I am a pre-medicine student right now, and I understand a little about this issue. First, we as doctors must be carefu; when dealing with any sickness, because there is probably a spiritual root that is simply being manifested physically in the chemical world. For example, not enough fatty acids or carbohydrates in your diet can be a physical cause to depression. However, if you do not treat it spiritually working with the physical world, you may end up addicted to food. This does not solve the problem, but actually makes it worse. Yes, you may feel better by correcting certain aspects of your diet, but there is the danger of overcorrecting the problem, which is usually the case if the spiritual root is not also treated simultaeously. I could tell a patient, you need to do this to your diet to balance out your chemicals, and if the realize how good this makes them feal, they are likely to do too much of this and overcorrect the problem. To further demonstrate my point, I will point out that our brain is composed of chemicals called neurotransmitters. I am going to quote directly from a book called Food and Mood by Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.: \"Until recently, scientists had identified only a few chemicals and hormones that regulated body and brain processes, including insulin, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and glucagon. But in the past 25 years the chemical story has become considerably more complex with hundreds of newly identified compounds that regulate everything from your mood and what you want to eat to whether or not you experience headaches or develop heart disease.\"
This is where things get difficult and this is why most psychologist will do more harm than good. Let me demonstrate how all of this relates. Too little of the neurotransmitter called norepinephrine can cause depression. Too much of the very same neurotransmitter can cause mania. Remember that I said earlier, not enough fatty acid or carbohydrates causes depression. Am I contradicting myself? No. There are several other chemicals that can cause it too. The danger should be obvious, but I will explain just in case. If your doctor treats the problem by giving you an exccess of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine and that is not the problem, if it is another chemical, it would result in mania, another mental disorder. Usually a proper diet and exercise is the best way to help deal with depression. Your body cannot produce vitamins. Are you providing vitamins in your food intake? You need a healthy balance of all 20 amino acids. Your body is likely to fix the problem without medication if you get plenty of red meat and vitamins in your diet. A well balanced diet is important. It would really be best to see a physician and specifically question him about your dietary intake. God mad our bodies capable of doing more than you realize. Remember, the more natural solution that you get to a medical problem the less chance of a negative effect. Always putting spiritual first, he created the physical and we can help the process. Actually the Apostle Paul did say that the physical is before the spiritual, so perhaps my comment about spiritual being first is wrong. Also, try jogging every morining. Studies have proven that anyone who exercises has an improvement on their mental health. If you never exercise, you are more likely to receive a mental disorder and medicine has been proven to rarely have a positive effect on mental health. Medically speaking I would personally stay away from ant-depressants, because I would be depressed by taking the anti-depressant! They do help some people, but the numbers are not convincing and they are VERY devided. If you would like, send me your dietary intake, and I will run an analysis on the chemical make up of your food and see if there is good reason to believe this is the root. I know people who starve themselves begin to see and hear things that are not real. Sleep deprivation can also cause this. Instead of thinking you are crazy and pumping yourself with a chemical that is causing more health problems, let us assume that even though you are eating you are probably not receiving certain important dietary neccessities that is resulting in voices because you have been deprived for such a long time. Exercise has been proven to work. Take me up on this and you will see.
