Breaking barriers: How I overcame depression

[Candombera]

Hi,
I'm new here and I’d like to contribute to your journey by telling my story.

I was diagnosed with severe depression when my son was 9 months old. Hospitalised four times with heaps of medication. Professionals,
family and friends took care of me. I tried everything: group therapy, mindfulness, art therapy, meditation, reiki and electroshock therapy. Nothing was enough to lift me up.

I eventually got a bit better and was sent home. The hospital was after all, a safe place. Being home alone with my tortured brain wasn’t
easy. The cloud got bigger and the days and nights endless.

Months went by…. I had to get a job, get my life back. Do things, pretend to be well and happy. The cloud on my head was still there, on and
off. My medication, therapy, breathing techniques, walks in nature.. weren’t doing much for my recovery. I wondered If I was ever going
to get back to my old self.


One day, a meditation teacher suggested I should call an ayurvedic doctor for a consult. I had vaguely heard about Ayurveda, the Indian science of life. Hesitant and sceptical, I decided to give it a go. I had a Skype session with the most amazing practitioner.
She suggested drastic changes on my lifestyle and my diet. Getting up at 5.30am, going for a walk, getting home, doing yoga and meditation. No red meat, no most carbohydrates, no sweets, no alcohol.

I was overwhelmed and grumpy, but I embraced the challenge. I put all my energy into this, and I started to feel much better in a couple of
months. 
My ayurvedic doctor told me on the first session that the purpose of this treatment, long term, was that I would stop taking my
medication. I told the news to my psychiatrist. He laughed at me. He said I would be on my meds at least for five years.


It’s been a year since I started my ayurvedic journey. I lost ten kilos and haven’t been sick since (not even a cold). I’m now on the minimum dose of my medication, before getting off it forever. It’s been an incredible ride. My life gave a 180 degrees turn. I’m happy and grateful to be alive .

[demonblaster]

Thanks Dool, I've put it in my phone, is it a complex heavy to read type, don't know when but I want to start reading non fiction, haven't read for ages and was given a book called either the gut or Gut, how important it is what it does for us and the health issues relating to not looking after it.
The chooks a scientist I think & the tiny bit I read already sounds very interesting

Trying to slowly implement time management and thought wouldn't hurt to read two at a time.

Hear ya with excercise, mostly these days I'm walking, wanna keep it to mostly not just slump back but I too have to do it (hills) for core strength in back, luckily no pain unless it goes out and WOE mega mega agony. Excrutiating.

Have a good day Mrs D 🙂

[demonblaster]

Hey Cand 🙂

I also looked a little at some of Deepak Chopras vids, like and agree with some of what he said, like us being the universe is true & now we have a nice dose of brain block lol.

I will look furthur into this, may not do the Ayurveda (LOVE red meat and sugar but slowly losing the weight, have lost 50kg's so far about 30 to go, but certainly am keen to look furthur into it.

Soooo good to hear a strong success story like yours. Well done. Worth checking out.

Almost remembering Ayurveda, got it on paper and keep looking.

Hope you're continuing to be well and happy 🙂

[Candombera]

Hi Mrs. D.,

Nice to hear you're doing well with the exercise and the reading! I used to LOVE to read, still have a big bookcase full of books at home. But during my depression I've found it almost impossible to concentrate and lost interest in books 😞 Recently I started to get back into it, and I love going to the library too.

I see you're also volunteering in a shop. That's great! I'd like to get more involved with volunteering opportunities as I believe it's really important to do something for others when you're feeling good. And it also helps to give you a different perspective of what others are experiencing, and not always be thinking about: me, me, me (that usually happens when we're feeling down).

Keep up the good work, and have a great weekend!

[Candombera]

Hi demonblaster,

Interesting what you're saying about reading about the gut. For Ayurveda, there's a connection between the gut and the brain (you can Google this too and there are videos explaining it in more detail). I was told on my 1st Ayurvedic session that if I heal my gut (I used to have digestive problems) my brain would also be healed. Of course this sounded outrageous at the beginning, but since I had nothing to loose, I worked on that... and it happened!

I understand that you don't want to give up the red meat. I come from a country where we used to eat red meat 5 times a week. I could have never considered giving it up on my wildest dreams...! But you know what? Now I hardly miss it at all. Can't agree about sugar, as unfortunately there's nothing good about it.
But hey, every now and then I have cake and it tastes amazing!

I guess you must feel a great sense of achievement by loosing all that weight. Massive effort! Well done, keep it up, healthy body = healthy mind... we all know this.

Have a great weekend!

[demonblaster]

Thanks Cand

So you're not a sugar person, seriously what's wrong with you 🙂 (jokes) should be classed as a drug, hard one at that lol, gives a high, heaven on taste buds, low (coming down off) if you're like many & myself, once you've had some want more & more, greed factor working on squashing that too, OHHHH the PAIN....:)

Maybe one day the super brains, where would we be without researchers and scientists, many essential jobs don't have enough recognition for their input to make our lives easier, will come up with a way to block taste buds tasting fat and sugary stuff or maybe they'll do it with our smell sense, if you can't smell you don't have taste.

Yes depression has a knack of stopping us doing things doesn't it, like a heavy blanket on us.
Good you're getting back into reading, I know of others too, sometimes when I've been reading I've gone over the same paragraph several times, what fascinates me is the eyes still follow the words, just doesn't register.
I"ve packed a stubborn in the past and stopped trying after I get that paragraph lol

have a good one all