PAIN DEPRESSION AND OTHER DARK BEASTSPain depression = guaranteed combo. Pain that doesn't go away, but goes on and on, isn't fun - it's miserable. It's natural that it makes people depressed (especially the person who has the pain, but also their near and dear.) Depression then makes the pain worse - it's another vicious cycle. Everything feels worse when you are depressed. Depression also involves feeling hopeless and helpless. One then lacks motivation to do whatever is needed to change things for the better, or even for the worse. Sympathy doesn't help much, as you may have noticed. Have you noticed sympathy comes between shit and syphilis in the dictionary? It's pretty important though, for most people, to have someone who will listen - so you can "blow off steam." A good friend can make up for the lack of motivation, by gentle encouragement without being too controlling. If such a friend is offering this, try to accept. Pain depression = help of some sort is needed, even if just to kick start things. Adequate relief of pain is an essential component of this. In any sort of depression sleep disturbance makes things worse and some antidepressant drugs have a useful side effect of drowsiness. Help for things such as sleep apnoea is very important. Present pain plus past stuffThings are never as simple as they seem. One is never upset purely because of some obvious, recent experience. It's likely not to be just pain depression.This obvious factor has probably just "pressed one's buttons," like squeezing the trigger of a loaded gun. One's body chemistry and some past experiences have made one susceptible to getting upset in the current circumstances. This applies to depression in painful conditions - the pain is just part, not all of the story. It's not just pain depression. Most of us carry such "baggage" of past experiences, and this is perfectly normal. In fact, those rare individuals who never meet adversity, may have difficulty in understanding and helping others around them who are not so "fortunate." Adversity helps humorists too - think of Spike Milligan. Dealing with past issues is not everyones' cup of tea. Repressed memories are buried because they were painful. Intellectual discussion is unlikely to help. In fact there is a real risk of "uncovering" false memories. It is the warm, trusting relationship with your therapist that helps, more than the actual words between you. Methods such as rebirthing with a trusted therapist, can get past ones' conscious mind. Holosync technology may help, too. Hypnosis therapy is not used with depression usually. What you see is what you're liable to get.Our perception of "reality" is governed by our preconceived ideas, not just what our doctor has told us.Given a poor prognosis, one person will accept it and another will say "no way." A wonderful story about one person's way is in Norman Cousins' book "Anatomy of an Illness, As Perceived by the Patient." If we have developed low self esteem, we usually limit ourselves severely and unnecessarily. Imagine yourself in a better future, for a moment. What did you see? Fix that impression into your mind now, and never let yourself forget it. Ideally have a specific future picture of yourself in your mind, not just the idea. You could even draw the picture, so that you have a reminder to look at. Pain depression = a challenge from your body and mind. Some treatmentsOur brain is a self healing mechanism, given the right nutrition and backup by the rest of our body.A study3 conducted at the University of Melbourne in Australia compared mental health and diet in women. Good diet was associated with 30% less major depression, low mood, and anxiety disorders compared with poor diet. It's reasonable to assume that pain depression would have to be affected by diet in the same way. Orthomolecular psychiatry uses nutrient substances to correct apparently mental disorders. The Pfeiffer Treatment Center is one institution devoted to this work. They obtain excellent results in a wide range disorders of mental health. As simple a regime as taking omega3 oil can have an obvious beneficial effect. Pasture fed, but not grain fed beef, is a good source of omega 3 oil. We may need to deal with
reactive hypoglycemia.
or food intolerance (see below.) Anti depressant medications generally take at least a week to start relieving symptoms, and sometimes relieve lethargy before they elevate mood. You need to see your doctor frequently when you start such treatment. They can help to relieve pain, even neuropathic pain - and therefore pain depression. The older tricyclic antidepressants are arguably more potent, although they have more side effects and are more dangerous in overdose. They are used more for pain relief than depression, these days. SAMe is just as good as the antidepressant drugs... "Compared1 to treatment with conventional antidepressant pharmacology, treatment with SAMe was not associated with a statistically significant difference in outcomes." Physical exercise within your capacity, has a marked anti-depressant effect, equivalent to drugs. If you're depressed, you are not going to feel any enthusiasm for the task. Try to discipline yourself to do a little regularly, so you develop some confidence in doing it. Pain depression -> action needed -> less pain depression. In a recent Canadian study4 of resistance training classes in women aged 65 to 75, cognition was improved. Their tests of selective attention and conflict resolution significantly improved over women doing "balance and tone" classes. ANGERIf something is obviously wrong, it's perfectly sensible to start looking around to see "why it is so."We are liable to focus on circumstances or events from the time our trouble became evident. This may have been an accident or a medical intervention, with some party legally liable and so blamed for our trouble. We are then disabled, in pain and distinctly unhappy about this. If a person has a fiery temper anyway, they will be understandably very angry. Anger is natural and justifiable under lots of circumstances. It is healthy to express it, immediately and in the deserved direction. It should last however, only about 10 seconds. The trouble is, anger is often bottled up until it is at bursting point, then explodes when one more thing goes wrong. It may then be totally out of proportion to the "final straw." It may be directed at an innocent party who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is a good way to put friends and family offside. We need to watch ourselves carefully, to ensure we don't let this happen. Holding on to anger is very wearing. It saps our energy. It increases our muscle tension and so our pain. Fortunately, every moment is another opportunity - for us to see what we're up to and just simply change the angry thoughts to forgiveness. Do this often enough and the new thought becomes a habit. A punching bag hanging up in a corner somewhere, could be a good investment. Punch away your pain depression. THINGS TO CONSIDER DOING ABOUT ALL THIS ( PAIN DEPRESSION ETC. )
I heard a lecture by a psychiatrist who would have dearly loved to put every patient referred to him, through allergy testing.He had been the first psychiatrist in Australia to use hypnotherapy and a lot of his patients were referred to him for this. He then ran an allergy testing "environmental control unit" in Sydney Australia, similar to Dr. William Rey's in Dallas. He was convinced from his experiences that many people with psychiatric illnesses, had food and chemical intolerance as a major contributing factor. Similarly, Dr. Richard Mackarness in UK had come to the same conclusion from his practical experiences, recorded in his books "Not All in the Mind" and "Chemical Victims." Dr. Coca used home based testing by measuring one's arterial pulse rate, and gives examples in his book of people whose anxiety, depression or irritability were clearly caused by foods they were eating and resolved after elimination of same. Pain depression may be partly "food depression."
