Depression Medication

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Welcome to our website. If you are researching medication for depression, anxiety or to combat stress, please know that medication alone is not the complete answer. Getting to what causes the emotional imbalance long term is the only solution. Depression medication is only a temporary relief, so that corrective action in other areas can be effected.

Before we discuss the families of chemicals, we need to put the usage of these drugs in their proper perspective, along with the other therapies. We must understand the role each form of treatment plays in your recovery picture.

Drugs may be a beginning, but a regiment of diet, exercise, and emotional counseling should be a part as well. Medication alone will rarely solve all the problems by itself. Depression or anxiety is most often a multi-dimensional issue.

When we think a thought whether created internally by our mind’s activity, or as a reaction to an external stimulus, our brains use chemicals to tell itself ‘this is a good thing,’ or ‘this is a bad thing.’ It assigns a chemical release to that thought that either gives us a good feeling or a bad feeling. That is called 'context' because it assigns an 'association' to it.

If you inherit a fortune from some forgotten relative, your brain would definitely assign a good feeling to that experience. The newfound wealth would not give you the good feeling, it is the chemical your brain releases that gives you that feeling.

Conversely if your ex just got a judgment against you and you have to fork out alimony for the next twenty years, which would cause you a bad feeling. Again, the judgment against you would not give you the bad feeling, but the chemical your brain releases upon hearing that would!

So far nothing earth shattering about that. However our minds can learn to behave differently so that our brains release-or fail to release- these chemicals at all. We constantly need this internal emotional activity caused by these chemicals to give us that sense of well being and enthusiasm.

Many of us with depression experience a total lack of enthusiasm and no emotional momentum, even without negative events to support it. We also feel like we cannot face the day and have no emotional energy to interact with others. That is normal for depression and you are not going crazy.

Our brains can also learn to misinterpret our events so that they constantly release negative chemicals, even when none are called for. In both of these cases is where the depression medication role comes into play. Balanced chemical activity creates an emotionally rich thought life, and imbalanced chemical activity creates lack of emotional satisfaction, and leads to depression.

Taking depression medication can teach our mind to begin releasing those chemicals again on their own. The depression medication can act as training wheels when we learn to ride a bicycle as children. In most cases focusing on the good feelings we had with earlier enjoyable experiences, along with the depression medication (the training wheels) will start the brain's chemical activity going again naturally.

The depression medication is the training wheels and the focusing on positive events is the therapy part. You will need both. Now we see the role of both therapy and depression medication, let’s look at the principals involved.

An imbalance of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain play a major part in depression and anxiety in both its short term and longer-term forms. Drugs treating anxiety and depression work on these imbalances, and are of several classifications; they are SSRI’s, (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), tricyclic antidepressants (tricyclics), and MOAI’s (monoamine oxadase inhibitors).

The SSRI’s work only on the serotonin in the brain and include Lexapro, Celexa, Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft. Tricyclics and MAO inhibitors work not only on serotonin, but also on the norepinephrine levels as well. Because of this, they have a broader list of more serious side effects.

These medications include but are not limited to Elavil (amitriptylene), Cymbalta, Effexor, Effexor XR, Aventyl, Pamelor, Norpramin, Tofranil, Wellbutrin, Nardil, and Parnate. Nardil and Parnate are very powerful drugs with many dangerous side effects. These two medications for anxiety should be a last resort if no other prescriptions work. For instance, eating black licorice, aged cheeses, or alcohol with either of these two medications can cause death.

Anti depressants have a host of side effects that may include increase or decrease in appetite, sexual activity, dry mouth, sleeplessness or drowsiness, irritability, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, glaucoma, blurred vision, constipation, diarrhea, inability to concentrate, headache, among others. Many of the antidepressants have an incompatibility with other medicines also.

For these reasons, take great care in their use. Any chemical will act to balance the brain, so to speak, by providing the missing elements so it can function properly. If the cause of your depression is the simple imbalance of these chemicals in your brain, then this is just the ticket. However, this is rarely the case.

