What depression?

There is a lot of evidence that shows chemical changes in the depressed individual's brain, which is made up of countless cells that communicate with each other through chemicals called neurotransmitters. Depression is a neurological state, where, for some reason, the neurotransmitters that transmit nerve impulses between cells are not "circulating" as they should, causing various symptoms such as low energy, low concentration and poor memory. The imbalance of the brain can be seen through mental activity. CT scans of depressed people seem to confirm this connection. The main neurotransmitters involved in the pathophysiology of depression, as well as other mood disorders, are serotonin, norepinephrine and, to a lesser extent, dopamine.

 

Depression generally affects the anterior cingulate cortex, the hippocampus, the amygdala and the hypothalamus. The hippocampus is part of the neural network of anxiety, participating in the consolidation or evocation of painful memories. In the hippocampus, serotonin seems to attenuate the emotional impact of stressful events, facilitating adaptation to stress and combating depression, while glutamate (neurotransmitter) would have the opposite effect. These interconnected areas are connected in a kind of depressive circuit.

 

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Various depressive symptoms, such as disturbances in sleep, appetite, sexual life, changes in the endocrine, immune and chronobiological systems, apparently, would be consequences of a hypothalamic dysfunction. The high level of cortisol secretion from the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is also related to depression. Data indicate that 50% of depressed people have a hypersecretion of cortisol. This is an association of depression with anxiety and stress. In contrast to the latter observation, patients with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), exhibit lower levels of cortisol, even showing an increase in the levels of catecholamines in the urine and exhibiting increased negative feedback for inhibiting the release of cortisol. It is possible that low levels of cortisol at the time of a traumatic exposure induce an increase in the level of catecholamines, induced by stress, thus facilitating the consolidation of the traumatic memory.

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There is no specific cause for depressive disorder. It is probably caused by a set of factors, the most common of which are due to an affective experience of sadness ( REACTIVE ), or as a result of a physiological imbalance ( CLINICAL ) resulting from hormonal / metabolic problems, malfunction of the intestines or in another health problem (eg, fibromyalgia). Other factors can contribute, such as genetic and environmental predisposition. The heritability of this disorder has been estimated to be around 40 to 50%. It is believed that in most cases, genes only predispose a person to a mood disorder, but do not determine its onset. To cause a psychiatric illness, genes and environment work together. Among the environmental risk factors, the use of psychoactive substances, such as alcohol, illicit drugs and certain medicines, stands out; alteration of biological rhythms, such as sleep deprivation.

One hypothesis is gaining ground, that of cytokines for the emergence of depressive disorders. This idea is based on the frequent comorbidity of depression with other pathologies that involve inflammatory and immunoneuronal processes, such as rheumatoid arthritis and AIDS.

 

The purpose of my website is to raise awareness for health terms. Regardless of the root cause of a depression, the logic will always be the same. Physical causes interfere with our vitality, which interferes with the emotional, which interferes with the mental. It doesn't matter if the root of depression is physical, vital, emotional or mental, all the elements or bodies of our humanity will be affected. I will give examples:

 

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Reactive depression
This is caused by a fact that works as a trigger, but it can be so small that it goes unnoticed. Once the mechanism or programming for this trigger has been created, the brain changes, and in the end it will need an increasingly smaller trigger to go into depression, until it reaches the point of depression becoming the new "standard". When this happens, that is, with altered homeostasis, the person becomes a prisoner of unbridled emotions that can cause mood disturbances.

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Understanding External Causes (CLIMATE) :
The energies of wind, heat, cold, fire, humidity and dryness are causes of disease. When the organism and its energetic mechanisms are not balanced, or do not adapt mainly to weather conditions.

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The seasons of the year determine the presence of factors and or climatic energies and the energetic insufficiency of organs and or energy systems, which weakened in a certain season, associated with the individual's non-adaptation, may cause the entry of external factors (climatic energies).

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Pathological Patterns Generated by External Energies:
• Cold: the patient fears the cold, improves with the heat;
• Heat: Patient fears heat, feels better with the cold;
• Moisture: muscle pain with a feeling of heaviness;
• Wind: convulsive crises, and pains that walk through the body;
• Dryness: dry weather attacks the airways and breathing.

 

These external factors can lead to pathogenic processes, as long as individuals do not adapt to weather conditions. The action of these energies is determined by the seasons and has as a consequence their relations with the pentagram of the five elements in the dominance generation cycles, described by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

 

Depression in an installed frame.
When a person is diagnosed with depression, he signals that he is no longer able to get rid of the feeling of sadness, helplessness, hopelessness, nor is he interested in anything. Severe depression is one of the strongest causes of suicides.

Symptoms of Depression.
Common symptoms of depression are depressed mood and lack of interest, pleasure and energy, which are combined with additional symptoms such as:
• low morale,
• hopelessness,
• feeling of emptiness;
• inability to obtain pleasure and to experience and express affections.

 

The intensity and depth of the pain becomes so unbearable that the death wish seems to bring relief.

 

Cognitive Features of Depression.

 

Some of the cognitive characteristics that accompany the depressed state are:
• Difficulty concentrating;
• Low self-confidence and a sense of failure;
• Guilt. Feed feelings of guilt for unimportant things;
• Negative outlook, etc.

 

Psychomotor disorders observed in Depression.

 

Psychomotor disorders can come with contradictory characteristics and include:
• Agitation (hyperactivity). Observed as:

• Anxiety;

• Irritability and

• Restlessness.

• Delay (hypoactivity). Observed as:

• Delay of reactions to stimuli. To live locked inside of you, in the midst of shadows.

