Depression, Sausages and Drugs

For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been.                                             John Greenleaf Whittier 

A sad tale's best for winter...What's gone and what's past help should be past grief.    William Shakespeare                                                             

As simplistic as it sounds, I am in the business of making people happier. No one walks by my or any other counselor’s office and says, “Hey, it’s a nice day, think I’ll go in for counseling.” Clients come in because they’re carrying around problems that need discussing, if not always solving.

Long ago, I read a pivotal study by Dr. Martin Seligman that positively influenced me. In the 1980’s his group of scientists performed an unkind experiment with dogs on “learned helplessness.” They  constructed a huge cage with an electrified  metal floor and shocked the dogs randomly until they just gave up, lay down in their cages and awaited the next jolt. They had induced despair. The story could have ended there, with a pack of highly neurotic dogs. However, these were scientists who had hearts as well as brains and they decided to see if they could help these dogs recover.

So, using sausages as rewards, they coaxed the dogs out of their pens. With some of the dogs it took as few as 10 times dragging them by the collar to the sausages, with others as many as 50 times, but ultimately all of the dogs recovered. I said to myself, "I think  perhaps I could help clients find the particular “sausage” that could coax them out of their own cages."

The drug companies would have you believe that only with their particular drug can you recover from depression. Pharmacology does have its place in psychotherapy, but significantly less than the drug companies would have you believe. The truth about antidepressants is that, in controlled studies, placebos did almost as well. [Turner et al, University of Oregon Health and Science 2006 and a 2005 article in Scientific American]. Pharmaceuticals is a multi-billion dollar industry and the last thing they want you to know is that there is a more natural route to recovery from depression that is nearly and perhaps more effective as taking their drugs.  

[Caution: If you are currently taking an antidepressant and want to stop, do not cease taking your medication. Talk to your doctor about withdrawing slowly.]  

The alternatives and, in my opinion, superior routes to happiness consists of simple things. You may have heard this over and over again but it bears repeating.

1. Do follow a healthy, nutritious diet, be modest in your portions and don't over eat.
2. Do at least 30 minutes of  exercise regularly (that means most days), which can be as simple as walking or yoga.
3. Do have several good supportive friends in addition to family members.
4. Do become aware and mindful in your life.
5. Do seeking counseling when troubled.
6. Do make sure you are amused and or laughing every day and share that with someone. 
7. Do remember that life can surprise you and be eager to have more good times in your life, even if you are going through a rough patch.
8. Do plan a trip even if it is to another neighborhood for the afternoon, but move the body away from staying house bound.
9. Do go beyond yourself and help a neighbor, call a friend in need, volunteer.
10. Do sit and let all of the sadness that is in you rise up and just watch it, don't judge it, allow it to be--- then get up and do something silly.

I realize that there are those who have done all of the above and still are depressed.I also realize that if you are grieving it is appropriate to be depressed but if it goes on and on it can become "complicated bereavement", turning into protracted depression.

One woman I saw awhile ago was diligent about this non-drug approach and she still was not able to escape her cage. In her case antidepressants was a necessary adjunct. Since numerous studies have shown that psychotherapy coupled with antidepressants greatly enhances recovery from depression, she was able to recover with the two. 

In our small town the Doctors are quite progressive and know that this is the case and frequently refer depressed patients to counselors. Sadly,  the coupling antidepressants with counseling seems not to be well understood in most of the country. Is it because the Doctors are ill informed? Is it because they fear that they would be insulting their patients? Is it that people are embarrassed to seek professional help? Maybe all of the above but something has got to change, it is ridiculous that so many people are needlessly on antidepressants.

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.  Robert Frost

Funny but true, most of us can’t make our own sausages so we turn to the butcher. Rewards, like sausages to a dog, can work for us whether it is a good meal, a hot bath, a good cry with a friend, a movie, candy, a trip, rewards can work.

Sometimes people just need a little tug on their collar in order to view their life in a new way and to get a reward. Counseling can provide that tug on the collar and open up a whole wide world of rewards.

Tomorrow: Effective silliness that cures most

susansmagicfeather copyright 2011 Susan R. Grout  all rights reserved.