Quite simply, antidepressants may not be enough to get depression under control. We will discuss adjunctive therapies to add in addition to antidepressants when needed. In many cases, the antidepressants can be eliminated over time.
· Lifestyle management is at the epicenter of functional medicine. Functional medicine is simply attempting to get the body to “function” well. In previous articles we dove into the nutritional aspect of feeding your body the right ingredients to make neurotransmitters and keeping your brain happy. We also need to get the endorphins and oxygen moving with exercise. Keep it simple, and just start walking. If you have the added benefit of exercising in nature, you get to compound the benefits of well-being in one session. Sleep fits right into the lifestyle components and is crucial for “brain washing” to occur. It is at nighttime when we remove the protein byproducts that build up from the day, rather than allowing them to deposit in the brain. We also allow ourselves the proper delta wave and REM (Rapid eye movement) sleep to reset and refresh ourselves for the next day. Our adrenaline and cortisol need to go down at night, and sleep will do that for us. The opposite is true. Those who have a highly processed, junk food, low vegetable, and high sugary diets have poorer mental health than those who eat well-balanced. Piggy-back that with a sedentary lifestyle with off-shift work schedules and poor sleep, these people fare worse with their mental health than those who are active and sleep well.
· Cognitive -Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in the hands of a good psychotherapist can help to work on negative thoughts and negative behaviors that may be sabotaging your improvement. Seeking a therapist that resonates with your reasons for depression is essential. We all bring life events, traumas, health problems, and living circumstances that cause depression. A therapist can help deal and cope and work on those aspects to make cognitive and behavioral changes that will be valuable tools for life.
· Supplements may be considered only if needed and with the guidance of a health professional trained in this. There are precursor molecules, herbal remedies, or vitamins to replace deficiencies that might be used. I emphasize caution here, though, because you can have toxic effects of these as you could with any medication. Plus, there is the concern that your supplements could interfere with your medication. Proceed with professional help in this regard.
· Energetic work includes so many possibilities. The benefits of Qigong, Tai Chi, Yoga, breathing techniques, and energetic tactics are immeasurable. Many of these are free, and you can access teachers and sessions through YouTube, as one example. Groups sessions add in the benefit of being with your tribe. The techniques infuse ancient healing principles of working on the life force flow of energy throughout the body and keeping it balanced. Good energetic flow helps with the resonance of our chemistry. One cannot go without the other. Practitioners of cranio-sacral, sound healing, biofield tuning, massage, chakra balancing, and others know what Master Jesse has stated: “The art of energy healing, simply put, is to manage the frequency and flow within the human body, and to stimulate the body’s innate ability to heal itself.”
· Neurofeedback, and one example of this being LENS Neurofeedback (Low Energy Neurofeedback System), measures then trains the brain over sessions to self-regulate and reset itself after working through some neural snarls or jams. This can be used for other brain “brokenness” in addition to depression. I will emphasize that it is painless, non-invasive, affordable, and appropriate for kids and adults.
· Acupuncture is gaining traction in the Veteran’s Administration with its first successful treatment in PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). And while acupuncture also improves a wide range of symptoms with pain, headaches, and digestive symptoms, veterans are receiving benefits with a multitude of mental health symptoms. This eastern style of management is gaining more of a mainstream following, as it should, because of its help in addition to other modalities. While certain meridians and flow patterns of energy can be improved, we certainly would want to add another non-invasive, affordable, successful treatment to the healing wheel.
· Red Light Therapy brings energy deep into the mitochondria (the cell’s battery packs) and where the brain is concerned, each neuron has hundreds to thousands of mitochondria. Improving the production and efficiency of the mitochondria helps the neurons to work efficiently. When the brain is operating on low-energy mode with poor mood and sluggishness, red light is gaining more research into the benefits for mood disturbances. Red light is also the component in the sunrise and sunset colors in the atmosphere that give us a sense of well-being. If we add in that light therapy helps those with seasonal affect disorder (SAD), by lengthening the time of daylight into the day, we have another non-invasive, physiologic approach that may adjunctively work with your anti-depressants.
Your mental health factors are as individual as the genetic blueprint you have inherited. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but since there are so many failures of antidepressants alone, we must cater plans that will get the body, brain, and spirit to heal and solve the depression battle.
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