Depression is a Spiritual Malady

[AcrobaticDetective]

WORD OF CAUTION: What I'm sharing is my personal experience. I absolutely do not want to sound as if antidepressants are bad or that anyone should change their medication without the supervision of a doctor.

 

I've had depression most of my life (past 20+ years). As a result, I've been been on Celexa for years. 

 

I have had a difficult time focusing and have been constantly tired over the past 6 months. I narrowed it down to my medication but it hadn't changed in years. Regardless, I started my dossage in half. I have tried this in the past (probably once a year) but I always sink into my depression after a couple of days. But this time it's worked. I've been at half a dose for a couple of weeks. I feel great all the way around. So why is it different this time?

 

I'm no longer in the cult of Christianity. 

 

I had a couple Catholic friends tell me that whenever someone is struggling with depression, it's usually due to some spiritual attack. In the opposite way they meant it, I think I can finally agree. 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

My experience was like yours.  After "walking out the door",  I tapered off my antidepressants of many years and have been off them for over 10 years, and have felt more at peace with myself than ever before.  But I believe it goes beyond religion.  Any time you tie yourself down to something that suppresses your natural spirit (energy) it can feed depression.  Staying with a bad marriage, job, etc.  Or going against your conscience. 

 

The truth has very likely set you free!  It will be interesting to see if you are able to stay off the meds.  

[SarahJaneSmith]

I can relate. I will probably always have a baseline of anxiety, but I've been blown away how the active, daily, life-altering and inescapable anxiety I felt while I was still attending church has vanished.

[MOHO]

Back in the late 70's I began having panic attacks after a bad experience with Marry Jane. The docs put me on uppers and downers at the same time. Nice, huh?

 

Well the superstitious Mormon dip-wads that my dad brought to the house decided I had a spiritual fight going on inside me ("hey, Einsteins, I'm on uppers AND downsers!")

Anyway that freaked me the hell out and soon after they left I'm on my way to the funny farm. After several days and a change of docs they took me off the drugs, I went home a cured man, and have been fine ever since. No drugs. No therapy.

 

Spiritual? I don't think we have souls.

Chemical imbalance? Perhaps.

Crappy stuff that happened in our childhoods? Perhaps.

 

Glad to hear both you ragamuffins are good to go!

 

 

 

[AcrobaticDetective]

18 hours ago, Weezer said:

My experience was like yours.  After "walking out the door",  I tapered off my antidepressants of many years and have been off them for over 10 years, and have felt more at peace with myself than ever before.  But I believe it goes beyond religion.  Any time you tie yourself down to something that suppresses your natural spirit (energy) it can feed depression.  Staying with a bad marriage, job, etc.  Or going against your conscience. 

 

The truth has very likely set you free!  It will be interesting to see if you are able to stay off the meds.  

 

Congratulations on the 10 years, Weezer.

[AcrobaticDetective]

7 hours ago, MOHO said:

Back in the late 70's I began having panic attacks after a bad experience with Marry Jane. The docs put me on uppers and downers at the same time. Nice, huh?

 

Well the superstitious Mormon dip-wads that my dad brought to the house decided I had a spiritual fight going on inside me ("hey, Einsteins, I'm on uppers AND downsers!")

Anyway that freaked me the hell out and soon after they left I'm on my way to the funny farm. After several days and a change of docs they took me off the drugs, I went home a cured man, and have been fine ever since. No drugs. No therapy.

 

Spiritual? I don't think we have souls.

Chemical imbalance? Perhaps.

Crappy stuff that happened in our childhoods? Perhaps.

 

Glad to hear both you ragamuffins are good to go!

 

 

 

 

Wow! What a story. I'm glad you got free of that world.

[Myrkhoos]

Hope you will be better and better whatever that may entail.

 

Point to self. Study more psychology/neurology.

[LostinParis]

After a nasty bout of post-natal depression I spoke with my priest who discouraged me from seeing a psychologist and taking medication.

I now understand that this is a common cult tactic to stop you from seeking help from outside the group, so you become completely dependant on the group for emotional support. And the “spiritual warfare” warnings made me feel even more anxious.
It feels so great to be free of all that bullshit. Well done!