The reason; depression is usually caused by unmet emotional needs in childhood. As we go through traumatic events, our brain chemistry can undergo changes. The brain can cause itself stress by feeling stress where there is no real stressor, only an imagined one and the cumulative effect of that is depression.

These imbalances will rectify themselves as we complete regiments of therapy and address our emotional issues on our own. The lack of balanced chemistry (serotonin, and norepinephrine) may not be the cause of our depression, for depression can cause the lack of that balanced chemistry as its symptom. If the real cause were unresolved emotional issues in childhood, no amount of drugs will compensate enough to balance out our emotions.

Our lives will not improve. While some people need depression medication for treatment, less than ten percent recover fully with the medication alone. It is still wise to start with a short term medication for anxiety and depression, since it is a primary step to begin at the simplest level, while counseling for other issues begins, at higher levels.

If the issues are deep enough, we may need group counseling in a supervised setting. If finances and time are not available to you for groups, then self-help can work, but you will have to work at it and stay focused.

However if you are serious enough about your own recovery, you can overcome your emotional condition. What matters is the intensity of the individual in his or her own recovery; and employing all assets of healing is the wisest choice, not just one asset of depression medication, hypnosis, or counseling alone.

Always begin with the simplest correction first at the lowest level. Begin with depression medication first, and look deep into your past for signs of some unmet emotional need from which you may be running. What your depression may be about is your soul’s growth. That may be a reason why drugs will not completely solve all your world’s problems.

If centered on emotional abuse, the cure for that is self-esteem work. The one tool that we want you to learn above all else is that Talking about it helps.

No matter what the cause or problem in your unique situation, and even if you do not know where to begin, talking about it with trusted friends will help heal. What happens in your mind is that when you talk, you mind will start to loosen up and things will move around in there. Thoughts come to the surface and subject matter will emerge in your conversation. The key here is to find and talk with nurturing friends who are good for you.

If you can walk alone somewhere with your friend as you talk, or at least sit outside, that is better yet- it is a biological thing. Sitting outside where you can see far away opens up your mind, and the act of walking loosens up your mind in exercise as you exercise your body.

The mind, body and spirit are all connected and what influences one dimension influences all others as well. Getting the brain’s chemical balance back will happen if we attack it from all angles; with depression medication, talking, and therapy activity of remembering feelings of good events.

Did you know our minds are constantly seeking patterns in the world around us? Scientists discovered that in trying to attach man-made eyes and ears to brains to gain sight and hearing, that the brains in the process actually learned to decipher the electrical codes or lack of, on their own! There are still mechanical barriers in that science, but figuring out the code the brain uses to create sight and sound inside itself turned out not to be one of them. Your brain can learn again how to release good feeling chemicals instead of bad feeling chemicals, or no chemicals at all.

With the aid of depression medication and talking about things with loving friends, you can achieve the mind’s chemical balance you need for a rich and full life.

God gave you your special problems and obstacles in life for you to work through and resolve by learning lessons. If you do not face those problems, understand them, you will not achieve your intended destiny of happiness. God wants you to understand something good about yourself that you do not understand yet.

God wants you to be happy, empowered and fulfilled. This depression and anxiety that you are presently stuck in are just temporary conditions in which God never intends for you to stay.

For help with depression medication consult a doctor whom you trust. Seek free treatments first, since for many of us, cost is a prohibitive factor. One of the most overlooked sources for free or very reduced cost counseling is your neighborhood church.

Please check them out, perhaps you will find a loving family of believers waiting to welcome you home!

For more please consider our book Overcoming Depression from Emotional Abuse/The Tools of Your Mind. In it, we take you through your spiritual journey back home to your Original Self. We talk about God's purpose behind that soul’s journey, as we follow our heart’s dreams to our ultimate destiny. We answer many questions about selfishness, prosperity, psychotherapy, and finding our dreams and happiness. We share much about boundaries. We also talk about the spiritual controls we have within to bring our good to us. Those controls are our Sincerity Switch, Spontaneity Switch, and lastly our Feelings and Dreams Switch.