• Speech poverty;

• Body slowness or;

• Even mental or emotional inactivity.

 

Vegetative symptoms of Depression.

 

Vegetative symptoms are manifested as profound disturbances in:
• Food;
• In sleep. They may lose sleep for no apparent reason or sleep for more than 12 hours straight;
• In sexual libido;
• Loss of vitality (pessimism). Not being able to do what you like best. Feeling incapable, inept.
• Having bad thoughts and losing the will to live. Feeling of no longer living and just existing. At this point, suicidal thoughts are not uncommon;

 

In addition, bodily sensations such as:
• Diffuse pain;
• Fatigue;
• Biorhythm disorders and;
• Melancholy.

 

Anxiety symptoms are often found in depression under the term "mixed anxiety disorders and depression".

Melancholia is a subtype of depression with somatic symptoms, characterized by vegetative disorders and profound neurobiological disorders.

 

The three steps to depression.
Let's look at depression as ingrained behavior. Rigid behaviors have three components:

 

a) An old external cause, generally forgotten since then. For example, the person is having a very stressful life (for a long period) and an external event occurs, with the loss of a job.

b) A reaction to this cause, which for some reason is unhealthy or has not been examined. Type:

1) It is my fault;
2) I am not good enough;
3) It won't work;
4) I know it won't work;
5) I can't do anything about it;
6) It was just a matter of time, it was going to happen.

c) An ingrained habit that has become automatic. Usually due to a fear of facing the same painful situation again. For example, a person suffered a lot because of the end of a great love and is afraid of falling in love again and having to face the same situation again. In this way, you continue to have depressive reactions, generated previously, and after a while, these reactions become a habit.

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Undoing the past.
Depressed people get depressed because they are depressed.
When the depressive reaction is internalized, it is like a red-hot coal that can ignite with a small spark. The depressive reaction is already triggered. Depressed people may even feel sad about good news; they are always waiting for something bad to happen because they are stuck in the habit of depression.

They show that the same areas that are excited by the beneficial effects of antidepressants are also excited if people undergo therapy and are able to talk about their depression. Speaking is a form of behavior.

If behavior can get us out of depression, it is reasonable to assume that it can also get us into it.

 

Treatment of depression is one of the great benefits of Reflexology.

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Therefore, low levels of serotonin can lead to a crisis of clinical depression. So, in order to increase serotonin production, I will pay special attention to stimuli in the reflex areas of the intestines, the hippocampus and the cerebellar tonsil. Repeat this protocol for at least 2 times in a session. In addition, the pituitary, pineal, adrenal and hypothalamus glands play a vital role in depression and their reflex areas should be stimulated to contribute to the normalization of the condition.

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One way to evaluate how this production of serotonin occurs is by pressure in the reflex areas of the thoracic and lumbar spine, specifically in the reflex areas of the T12 and L1 vertebrae. If it is very painful it is a strong indication of production dysfunction.

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Acting as the leader of your brain, you can program your neurochemistry and even epigenetic programming. The key is to get the blocked or unbalanced parts of control in your brain back to normal activity through stimuli in the feet. When this happens, you will be able to bring your brain back to its natural balance.

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Important tips:

• It is generally recommended to massage your reflex points for just 30 to 60 seconds - however, you can massage these points for a long time, which depends on your intensity of discomfort and pain.

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In addition to basic therapy, we will seek to work on other situations related to depression. For each situation there is a specific therapy that will be worked on:

• Improves the acceptance of the Central Nervous System (CNS) in relation to therapy;

• Check and treat cases of depressed mood;

• Check and treat cases of irritable mood;

• Treat negative thoughts;

• Treating attention failure;

• Treat difficulty in concentration;

• Treating issues of appetite impairment;

• Treat apathy and hope (put color in life) and mental exhaustion, because apathy is a manifestation of nervous exhaustion. Seek strength in spirituality.

• Treat feelings of helplessness;

• Treat muscle weakness;

• Treat lack of energy, weakness to perform, lack of courage and lack of initiative;

• Treat loss of pleasure;

• Give new flavor to life;

• Working with low self-esteem;

• Work the ability to plan for the future;

• Seeking a quality of the interactant to show that it has value

• Working on attachment for anchoring (eg Conjugue passed away, clinging to children) or hope for the future;

• Working on issues of discouragement that seems lazy;

• Working on triggering thoughts: “I was happy and didn't know”;

• Work anxiety for fear that blocks and alertness;

• Work feeling angry;

• Work the emotion of sadness;

• Work the feeling of being sad;

• Work on somatization due to the perception of a wrong life;

• Work on conflicts between being in emotional or mental mode;

If depression is causing thoughts of suicide or a loss of will to live:

• Work on issues of self-criticism and fear of living;

• Work on impulses linked to imbalances with sex and appetite;

• Work pleasure in life;

• Work the way you see life. See different.

Other tips:
Depression is strongly influenced by intestinal functioning. Most of its serotonin, about 90% is produced in the intestinal area.

Foods to avoid:
• Gluten: wheat, rye, barley, rice, corn, quinoa and some other types of flour.
• Sugar.

Foods to be used regularly :
• Bananas;
• Probiotics: kefir, fermented milk with live lactobacilli;
• Sources of omega 3: Sardines, salmon, tuna.
• Sources of vitamins C: Lemon, Kiwi, acerola, orange
• Green tea;

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Supplementation (with medical supervision):
• Magnesium;
• B12 vitamin.

Approach of Naturopathy in the treatment of depression:

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