For me they just chopped off the highs and left me the lows LOL.My understanding is that antidepressants don't make you feel happy, they just make the lows not so bad.
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For me they just chopped off the highs and left me the lows LOL.My understanding is that antidepressants don't make you feel happy, they just make the lows not so bad.
I don't think we can be happy if we aren't making some effort to serve others, and this includes the Lord.Honestly, when I am depressed I can't understand why other people don't share my depression.
There are two issues: enlightenment and depression. Sometimes I think that a durable sense of purpose coming from enlightenment might fix the depression. I'm not interested in enlightenment for its own sake.
But maybe trying to love other people would gradually enlighten me and then fix the depression.
For me they just chopped off the highs and left me the lows LOL.
There are two issues: enlightenment and depression. Sometimes I think that a durable sense of purpose coming from enlightenment might fix the depression. I'm not interested in enlightenment for its own sake.
Honestly, when I am depressed I can't understand why other people don't share my depression.
There are two issues: enlightenment and depression. Sometimes I think that a durable sense of purpose coming from enlightenment might fix the depression. I'm not interested in enlightenment for its own sake.
But maybe trying to love other people would gradually enlighten me and then fix the depression.
Scopolamine (AKA "devil's breath" LOL) works amazingly well for me about 50% of the time. Within 15 minutes of applying a motion sickness patch, the depression is completely forgotten and I become a whirlwind of optimistic productivity. Researchers think that scopolamine affects GABA. Since I only had a little bit of scopolamine, I have been experimenting with supplements that affect GABA such as l-theanine and CBD oil. They are both helpful.It's probably worth telling your prescribing doctor. Different meds work in different ways and they need to get the type of medicine as well as the dosage right. Some of them have to be taken regularly for a long time before there's any effect.
Enlightenment in Buddhism is more about escaping suffering than anything else, so it looks like it's precisely what you want.
I do have a friend who got over a depressive funk while experimenting with LSD, but I think there are better options out there.
This brings up another topic. I was googling to see if depression reduces religious faith, but all the articles claimed that religious faith reduces depression. I wondered if this is the old mistake of finding a correlation and incorrectly assuming a causal relationship.
For some reason Buddhism does nothing for me. I like Hinduism. Of course I don't know a lot about either.
This brings up another topic. I was googling to see if depression reduces religious faith, but all the articles claimed that religious faith reduces depression. I wondered if this is the old mistake of finding a correlation and incorrectly assuming a causal relationship.
Let's say I am correct that depression saps a person's religious faith and practice like it saps everything else. A survey would find that people who practice Buddhism or meditate regularly are less depressed, and people might prescribe meditation to treat depression. Actually the correlation is caused by the fact that depression makes it nearly impossible for people to care about Buddhism or meditate.
But I don't know how well designed were the studies suggesting that meditation can improve depression.
For some reason Buddhism does nothing for me. I like Hinduism. Of course I don't know a lot about either.
I've read some of Kitsch's meta-analyses. It was a big thing a few years ago, but psychiatry has largely settled back into its rut. The thing is that the antidepressants do work, we just aren't sure if this is an actual effect of them or merely placebo. The evidence is not completely clear, but still very marginally in their favour.I read this article on depression yesterday and felt validated by it. I took anti-depressants on and off (more on than off) for twenty years but they didn't help at all.
What has helped is using what I suppose are zen teachings and my faith in Lord Jesus Christ.
Ignoring negative, toxic people helps too (I'm sad for them but they have to figure out their own suffering and healing).
Accepting that suffering is part of life and seeing suffering as a gift that brings me closer to God has also been helpful.
Anyway, here is a link to the article about the book, which is getting some attention here in Europe. I feel that the government of the Netherlands are very aware that quality of life is a major factor in preventing and improving mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and addiction. Throwing medication at people is compounding the problem. Blah blah blah.
Is everything you think you know about depression wrong?
I think a huge part of the problem is that depression is a collection of mental illnesses with similar symptoms and no objective measure. For example, scopolamine patches seemed to work extremely well and extremely fast for me (like 30 minutes or less) - but only 50% of the time. The rapidity especially made me suspicious of a placebo effect, but I read about the patches and apparently they are designed to release a large amount at first and then a tiny amount to maintain steadystate. That matched my experience of their effectiveness. After the first 30 minutes the depression was either entirely gone or it wasn't going to work at all. After the depression was removed in the first 30 minutes I could remove the patch and the depression would not return for several days or longer.However, a word of caution. EBM has not shown strong evidence in favour of the efficacy of antidepressants beyond secondary placebo effect.
FWIW, from reading your posts it seems that you travel to Europe often. I have read that scopolamine is an over-the-counter medication in Italy and probably in other European nations.I have issues with depression and religious faith has had a serious effect.
I am familiar with that hypothesis, and there's some indication that it might be true. The mushroom was (and is) most certainly used in Siberian shamanic traditions, and there's strong hints it was integral to other traditions throughout the northern hemisphere.I read a theory that the soma plant of the Rigveda might be the fly agaric mushroom.
Assuming the fly agaric is the soma plant, then what would that indicate about the origins of the Aryan people? Did they come from Siberia? Or did the fly agaric at one time grow in the Himalayas?I am familiar with that hypothesis, and there's some indication that it might be true. The mushroom was (and is) most certainly used in Siberian shamanic traditions, and there's strong hints it was integral to other traditions throughout the northern hemisphere.
However, fly agaric is NOT a psychedelic mushroom containing psilocybin, but a deliriant. A completely different experience.
We've got a pretty good educated guess, based on linguistic reconstruction and material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics:Assuming the fly agaric is the soma plant, then what would that indicate about the origins of the Aryan people? Did they come from Siberia? Or did the fly agaric at one time grow in the Himalayas?
FWIW, from reading your posts it seems that you travel to Europe often. I have read that scopolamine is an over-the-counter medication in Italy and probably in other European nations.
I just took some CBD oil I bought from Bluebird Botanicals ( Welcome to Bluebird Botanicals - Bluebird Botanicals ), because I didn't ride my exercise bike and was feeling nauseated and shaky and depressed. It seems to work excellent today. (BTW, the quality if CBD oil seems to vary. Some I have bought doesn't seem to work at all.)
Also I believe the psilocybin mushrooms are legal in the Netherlands (?) You might give that a try. IDK