A few years ago I had a serious emotional breakdown from severe insomnia. At one point it got so bad I started feeling microscopic “bugs” crawling all over my skin at night. I’d spend an hour scanning my arms with a magnifying glass trying to find invisible insects (this is a condition called formication). Formication […]
Tag: Anxiety
Letter to the anxious, the panicked, the depressed: Healing starts here.
(Picture courtesy of: FreeDigitalPhotos.net) It astounds me how many people today are desperate for help to manage their long-time anxiety and depression. Many people have been caught, some for decades, in a medication loop with their doctors. Numerous physicians with the best intentions, simply practice what they know — conventional symptom-based medicine, rather than […]
Vitamin D Deficiency, Fibromyalgia, Anxiety & Depression: Possible Links
(Photo credit, Maggie Smith) While researchers have found a relationship between insufficient vitamin D, chronic pain, anxiety and depression, the exact causality is still unknown. Researchers in a 2007 study reported in Clinical Rheumatology that vitamin D deficiency is common in people with fibromyalgia and also occurs more frequently in those with anxiety and depression. Yet research […]
Depression Caused by Low GABA Rather Than Serotonin in Some
Photo credit, Flickr Doctors may be closer to treating major depression in individuals who don’t respond to selective-serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and selective-serotonin nor epinephrine re-uptake inhibitors (SSNRIs). Medications prescribed to treat major depression are often those designed to increase the availability of serotonin, dopamine and/or nor epinephrine in the brain, neurotransmitters involved in a […]
Five Ways To Improve Mood Naturally: Dopamine, GABA, Fish Oil…
(Photo credit: Kittikun Atsawintarangkul) Depression and anxiety treatment continues to explode as a highly profitable industry for drug companies. A growing number of people are popping prescriptions, desperately seeking solutions that will work long term and don’t carry risky side effects. Pharmaceutical companies continue to spend millions on advertising to convince consumers that the solution to […]
GABA: Increasing the Brain’s Own Calming Chemical
Photo credit: Renjith krishnan Anxiety has become nearly a near epidemic as thousands of people today struggle with feeling chronically anxious, irritable and unfocused on a daily basis. And for some, persistent untreated anxiety seriously interferes with their ability to function in social and workplace settings. Low levels of GABA, gamma-aminobutyric acid, may be a […]
11 Ways to Naturally Improve Depression or Anxiety
Photo credit: Digitalart While the pharmaceutical companies continue to promote expensive mood medications that come with a long list of side effects to manage anxiety and depression, in many cases, natural therapies alone or in combination with low dose medication can alleviate symptoms, and without side effects. Re-think Serotonin theory on depression Many prescription anti-depressants […]