_:n1f6f4bc413f24c92a76941d4104d6d77xb10
<http://schema.org/description>
"I am not a scientist or even a nutritionist. I am nearly 60 and have suffered very serious depression for a lot of my adult life. In my early years I was prescribed a tricyclate called prothiadon which greatly improved my mood but had side effects and in fact made life so good that I had absolutely no stress and life became too easy, if that's at all possible. During my 30's decided to lose weight so joined weight watchers and lost a lot of weight by eating natural fruits, veges, meat and other proteins and carbs. Mostly I self prepared food and there was very little packaged foods and very little sugar. The end result was absolutely amazing and I felt the fittest mentally, physically and emotionally that I have ever felt in my life. Unfortunately I have not been able to maintain that eating program. In my 40's I suffered severe depression following trauma which was compounded by other circumstances. I was also going through menopause simultaneously and my mother passed away. My depression was extremely severe and at its worse was verging on psychosis. It was life threatening and I was trying to manage this situation without medication. I was prescribed an SSRI and Risperidone which had an immediate effect on the severity of the depression. However, I came off Risperidone because I no longer needed it and it was having the effect of giving me suicidal thoughts. I continued to take SSRI's and although they helped because I was no longer bawling I did not feel content or happy about anything and had lost interest in most things I enjoyed. I felt stuck so the doctor would prescribe another SSRI so I would try that only to find that I would improve so far, and then felt indifferent as I had before. I have been on this merrygoround for 10 years, on lots of different SSRI's and even contemplated going back onto tricyclates but doctors don't want to prescribe them anymore. \r\n\r\nSo after having tried the pills without real success, now having medical problems with an unhealthy liver and glucose intolerance and hypoglycemic reactions to sugary foods and carbs, and gained more weight than I have ever carried in my life I am looking to other things to help me deal with severe depression. The main things I am looking at is diet, because of the incredible effect it had on my well being in my 30's, involving myself with people, as hard as that is for me, getting into the hydropool to exercise and trying to monitor my thoughts because often they are self deprecating and I found I was not giving myself a pat on the back when I did something good or well. \r\n\r\nSo to sum it all up I believe the medication helped when I was extremely unwell but I believe my long term use of the medication has done physical damage to my body and that the medication will only take you so far.then plateaus out to uninterested indifference or medically speaking, adhedonia.\r\nBecause of the inability to improve further I am looking at diet, exercise, community involvement, prayer and monitoring my thinking patterns. The thinking patterns are very tricky and require constant work but I believe these thoughts about the self are formed when we are very young and considering I have allowed these thoughts to go unchecked for many  decades they are difficult to adjust. And I also believe that valuing yourself well is very important in psychological wellness. I hope instead of denigrating my views by those who have experienced life differently to me, you just allow me to express.  I wish everyone who has ever been bitten by the black dog every success in overcoming their illness and hope you find the solution which is right for you."
<https://chriskresser.com/treating-depression-without-drugs-part-iii/>