Depression is a common mental illness. The incidence rate in women is two to three times higher than that in men, and patients suffer greatly. Here are four self-treatment methods that I believe will be helpful to you.
Physical therapy can give people a sense of relaxation and control after exercise, which is beneficial to overcoming the loneliness common among patients with depression. But exercise must have a certain intensity, duration and frequency to achieve the desired results. Take aerobics as an example, which includes running, rope skipping, fitness dancing, etc. It should be done at least 3 times a week, each time lasting 15 to 20 minutes. Walking can also achieve the same effect as running. Experts recommend that patients walk 1,500 meters a day and strive to complete the walk within 15 minutes. Then gradually increase the distance until you have walked 4500 meters in 45 minutes. Before starting exercise, your doctor's approval is required.
Nutritional therapy Many doctors believe that vitamins and amino acids contained in food have an important impact on people's mental health. Some experts believe that if a person with paranoia lacks a certain single nutrient, it can also cause depression, so it is recommended that people eat more foods rich in vitamin B, such as whole grains, fish, etc. He also asked the patient to take a certain dose of vitamin B complex. He believes that these are things that people tend to lack.
Psychotherapy People with depression often view the world and themselves through colored glasses. In order to change this misconception, Gary Emmer of the Los Angeles Psychiatric Center proposed the "Three A Method", that is, understand, answer, and act. Because the English letters of the three words all begin with A, they are called the "Three A Method".
——Understand: First of all, you must admit that you are mentally depressed; secondly, you must pay attention to your emotional changes, any abnormalities in your words and deeds, as well as differences in feeling, thinking, and physical reactions.
——Answer: Whenever an error occurs, you must learn to identify it in a timely manner and record it. First write down your wrong idea, and then write down a more practical answer. The purpose is to test your idea in practice. After writing, ask yourself: "Could this be true?" Then ask yourself: "How would it look from the other side?"
——Action: If you feel unnoticed, Then find a new way; if you are not comfortable at work, you should take a course to improve your technical level, or find a new job. You should also plan more activities to regularize your life.
Communication therapy Research shows that people who are good at making friends with others are much happier mentally than those who like to stay alone. A mental health research institute in the United States recently launched a campaign with the slogan "Friends are good medicine." They believe that social support can even make people live longer.
Specific manifestations of depression:
1. Emotional aspects: depression, sadness, sorrow, lack of interest, unhappiness, but some people may be restless, irritable, or even Hostile.
2. Cognition and thinking: pessimism, gray will, incompetence, hopelessness and helplessness, self-blame, thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, slow thinking, delusions and hallucinations of guilt and self-punishment.
3. Physiological aspects: reduced sexual interest, reduced appetite, disturbed sleep, and reduced physical strength.
4. Behavior: speaking less and in a low pitch, slow speed, few and slow movements, dementia in severe cases, but sometimes irritable behavior or even suicidal behavior. Often, mild symptoms of depression, such as fatigue, insomnia, gastrointestinal discomfort, persistent headaches and back pain, may be misunderstood as other illnesses. The medical community has not yet studied the main cause of this disease, but it has discovered many related factors, such as imbalances of certain chemical substances in the brain and body; genetics that make some people more susceptible to depression; and certain factors in life. Unpleasant events or illnesses that affect your mental state may also lead to depression. Commonly used treatments include medication, psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy, which can be used alone or in combination. So far, there is no radical cure. In fact, as long as patients have regular follow-up visits and take medication according to the doctor's instructions, they can greatly control the disease and return to a normal life.
Vitamin B helps treat depression
On July 6, US Eastern Time, researchers claimed that after analyzing new research results, they found that patients with depression may be in the need of vitamin B. There is a problem with B's metabolism, and they preliminarily concluded that vitamin B supplementation would help alleviate this condition.
A group of researchers from Norway found that people with higher levels of homocysteine ??in their blood were more likely to suffer from depression. Homocysteine ??is a product of metabolism in the human body, and folic acid is a recognized acidic substance that helps break down homocysteine.
In an interview with Reuters, Dr. Ingvar Bjelland of the University of Bergen claimed that a lack of folic acid or the resulting disordered metabolism may lead to some People suffer from depression. Igwa Benjiran said that previous research they conducted revealed that folic acid supplementation can help enhance the effectiveness of antidepressants, and the current study further confirms this conclusion. The researchers further pointed out that the findings, published in the Archives of Psychiatry, may even support the hypothesis that folic acid can be used to treat depression.
Igwa Benjiran and his colleagues scanned blood samples from 5,948 patients aged 46 to 49 years old and monitored them for depression and anxiety. . Researchers found that people with higher levels of homocysteine ??in their blood were twice as likely to suffer from depression compared to those with lower levels of homocysteine ??in their blood.
It is worth noting that although at first glance the expression of folate metabolism appears to be altered in patients with depression, the actual levels of folate in the blood do not differ between patients with depression and normal people. Igwa Benjilan emphasized that although the results are shocking, the method of measuring the amount of folate in the blood may not be precise enough, especially in that it does not give an indication of how much folate is actually contained in the cells. Additionally, he believes that the methods used to measure homocysteine ??in the laboratory are more accurate than those used to measure homocysteine. This is also a critical issue that has not yet been resolved. As for why folic acid plays such an important role in depression, researchers explain that the human body needs B vitamins to produce an important substance in the brain, and a lack of this substance can easily lead to depression and other mental illnesses.
