The New Truth About Depression

Adult Children Of Alcoholics are likely to fall prey to depression at one time or another. Newly uncovered evidence indicates that people with depression do NOT have low levels of serotonin! And the most effective treatment for depression costs nothing but the drug companies will not tell you about it.

In the video below, Dr. Mercola interviews Pulitzer Prize nominee Robert Whitaker. Whitaker is the author of "Mad in America" and "Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America".




Whitaker points out that in the US in 1985, 600 million dollars was spent on psychiatric medications. This has now grown to over 40 billion dollars per year.

According to the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one in 20 Americans are depressed. Long-term studies indicate that of people with major depression, only about 15 percent that are treated with an antidepressant go into remission and stay well for a long period of time. The remaining 85 percent start having continuing relapses and become chronically depressed.

It has been widely accepted that depression is due to a “chemical imbalance in your brain,” which drugs are designed to correct. Unfortunately, this is NOT a scientific statement.

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“The low serotonin theory arose because they understood how the drugs acted on the brain,” Whitaker explains.
“But it was just a hypothesis borne to try to explain why the drug might be fixing something. In 1983, NIMH concluded that there is no evidence that there is anything wrong in the serotonergic system of depressed patients. And this was before Prozac was released. So there was never evidence that people with depression characteristically had low levels of serotonin."

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There is also a risk that long term drug use for treatment of depression may even cause cognitive decline.

Studies on exercise as a treatment for depression are also showing that there is a strong correlation between improved mood and aerobic capacity. One study conducted by Duke University in the late 1990’s divided depressed patients into three treatment groups:

*Exercise only

*Exercise plus antidepressant

*Antidepressant drug only

After six weeks, the drug-only group was doing slightly better than the other two groups. However, after 10 months of follow-up, it was the exercise-only group that had the highest remission and stay-well rate!

British doctors now actually write prescriptions for exercise their depressed patients. Since 2007, the rate of British doctors prescribing exercise for depression has increased from about 4 percent to about 25 percent.

Check out the Orange County ACA website at: Orange County Adult Children

Amino Acids Help ADD, Depression

I have suffered with ADD throughout my life. As a child I became a sugar and chocolate junky to help myself feel better and be able to better concentrate. I'd start the day with my favorite sugar sweetened cereal, eat more junk at lunch and "mainline" Hershey's chocolate syrup, sucking it straight from the container as soon as I got home from school.

I would also gorge on high carb foods like potato chips, other starches and candy bars to give myself a mental "boost". Powdered Nestle's Quick I enjoyed eating from it's box with a spoon, not bothering to mix it with milk.

And it did "help". With all that sugar and chocolate stimulating my system, I was mentally alert and had very fast recall. Problem was, I couldn't sit still, focus on anything for extended periods and would blurt out creative, "wiseguy" answers in class. This would crack people up, which was my goal and my reward. It also disrupted the lesson which did not gain me the favor of my teacher.

At night I would often have nightmares which I never had any recall of the next day. My family would hear me screaming and thrashing about in my bed. I attribute this to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) as my body overproduced insulin to try and regulate all the sugar I was pouring in.

I've also struggled with bouts of depression from time to time.

Over the years, I've tried reading books on nutrition, nutritional therapy, food allergy treatments, acupuncture, natural supplements and prescription drugs to try and alleviate my ADD. All this has been quite expensive. Until now, acupuncture is the only treatment that had some positive effect.

I recently began using a product called "Neu Becalm'd" from a company called Neurogenesis. It is a natural amino acid mix and actually helps me feel better and focus. It is available online. The two main active ingredients seem to be D-L Phenylanaline and L-Glutamine. They recommend taking it up to 3 times a day.

A less expensive solution is to buy these amino acids separately at a health food store. In Neu Becalm'd the ratio is 1 part L-Glutamine (300 mg) to 2 parts D-L Phenylanaline (600 mg). Make sure you get D-L Phenylanaline and not "L- Phenylanaline".

If you decide to try it, give it a few days and see if you notice any difference. For me they were subtle but significant. And there should be no side effects. Don't eat for at least 30 minutes after taking.

Hope it helps you as much as it has me.

-Craig


For more info I recommend the book, : "Overload: Attention Deficit Disorder And The Addictive Brain" by David Miller and Kenneth Blum, Ph.D.

It was a bit of a revelation. I learned that:

*Addicts, their offspring and those with ADHD and ADD may be born with a predisposition to abnormal neurotransmitter levels, leading to sensitivity, discomfort, anxiety and pain.

*Some symptoms of ADD and ADHD parallel the "Common Characteristics" of ACOAs.

*Many people with ADHD are children of alcoholics and ADHD is common in the relatives of ADHD children.

You can read more about this here:

The Reward Deficiency Syndrome

The ACA ADD Connection Pt. 4

The ACA ADD Connection Pt. 3

The ACA ADD Connection Pt. 2

The ACA ADD Connection


Check out the Orange County ACA website at: Orange County Adult Children