to put on my brave face, think positively and live a relatively "normal" life.

Some days I am in a prison of tears and blackness.
Insecurities get the best of me, and I struggle to escape.

When you struggle with depression, it's not something that you want to share.
Who wants to be with someone who suffers like that? Not a very attractive feature.
But this is me. It's not a part of me I'm proud of or want to focus on ... but it's part of who I am.

It's a battle. Many days I win. Some, not so much.

Today I feel very alone.
My fears and insecurities seem to be winning, and the weight of the world is pressing down on me.

I have no friends here ... no family ... no one ... I am alone and struggling.

I will crawl out of this hole, and writing this helps.

I'll get through it. Everything is temporary...

Today is a day for tears  If you see me today - I could sure use a hug.