If you suffer from depression and anxiety, you may have noticed that these conditions often move in cycles. Identifying this tipping point can help you to stop a serious bout of depression and anxiety before it gets out of hand.
I seem to get an influx of depression and anxiety patients around this time of year. It is an interesting pattern because usually this is the time of year when people start to feel better. Days are getting longer, grass is getting greener, flowers are emerging, and the warm days of patios and summer vacations is imminent. You can almost taste the smell of BBQ on the air outside at dinner time.
I came to understand the reason for this pattern from my own bout of depression last year. I have struggled with severe depression and anxiety myself for most of my life (since I was 16 years old), and was on anti-depressants on and off for many years. I have been happily un-medicated for 8 years thanks to homeopathic treatment. But early last year stress and trauma piled on me, worse than it had had in years, and I fell into a depression that lasted a couple of months. I almost didn’t notice the depression until I saw spring had sprung, but unfortunately I hadn’t. Everyone around me was getting excited, making plans for summer, going outside, getting active…and all I wanted to do was stay inside, on my couch, or better yet, hide under the covers. I was still functional (mostly), but had pulled away from my friends and was burying myself in the distraction of sleep and television, my 2 main coping mechanisms.
Because this has been a lifelong struggle, I have learned to identify the signs that I’m sliding down the slope and can therefore intervene at that point, before I get too far into the quagmire. In the past I would see myself starting to descend and take a dose of my constitutional/chronic homeopathic remedy. That would pull me up and me back to normality. But this time, the stress masked the tipping point and it snuck up on me, and I was down in it before I realized. Once I identified this, I took my remedy, and after a couple of weeks I was back to my normal self.
I decided I would put together a checklist of things to look out for that might signal a downward slope, so that intervention steps can be taken. If you have a history of depression and anxiety, seeing a few of these symptoms, likely means you may be heading down the bad road and should seek help before you fall even further.
- Feeling tired all the time – inability to sleep or sleeping too much, recurrent dreams of unresolved struggle, or recurring nightmares
- Feeling irritable – now you may not notice this one yourself, but you may notice this through partner, family or friends – they might outright call you on your irritability or it may be reflected in your partner, family, friends (if you are being irritable with them, they may be reflecting your irritability by being irritable right back at you)
- Identify your coping mechanism(s) - we all have them, and notice when you are relying on them too heavily – when you are trying to loose yourself in something instead of dealing with your life or the world - eg. cleaning, work, sleep
- Shirking responsibilities – you aren’t keeping your house like you usually do (unless cleaning is a coping mechanism for you), you miss bill payments, walk your dog less, etc.
- Missing work or school
- Isolating yourself – hermiting behaviour, canceling plans with friends/family
- Over use of alcohol
- Headaches, body aches, recurrent colds/flu, appetite changes, constipation or diarrhea, heartburn, gas or indigestion, flare ups of skin conditions – these can be somatic or physical symptoms of depression and anxiety
What to do when you notice that you might be slipping:
- Talk! – to your friends, family, Psychotherapist
- Exercise! – I know it might seem like the most difficult thing to do to move, but exercise releases endorphins, endorphins make you happy, nuff said!
- Get outside! – see above
- Meditate! - it's not as hard as you think, ask me for tips!
- Eat well balanced meals – again, cooking a meal for yourself might seem as difficult as climbing mount Everest right now, but lack of certain nutrients can cause or exacerbate depression and anxiety – especially B12 and D
- Supplement with Vitamin B12, Vitamin D
- Supplement with 5-HTP - a precursor to serotonin, but it is counterindicated with antidepressant medication, so don't take 5-HTP if you are on conventional anti-depressants
- Use Bach Flower Remdies! Rescue Remedy or Tromos to calm and reassure, or choose an individual Bach flower remedy specifically for you – you can use it drop by drop as needed, or put a dropper full in your water bottle and sip it over the day
- For trouble sleeping, try Bach Flower Rescue Sleep
- See a Homeopath and get the right homeopathic remedy for you!
Homeopathic remedies are not counter-indicated with anti-depressants, anti-anxiety or most other medications. And if your goal is to get off your anti-depressant and/or anti-anxiety medication all together, a Homeopath can work with you and your doctor to that end.
Questions? Want to know whether the above recommendations might be right for you? Give me a call to discuss your specific circumstance. 416-778-0085.
Dillena Dillen DMHMS, Reiki Master