Overcoming Severe Depression Through Mindfulness and Meditation

For many people, the battle with depression is a long one in which we win far less than we lose. The feeling of hopelessness after we have taken control of caring for ourselves is probably the lowest we have ever felt. What have I done wrong? The question races and races day after day as nothing seems to improve for us, one day we feel okay and the next we are in bed unable to find the purpose in waking up. Many people change their medication, believing it to be the sole cause of ineffectiveness, and after two or more rounds of different antidepressants and not feeling any better, we are shattered.

There is too much importance placed on the role of prescription drugs in treatment for depression. Just as high cholesterol cannot be solved by medication alone, depression requires an active lifestyle and proper nutrition to get a hold on our health. Still, one link is missing; depression does not only affect the body, but also the mind. Drugs and nutrition are essential to our care, but the highest mountain we have to climb is that of learning to be in complete control of ourselves.

Still, some people respond very well to their first prescription. The claims of the percentage of people medication actually works for varies from 12 to 70 percent. This explains part of why so many of us go through periods where our depression seems suppressed and times when we feel just as down as before we began treatment or worse. Some people find refuge from their depression through endorphin-releasing practices like exercise and by consuming foods rich in calcium, zinc, folic acid and other nutrients that treat one of the five most common biochemical disorders found common to people with depression. Some speak to counselors once and discuss their problems and leave with what they have learned and thrive. Still others, those whom we envy the most and may not believe in the reality of our depression, are able to snap themselves out of it, deal with it, and move on.