[alreadyGone]

(notice please: I am not a doctor nor medical professional)

 

There can be many many separate individual causes of depression and they can combine and overlap. Body chemistry and metabolism, and of course experiences and personal circumstances.

 

I struggled with extreme crippling fatigue from my late teens into my early 30's.

Took years to find causes and solutions. And there was more than one cause internally, as well as difficult circumstances and interpersonal emotional difficulties.

 

From my own experience (for whatever it may be worth, or not) I can testify that diet is important. And exercise... daily rigorous exercise.

Those things alone though may only help though.

And realize that doctors do not always know what they are doing when it comes to something so complex. They'll never admit it, but they don't and they never will.

 

Well into middle-age I began dating a medical sonographer.

Sonography is used in medicine for much more than examining pregnancy in-utero.

She did a casual examination and found that my thyroid is slightly under-sized.

That was the first time any medical professional had noticed this and it makes a huge difference in overall mood and mental clarity and stability.

I take some OTC thyroid supplements and that helps greatly.

 

Every moment of your life lost due to mental factors is a moment lost forever.

I hope you can find solutions.

 

 

 

 

[alreadyGone]

I've been taking St. John's Wort (in capsule form) for two days and my emotions seem much more manageable.. still a bit early, but..

It's commonly available and not pricey. I believe it's easy to grow at home also.

[Joshpantera]

They had me on anti-depressants when I was younger. But it turned out to be a combination of things. My mom has battled depression all her life. I was like her when I was younger. Regular cycles of depression. Then my sister drown. That set me off into a decade long run of pretty regular depression. Eventually I started analyzing myself when I started having thoughts of being better off dead than alive. I had seen some commercials about, "if you have suicidal thoughts...." And I started realizing that the anti-depressants were making me think like that. And that's when I started to take control of my own mind instead of leaving it on auto-pilot to sway back and forth whichever way the wind blows. That began a change where I tossed the meds and took the with drawls head on, consciously suffering through it. When that was over, I never went back. 

 

I took off reading all the time and filling my mind with multi-disciplinary content and information ranging from mythology and religion, to history and archaeology, and the hard sciences. The more I learned, the further I distanced myself from my childhood religion, the better I became. I never relapsed into depression ever again. My mom was amazed at this. But she's not been able to do the same. She's done better, but still has cyclic spells of depression. Eventually I just sort of intellectualized that there really isn't good reason to be depressed and just set the thing aside. But I'm me, other people are other people, and this is far too radical to expect people to do unless they have some type of conviction that can bring these kinds of results. I look at it like dieting. Some people can do it well, some people can't hardly do it at all. Everyone's different. 

 

But I will say this, leaving behind religion AND obtaining the knowledge to the detail of what's incorrect about it, was pivotal in my tossing depression behind me. I realized that the religion itself was depressing. And it was depressing me. The grim outlook, the hatred of humanity and nature as sinful, and spiritual dung of the earth, is a depressing outlook. Paraded around as something glorious. Realizing just how wrong they are, set me free..........

[alreadyGone]

 

Day three with St. John's Wort... seems positive.

Circumstances are no different, but it all just seems to even-out more, if that makes any sense. I hope this continues.

 

I've applied exercise and fitness (I'm no body-builder and I don't use public gyms) to managing mood over the years, but work and circumstances eventually pushed me to fall off the exercise discipline/habit, many times.

 

I've been behind a keyboard non-stop for the past few years and became so run-down and lethargic that I didn't expect at my age to overcome it again.

I did so though, over the course of this summer. I pushed myself slowly and gradually back into the habit. And that too is enabling me to cope far better than before.

 

So I've known physical lethargy and degradation of my mood as a result, and I've known a state of better all-around fitness and seen again how much it helps me maintain better control of my emotions. Been there and back a few times, so to speak.

 

I had been a heavy user of ginseng (tea) over the years and I let that lapse also of late. I believe that stuff to be almost magical, and I'm placing an order next week.

For me mood begins with energy-level, which has always been a challenge. 

 

I've no desire to use prescription medications for mood and anxiety.

That's just me. And its certainly not a judgement of anyone who does, just trying to know and work within my limitations. Could be I may have had a better quality of life with them, but I don't prefer it.

 

Someone said that if the year 2020 were a neighborhood ice-cream truck it would be stocked with liver and onions rather than chocolate and vanilla.