Before you start taking antidepressants or anti-anxiety medication here is some information that you might not know about and your doctor may not tell you.
Antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication have side effects. These side effects can be serious and not only that it can be difficult to come off the drugs without major withdrawal problems. Therefore let’s take a look and see if there is an alternative.
Dopamine and serotonin (or click here to skip the technical bit)
You may have heard of dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine and serotonin are known both as hormones and chemicals that send messages between nerve cells. They play an important part in a person’s mood.
Here are some interesting facts:
- 80% of your nervous system is in your brain
- The brain produces between 10 – 12% of the necessary dopamine and serotonin that your nervous system requires
- About 85% of the dopamine created and manufactured in our body is manufactured in our stomach (gut)
- There are a hundred billion neurons (nerve cell) in your brain and two hundred billion neurons in your gut
Dopamine brings feelings of pleasure and provides a happiness boost after a certain action (such as exercise).
Serotonin stabilizes mood and dopamine signals rewards.
Dopamine primarily controls movement and serotonin contributes to sleep and digestion.
If your stomach isn’t healthy it’s going to affect the production of dopamine and serotonin in the body which in turn will affect how you feel.
If your production of dopamine is low you lose your drive to do things. When it’s faulty, kind of hit-and-miss – sometimes it produces and sometimes it doesn’t – then it’s almost like a manic-depressive activity.
When there’s too much dopamine in your system you’re manic and when the supply is gone and drops below normal you become depressed.
Anxiety & depression are symptoms
According to Dr Nuzum, Doctor of Natural Medicine:
“If you are dealing with anxiety or depression you are toxic. It’s already happened. Anxiety is not a disease. Depression is not a disease. They’re symptoms of things going on in your system. And so if something that irritated your system – toxins always cause irritation, irritation always causes inflammation – you’ll get anxiety.
“It’s just a natural outcome – if you’ve ever injured a joint or threw your back out and you’re hurting, pain will cause anxiety. It’s a natural thing. There’s deficiencies, things are just slowed down. You get a lot of fatigue, natural depression and fatigue are your first cousins.
“So people dealing with fatigue you almost always have some sort of depression because they can’t get up and do what they want to do. And so there are toxic things that are causing the preceding factors to the anxiety or depression. Your body – think of this – your body knows what’s going on in your body all the time. Your mind is subconsciously and unconsciously aware of everything that’s going on in your body. 100% of the time. If something’s malfunctioning in your body one of the signs that something’s wrong can be anxiety.
“Your body telling you ‘hey over here, something wrong’”.
How does a body become toxic?
A body is made toxic by any number of factors:
- Sugar
- Caffeine
- Refined carbohydrates
- Alcohol
- Lack of fibre
- Insufficient water
- Household cleaning products
- Environmental pollution
- Drugs and medication
These are just a few.
If the stomach is not functioning correctly it can’t deal with the toxic substances that enter it. Nutrients block toxins from being absorbed by our systems and so if you’re deficient in nutrients and you’re being exposed to toxins, they will go right into your system.
Recap
So just to recap and lay it out clearly:
- The body becomes toxic through bad diet and/or environmental factors
- The production of serotonin and dopamine reduces
- The result is anxiety and/or depression – anxiety/depression are symptoms not the cause
Is there a natural solution to depression and anxiety?
The natural thing to do would be to handle the cause – bad diet, toxic environment – rather than the symptoms – depression/anxiety.
According to Dr. Dean Sherzi, MD, Neurologist:
“What else increases or reduces inflammation? Exercise. What’s the best drug you have for depression and anxiety? Three times better than any other drug – exercise. Why is that not being sold? Why don’t we have an exercise commercial for the brain? Because nobody can charge for it.”
An interesting statement!
Exercise
So, exercise would be one thing to do. Perhaps your body is already in such a condition (inflamed) that you can’t do a lot of exercise. In which case the best thing to do is start with a daily walk.
Walk for 5 or 10 minutes – whatever is comfortable and then build on this and eventually you could be walking 1/2 an hour without too much difficulty. Here is an article on exercise for the beginner or unfit person.
Also bear in mind that extreme exercise, especially when you’re not used to it, can cause stress on the body and that in itself can affect your mental health.
Nutrition
From a nutritional point of view, there are some key things you can do to improve your diet and make your body less toxic and inflamed.
To find out more download this guide to healthy eating.
Toxic Environment
A toxic environment can either be as a result of being in a physically toxic space, ingesting toxins or from mental toxicity.
Physically toxic environments, to name a few, would include:
- toiletries and cleaning products that contain toxic ingredients
- mould in your house
- living close to electric substations
A toxic living environment would include such things as:
- being connected to toxic people – read Toxic people and their effect on you
- watching and listening to bad news on the TV/radio
- working in a job where people are hostile to you or one another
- stress and emotional upsets – read 4 tips to reduce stress
Antidepressant side effects
Taking antidepressants may seem like a solution and could seem like your last resort. However, you need to be aware of some facts so you can make an informed decision. There are side-effects. It can be difficult to stop taking them. The dosage may need to be increased in the future in order to feel any effect.
There is a booklet which details out how antidepressants affect you physically and mentally.
References:
https://www.foodrevolutionsummit.org/
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/microbes-help-produce-serotonin-gut-46495