healfrmdepress

A recent report in the magazine Science Daily  shows how one can reboot the brain using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.

In my web page on ECT (electroconvulsive therapy), I explained that when all other treatments for depression had failed, inducing a grand mal seizure in the brain seems to reset the brain and restore it to normal functioning, just as we do when we reboot a frozen computer. While ECT has a 90% success rate, it is an invasive procedure that can lead to memory loss. Thus many people suffering from severe depression are reluctant to try ECT.

Now in what I consider a minor breakthrough, scientists have discovered a “gentler ECT” called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. TMS impacts the brain using a magnetic field rather than an electrical shock. TMS can be performed in a doctor’s office, does not require sedation, and does not produce the side effect of memory loss. Thus, it is an ideal treatment to use when medication regimens have failed and a new approach is needed–one that directly impacts the brain’s “electrical field.”

To learn more about TMS and how it might be able to help you or a loved one, click on the image below.

 

In this intriguing article from the British newspaper The Guardian, researchers now believe that depression is an allergic reaction that is a result of inflammation in the body’s immune system. Click below to read more:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/04/depression-allergic-reaction-inflammation-immune-system

 

 

 

I want to share how to use light therapy to heal winter depression. Today is the winter solstice, a time of the shortest day and the longest night. At this time of year, during the winter months, many people experience seasonal mood changes that lead to anxiety and depression. This condition is called seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression. The symptoms of winter depression are:

•  altered sleep patterns, with overall increased amount of sleep;
• difficulty in getting out of bed in the morning and
• getting going;
• increased lethargy and fatigue;
• apathy, sadness and/or irritability;
• increased appetite, carbohydrate craving and weight gain; and
• decreased physical activity.

     Seasonal depression normally begins in October or November and remits in April or May. Researchers believe that Seasonal Affective Disorder is caused by winter’s reduction in daylight hours which desynchronizes the body clock and disturbs the circadian rhythms and serotonin metabolism.

     The way to treat winter depression is through increasing one’s exposure to light. Light therapy helps to restore melatonin, (a hormone that promotes sleep), the neurotransmitter serotonin, and other mood-regulating molecules to their normal cycles and levels of production. This in turn reduces the symptoms of depression as effectively as antidepressant medications.

    Here are some ways to benefit from light therapy:

• Each morning, expose yourself to bright artificial light using light boxes. By providing appropriately timed light exposure, the body’s circadian rhythms become resynchronized and the symptoms of SAD resolve.
• Spend time outside first thing in the morning.
• Light up your homes as much as you need to. Use white wallpaper and light-colored carpet instead of dark paneling and dark carpet.
• Choose to live in dwellings with large windows.
• Allow light to shine through doors and windows when temperatures are  moderate. Trim hedges around windows to let more light in.
•  Exercise outdoors.
•  Set up reading or work spaces near a window.
•  Ask to sit near a window in restaurants, classrooms or at your workplace.
•  Arrange a winter vacation in a warm, sunny climate.

     Finally, reduced exposure to sunlight during the winter also means that less natural Vitamin D is produced by the skin. Since vitamin D is thought to regulate mood, many clinicians recommend taking a Vitamin D supplement during the winter months. The data indicates that 2000 IU/day or more of Vitamin D may be necessary for most people to maintain adequate blood levels of this important hormone.

     I wish you the best in your mental health recovery.

I want to share an inspirational story about a man who was saved by suicide by a stranger. Six years ago, on January 14, 2008. Neil Laybourn was walking across Waterloo Bridge on his way to work. On the way he stopped a young man named  Jonny Benjamin who was about to take his life by jumping off the bridge. Speaking to him for 25 minutes, Neil persuaded Jonny not to jump.

Now, six years late,  a remarkable reunion took place in a room above a pub in Vauxhall, central London. It was the first time that Jonny Benjamin and Neil Laybourn had met in six years.

“At first I was so overwhelmed. I just went up and gave him a hug,” says Benjamin, 26. “There were so many different emotions, I couldn’t grasp them at first. But we sat down and he began to talk and I could see his mannerisms, and I heard his voice. Only then did I recall those same mannerisms and voice from the bridge.

“Out of nowhere, I suddenly pictured him trying to persuade me not to jump.”

Since that horrific day, Benjamin had mostly blanked its events from his mind. He was nervous, indeed, that he would not even recognise the stranger who had stopped and listened. All he could remember about him was that he was white, that he had hair, that he said “things can get better”, and that he suggested the pair go for a coffee.

Laybourn, a personal trainer, could remember Benjamin very well, however. He had often wondered what had happened after the young man, then just 20, whom he had talked to and tried to keep calm until the police, called by another bystander, had bundled him into a car and taken him to hospital.

“But I never followed it up. I sort of thought the police would contact me,” says Laybourn, now 31. “I had no idea what had happened to him. I wondered if he had got over it, or whether he had gone back and that day had made no difference.”

And then, two weeks ago, Benjamin – with the help of the Rethink Mental Illness charity – launched a campaign to “Find Mike”, his nickname for the stranger. Doing so, he decided, would not only allow him to “close the door on that chapter of my life”, but also help to generate more interest in mental health issues.

The campaign spread quickly thanks to social media. Within two days, Laybourn’s fiancée saw the story on Facebook and immediately knew her partner was “Mike”.

A meeting was quickly arranged. Benjamin admits that he was “petrified” about the encounter, but Laybourn was excited. Their hug lasted for some time; so, too, did the talking – despite meeting in a pub, the two never even got around to having a drink.

“I have thought about him a lot for the last six years,” says Benjamin. “It was a pivotal moment in helping me to get better. I’ve always wanted to say ‘thank you’.”

For Laybourn, there was likewise a sense of resolution. “Watching Jonny get some closure was really nice. Seeing him be able to express his gratitude was the best thing. That was why I was there.”

Both men say they will keep in touch. “We really got on,” says Benjamin. “We’re finally going to have that coffee.”

For years I have been writing about what we can learn from the suicide survivor about the advisability of suicide. All of the my clients who survived suicide attempts have said the same thing–they are so glad that they did not succeed.

Now, we have a man who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and lived and has decided to share his testimony. His name is Kevin Hines, and on he survived a suicide attempt when jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. In a moving article written for the New York Post, Hines recounts, “In the midst of my free fall, I said to myself these words, words I thought no one would ever hear me repeat: “What have I done? I don’t want to die. God, please save me!”

Somehow Hines was able to land feet first so that he was able to go straight down into the water without breaking his back. He fought for life and was able to reemerge, even though he had broken his legs. Here is what he says as he continues his story:

“Something profound occurred after I broke the surface of the water. My faith in God returned — with force. After my mental breakdown and up until the moment I jumped, I had questioned the existence of a higher power. Not anymore. I felt God’s presence right beside me. He bobbed in the water with me.”

Hines was rescued by the coast guard shortly thereafter. Since then, he has been traveling the country as a suicide survivor and speaker on suicide prevention and mental health awareness. His memoir, Cracked Not Broken, details his survival from the suicide attempt and his struggle with mental illness (Hines was suffering from bipolar disorder at the time of his suicide attempt.)

On March 5th, 2014, Kevin was interviewed on the Preston and Steve Morning Show on 93.3 WMMR in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To listen to the interview, click here. Kevin’s testimony echoes my own. We never know what life has planned for us. That’s why that no matter how dark the hour, we must persist and hang in there–for the darkest hour is truly just before the dawn.

Douglas Bloch, December 9, 2014. Portland, Oregon.