Positive affirmations don't work - at least not without something extra, ideally some action in the same direction.Just putting them up on your mirror isn't enough. This exercise is designed to help you review and move on from your past "stuff." You choose your affirmation, ensuring that it has nothing to do with the negative in it - only stating the positive end result you're aiming for. So it is one line, starting with "I" or "my" - personal, stating an aim in the present tense (as though already so.) It could be, for example..."I have a perfect figure." If you chose something you desperately want, making this statement is going to stir hell out of your mind! This is exactly what it is intended to do. Write this out line after line one on top of the last, as though you were doing 100 lines at school. Have another piece of blank paper immediately under where you are writing the current line of affirmation Any thought that comes into your mind is written down on this paper, word for word, immediately, without finishing even a letter of what you were writing. It may be worth folding this under so that there is always minimal space between the line of affirmation and the blank sheet. Thoughts can come and go very quickly. Write things down exactly as you thought them - don't edit, bullet point etc While thoughts keep coming you can keep writing, but as soon as you hesitate, go back to writing the affirmation. Write them down without judging them good , bad or otherwise. Just act as a scribe, don't get too involved emotionally in the content of your thoughts. By not judging, you are allowing things to surface which have been suppressed. As emotions such as sorrow, anger and guilt arise , briefly describe (label) them - still acting as a passive observer ( the "watcher within.") What you will be doing is to use the affirmation to flush out of your subconscious, all the beliefs, experiences from the past, etc, which are keeping the affirmation from becoming reality. Do this exercise a bit at a time, over some weeks probably. Eventually, after you've run out of thoughts, it will become a comfortable assertion of reality for you. Things to do if you're lying awakeSleepless with pain depression = time for mental exercises.Laying with eyes closed, imagine you're seeing (in your mind's eye,) some time and place in your life when everything was OK. Make something up if nothing comes to mind. Follow whatever was going on, as though watching it on a movie. Just see it happening, and fill in detail from memory or imagination. Your mind will inevitably go back to your current worries, and at some stage you will become aware of this having happened. The instant you do realize this has happened, immediately say to yourself..."thank you mind, for those thoughts." This should prevent you giving yourself a hard time over worrying again. Then resume your mental exercise, or start a different one. Do this every time you find yourself worrying again. Eventually you will get better at shutting off your worries. Very likely a good bookI haven't read it, just looked down the list of references and read about the author - but I reckon it has to be good.Pain depression chemistry, and what else? DEALING WITH DEPRESSION Naturally by SYD BAUMEL is the book. My toothIt got extracted, relatively painlessly. This took about 10 years off my dentist's life, by the look of his face afterwards.It was a straight tooth, not a back one with multiple roots. I had just completed a theta meditation course like Silva Mind Control, and used this instead of local anaesthetic. I didn't feel massively confident either, but very much wanted to put it to the test. It really did work. Our minds have awesome power, and we really are in control of them. Take heart, and take control of your pain depression and your life. Pain depression and suicide assessmentSuicidal depression can be well hidden. If this applies to you, tell someone how you feel.If you are reading this to try and help someone else, ask them how they feel about ending it all. Airing it will not make it worse and may help. Get help. Leave pain depression behind you, for the home page
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http://www.ahrq.gov/Clinic/epcsums/samesum.htm
"Out of 39 unique studies considered, 28 studies were included in a meta-analysis of the efficacy of SAMe to decrease symptoms of depression. 2. January 6th 2010 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) 303:47-53 3. Am J Psychiatry. Published online January 4, 2010 4. Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(2)
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