There is no doubt that depression, or more accurately, un-repaired emotional short-circuiting, can absolutely devastate your health. In my estimation depression can cause far more profound, negative health consequences than all the poor food choices, toxins and poisons we expose ourselves to.

It is crystal clear that the drug companies would have you believe that the solution to depression is to pop one or more pills daily for many months for the rest of your life to restore your "chemical imbalance."

Fortunately, the data is so strong on the side effects of choosing antidepressants as a solution for depression that the FDA had no choice but to force the drug companies to include severe suicide warnings on the drug labels.

That is the good news. The bad news is that virtually no one reads these warnings, and they have virtually no effect at all on drug sales. The FDA merely uses them to make it seem like they are doing their job to protect the public. Once you understand that the FDA is NOT serving you, but rather is serving the drug companies who actually pay their salaries, you will be better off.

It is absolutely no mystery what is going on here, folks. It is in plain daylight what is going on, but most people are so busy they just don't have time to pay attention to it until it is too late. Please avoid falling into that category and take strong proactive steps to avoid drugs if at all possible, especially for depression.

Alternatives to Antidepressants

Optimizing your diet is clearly an important step in treating depression, and one of the most important tools will be to make sure you are getting enough omega-3 fats. I have had large numbers of patients spontaneously take themselves off their antidepressants once they started taking omega-3 fish oils.

Dr. Stoll, director of the psychopharmacology research lab at Boston's McLean Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, discusses this topic extensively in his book The Omega-3 Connection. I highly recommend this book, which reviews evidence supporting the use of omega-3 oils for depression.

It is necessary to have a high-quality source of fish oil to ensure that toxins and other impurities have been removed from the oil. Those of you who read the newsletter regularly know I'm a fan of the Carlson's brand of fish and cod liver oil, as I have seen clear and often substantial improvements in my patients who use it. You can find Carlson's fish or cod liver oil at your local health food store, or, for your convenience, in my Recommended Products section.

Also, it is known that exercise, insulin and sugar are strongly related to depression, and appropriate cardiovascular exercise is one of the most effective ways to normalize insulin resistance. Interestingly, the federal government came up with the first new dietary guidelines in 25 years, and they support the exercise recommendations I have been saying for some time now.

When using exercise to reduce insulin resistance, however, it is important to set a goal of at least 60 to 90 minutes per day, every day of the week. Obviously, depending on your current condition, you may need to work slowly up to this level. This is far more exercise than a healthy person requires, but when you struggle with insulin resistance it is necessary to pay back the debt of not exercising for many years to help restore the insulin resistance.

Once a person has improved their health they can reduce their exercise to about 45 minutes three times per week.

It is equally clear that you could have no problems with insulin resistance, follow a perfect diet and ideal exercise program and still struggle with serious depression. That is where effective energy psychology tools can intervene to help resolve depression. However, energy psychology techniques like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) work much better when diet and exercise are optimized. EFT is based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for more than 5,000 years, but without the invasiveness of needles.

Because depression is such a serious challenge I would not advise using self treatment for it, but rather only as a supplement to a trained EFT practitioner. Gary Craig has compiled a list of EFT Practitioner Referrals from the United States and the world. Many of these therapists even offer a free 15-minute phone session in which you can ask them questions to see if you connect.

Gary Craig's Comment:

Let me emphasize and support Dr. Mercola's thoughts on the use of EFT for depression. We have been successful many times for this ailment and have an entire section on our Web site dedicated to it. Further, EFT's use for suicide has been life saving in many cases. There is a professional discussion on this subject on the EFT Web site.

Finally, there's no questioning the power of prayer either. So many studies have documented it, and the science that proves its healing power is very solid. In fact, I believe it's criminally negligent for physicians not to recommend it. And talk about cost-effective; there is no cost to prayer except for time. It makes no logical sense to me why someone would not utilize this resource.

A simple powerful application of prayer is journaling, which articles have shown to be useful in treating chronic illness.

Finally, many people are not familiar with how to diagnose depression. If you are one of them please review a previous article I ran that lists the criteria to diagnose depression.

Gary Craig is a pioneering developer of EFT, a profoundly effective emotional/mental healing approach. Dr. Mercola attributes much of the incredible and permanent patient successes at his clinic, The Optimal Wellness Center, to the fact that EFT is used with every patient to address all three levels of healing: mind, body and spirit. Of the thousands of natural treatments Dr. Mercola has studied and used in his 20 years of practicing medicine, he feels that EFT is the greatest healing technique that exists. Read more about Gary Craig's EFT Course.

Related Articles:

Suicide Caution Mandated for Antidepressants

The Best Kept Secret For Treating Depression

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