Depression is a far too common illness in the United States where more than eight million people of all ages suffer from a major depression each year.There are many types of depression, from non-life threatening ten days of sadness to a very serious major depression that lasts months and frequently recurs every year, sometimes ending in suicide.
How do you know if you are depressed? Usually you feel tired, cry, feel sad, can't concentrate, are irritable, lose interest in your job, and life doesn't seem fun anymore. You may also feel guilty or worthless, may sleep too much or too little, lose or gain weight and have various aches and pains.
If you are sad and tired and have several of the above troubles for two weeks or more, this is called a major depression. In such a case be certain to check with your health care provider for the cause and best treatment.
At times, a major depression may be due to the side effects of prescription drugs, street drugs, or alcohol, or from thyroid problems or poor nutrition. Medical research has found more than one cause for depression.
Prescription drug treatment of major depression calls for a drug called an antidepressant or the new serotonin uptake inhibitors. These drugs work 80% of the time to help depressed people feel well again, as along as they keep taking the drugs. These drugs change the brain's chemistry and when they are stopped the major depression usually comes back very fast, and the drugs have to be restarted and continuously taken. Antidepressant drugs, like Prozac and tricyclics, require a prescription because of potential serious side effects.
Most doctors treat depression only with antidepressant pills or electroshock because that is all they have been taught in medical school. Most doctors have never heard of, or studied, other ways such as music therapy, transcranial electrostimulation or the homeopathic medicines listed in the official Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States.
There are over 200 different homeopathic medicines that have been used to naturally treat various types of depression in the past 150 years. These homeopathic medicines are usually made from plants, minerals, and a few animal substances like snake and bee venoms and animal milks.
Homeopathic drug companies put the medicines in special solutions of alcohol, water, or sugar, that retain the healing properties and get rid of all the poisonous properties and side effects. This special homepathic way of making medicines makes them tasty and safe and much less expensive than chemical drugs. When homeopathic medicines are taken in 6X or higher dilution there is no possiblility of poisoning, anaphylactic shock, or allergic reaction.
The key to helping depressed people with homeopathic medicines is to find a medicine that is similar to the depressed person's mind and body traits and complaints. Since there are over 200 homeopathic medicines for sadness, the health care provider must take the time to talk with and examine the patient, completely understanding all their bodily complaints. This often requires more than one hour of time and the use of reference books and other tools to find the most similar medicine that includes the treatment of all the patient's complaints, and not just the depression.
For example, a woman with a serious depression who lost her desire to do anything responded to the homeopathic medicine AURUM metallicum which is the official homeopathic Latin name for gold. Her depression left her several days after taking tablets of Aurum metallicum. She was one of the 20% who did not improve by taking prescription antidepressant medications and she did not want electroshock treatment. Even after she stopped the Aurum, she remained free of sadness for months. At times her depression returned but never as severe as the first time, when, at the age of 65, her husband of 45 years died.