MediTation, MediCation and Depression
My grandma used to call it “transcendal medication.” She proved to have vision.
There is research just out on Transcendental Meditation being shown to reduce depression.
Some 40% of the populace is alleged to get depressed. Estimates vary. Anyhow its important news. Particularly in the wake of a recent Newsweek article: the depressing news about antidepressants. Its truly worth a read.
The final analysis is that the placebo effect may account for the bulk of any improvement noted from antidepressants.
So if I was contemplating antidepressants at the moment I’d do some reading first.
What’s depression? And where to get help? There are masses of Internet resources about.
Any down patch that lasts more than a fortnight could be diagnosable as depression. And its serious; but the good news is that treatable. Its normal to feel unhappy, moody or low from time to time. But if you experience these sensations intensely, over a long time and without reason maybe you better do something about it. Its hard to function normally when you are depressed. Worse still, neuroscientists even talk about long-term damage to the brain.
According to Beyondblue.org, depression is a common mental health problem, experienced by one-in-five people at some phase of their lives.
Common behaviors associated with depression include:
? uncharacteristic moodiness ? increased irritability and frustration ? finding it hard to take minor personal criticisms ? spending less time with friends and family ? loss of interest in food, sex, exercise or other pleasurable activities ? being awake throughout the night ? increased alcohol and drug use ? staying home from work or school ? increased physical health complaints like fatigue or pain ? being reckless or taking unnecessary risks (e.g. driving fast or dangerously) ? slowing down of thoughts and actions.
Most individuals assume that depression is caused simply by recent personal difficulties. Beyondblue asserts depression is commonly caused, however, by the mix of recent events and other longer term or personal risk indicators.
Seemingly, ongoing difficulties, for example long term unemployment or living in an aggressive or uncaring relationship, are likely to cause depression than fresh life stressors. Depression can also run in families and a few people will be at increased genetic risk. But this does not imply that you will automatically suffer from depression if a parent or close relative has had the sickness. Life circumstances are still likely to have an important influence on your chances of falling sick.
It is also common for folks to experience depression and anxiety at the same time. Now, it would surely follow that anything that reduced anxiety would help depression? And that’s what we find with meditation. There are plenty studies out there on the good consequences of meditation in general and TM particularly on anxiety, that there are meta-analyses, i.e. Studies of studies on the issue. And Transcendental Meditation appears to be the big one, leading to a significantly larger anxiety reduction than other systems. For an example, search for a study on anxiety outcomes for different forms of meditation by Ken Eppley.
My position is that I learned the TM technique and depression went away for roughly thirty years. That is not such a bad end result at all. And may in some measure reveal why I am so hot on this stuff. At the very least there aren’t any complications. Read and inform yourself here how TM will help you improve your physical and mental health.
Doctor Richard Broome and his spouse Vicki run the Houghton TM Centre in Johannesburg. He has got a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Cape Town. His scientific research was on stress alleviation at the worksite using Transcendental Meditation.