For Igwa Benjiran, current research supports a crucial message: Get your vitamins! He said, "Vitamins are very important. They not only contribute to human physical health, but also play an important role in mental health."
Acupressure treats depression
< p>We often see people who are depressed all day long, lack motivation, are unmoved by anything they see, have no expectations for the future, chatter every day, and live lazily. This kind of person usually doesn't want to talk to others. He often bends down and lowers his head, his eyes are dull, and he shows a lack of confidence. But this kind of people will not hurt others secretly, but will only say words of despair about society or themselves, but there are also some people who will nag "I want to die, I don't want to live anymore!". This is a typical case of melancholic patients, who are more likely to commit suicide.There is a clear difference between neurasthenia and depression. People with neurasthenia will never "want to die". Patients with depression will consider themselves, worries, consequences, etc. in order to survive until they cannot escape from reality. Only then will they develop thoughts such as "suicide". Patients with depression tend to dislike contact with others. If this tendency is strong, they will lack conscious symptoms, so it will be very difficult to recover. Therefore, patients with depression should be treated while their illness is not severe.
Mild depression may sometimes cause mental symptoms such as poor mood, thirst, loss of appetite, constipation, sore shoulders, body fatigue, reluctance to speak and other symptoms. In these cases, the help the patient's family can give him is to give the patient interesting things to make him motivated. But most people with depression generally have no hobbies.
Although patients with depression have no hobbies or interests, they have persistence, which can be exploited. Through persistence, he will develop self-confidence and desire for other things, so that he will gradually become more motivated. This kind of patient needs the warmth and care of his family, and he should not be stimulated with warnings.
Acupuncture points and acupressure methods for treating depression
The most effective way to treat depression is to acupressure the "Tianzhu" 2 centimeters to the left and right of the neck. When doing acupressure, first relax your body, then use the knife to alternately give 10 strong blows to the left and right Tianzhu points, repeat 5-10 times a day.
Acupressure "Zusanli" is also very effective in treating depression. During acupressure, exhale slowly while pressing for 6 seconds, repeat this several times.
When using the above acupressure method, if the family members provide warmth and care, the patient can feel cheerful in 2-3 days.
Psychotherapy for Depression
Every one of us will experience depression at some point, and that’s okay. For example, it is normal to feel sad for a short period of time after a loved one dies suddenly, and there is nothing to fear about this slight depression. If it develops into severe depression, it should not be taken lightly.
The prominent behavioral manifestations of patients with depression are: irritability, loss of all interest, even activities that they once enjoyed in the past; loss of appetite, weight loss, poor sleep, inability to concentrate, decreased energy, and feeling guilty , always want to commit suicide. There was a female teacher in a senior high school. When her leader asked her to teach junior high school classes, she always thought that she was incompetent and that living in the world was meaningless. She eventually committed suicide by hanging herself.
There are three theories about the causes of depression:
1. The "external cause theory" believes that it is the result of patients facing uncontrollable stress. This statement is based on experiments done on mice. Researchers gave rats electric shocks. When the rats that received the electric shocks learned a way to turn the shocks on and off, they would not develop depression; however, if they could not escape, they would suffer from depression.
2. "Biochemical Theory" It is believed that when a person's "norepinephrine" secretion is insufficient, appetite and exercise will decrease.
3. "Conflict theory" believes that the occurrence of depression is related to people's failure to learn how to face anxiety and conflicts in childhood.
For the treatment of depression, there are drug treatment and psychological treatment, and psychological treatment is the most important. An effective method of psychological treatment is "self-timely reinforcement method". This psychological treatment method is produced by the author on the basis of absorbing Eastern and Western psychological counseling theories and my long-term practice. Its theoretical basis is: the reason why some people suffer from depression is mainly the result of their continuous strengthening of their own negative emotions and behaviors. If they do the opposite and continuously strengthen their positive emotions and behaviors in a timely manner, The element of melancholy will become less and less and eventually disappear.
The specific implementation of the "Self-Timely Strengthening Method" is as follows:
First, insist on normal activities.
Some patients could go to work and do housework normally, but they do not go to work or even do housework. This is very harmful. The more this happens, the more useless I feel. In fact, patients are capable of completing work tasks and doing housework well. As long as you keep doing what you should do, your mood will not become increasingly depressed.
Second, leave room for planning.
Before going to bed every night, think about what you will do tomorrow. The plan should not be set too high, nor too low, leaving enough room for success. This way you can complete your plan smoothly every day. This is what people often say, "You can pick the fruit with just one jump."
Third, affirm yourself in a timely manner.
Before going to bed every night, you must fully affirm your achievements and progress in the past day, and do not talk about negative things. It’s best to keep a diary. Record your good experiences, progress, and achievements in your diary. Keeping a diary like this every day makes life more and more interesting.
Fourth, do not talk negative things to relatives and friends, and relatives and friends will not listen to negative words from patients.
This does not mean that there is no sympathy for the patient. The main thing is that when relatives and friends listen to the patient talk about negative things, it will strengthen them to talk about negative things.
Cognitive therapy can also be added to patients with depression, but cognitive therapy is only an auxiliary therapy for the treatment of depression. Practice has shown that cognitive therapy alone has little effect.
In terms of pharmacology, serotonin supplementation is the best drug for treating depression. Although it cannot immediately alleviate the physical symptoms, it can fundamentally cure it. It is not like a tranquilizer, which can only numb the nerves.