Nutritional deficiencies are a big part of my own depression story. I spent the formative years of my life on low fat diets of bagels and imitation cheeses. Nary an Omega-3 was to be found. I proceeded through life managing nonetheless until my body was charged with making an entire new person. As my son’s brain developed in my womb, he sucked the limited Omega-3 stores out of me and I went bananas from the lack. I produced the food that grew him out of his infancy as well, a food that also required Omega-3 fatty acids and many other nutrients. We just celebrated his sixth birthday and I am finally feeling recovered from my task of producing him.
Omega 3 fatty acids were a critical thing I was deficient in and until I fixed that deficiency, all of the talk therapy in the world would not have gotten me very far above zero. It may have helped keep me out of a deeper hole, but it would not be effective on its own in improving my health.
What has happened as I face the rest of my life and establish structures for myself to maintain my mental health, I realize that the key for all of us is to determine what we are most deficient in that we can change. Focus on changing that. The food nutrients are in our control. It is a fairly easy place to begin.
What I am finding more challenging for myself is engaging in positive behaviors like rest and relaxation. It is sometimes difficult to give ourselves what we really need. Here are some of my reflections on my own life and I am working hard to integrate them into my lifestyle.
Every day should have a wee bit of vacation in it.
My son and I went to the coast earlier this month and it was absolutely fantastic. You cannot beat the central coast of California. I looked at real estate guides and found dream property for $4 million dollars. I looked at rental prices thinking that we should spend a month (or at least a week) on the coast. My thought was that if we rented a place, it would need to have a deck outside so that I could sit and breathe fresh salt air.
Somewhere in all of that, I thought “You know, you have three decks at home and two flat roof areas where you have managed some sunburns. Sequoia National Forest is a vacation destination for a whole lot of people. Why do you need to go to the coast to relax?”
I could relax and recover a bit every day, right here in my own home. Wow.
I could even make use of my "redwood office" (pictured above), now that the road to the high Sierra is open for the season. Wow.
I could even exercise. Wow.
Right now I am extremely deficient in rest and exercise. The Omega-3 fatty acids are fine.
Work hard when you do work
The key to allowing the extra vacation time every day is to work hard when you do work. Work hard and then draw the line and walk away. I know it is nearly impossible to do, but if rest is key to health (and it is), then so is walking away.
I have taken to holing myself up each morning and busting out work in the first few hours of the day. I announced that I am “taking off” the month of April which really means “only working in the morning.” It is amazing what you can do in the morning when that’s all you have. I may “take off” every month.
Stay out of politics
This one is actually nearly as difficult for me as getting rest. I blame my mother who had me work in the local political machine as a young girl. Over the last six months I have been involved in raw milk politics and I can certainly say that it has not been good for my health. It’s not really the fault of raw milk. I do recognize that politics is a bad place for me to be. I get wrapped up. I get competitive. I take things personally. I spend a whole lot of my creative time trying to figure out how to get the other guy. That’s just not healthy. And frankly, this particular issue got real complicated.
The depression tie-in
Most of us know that it’s the craziness of our lifestyles that leads to craziness in our brains. Increasingly research is telling us that reducing lifestyle craziness is critical. There is increasing evidence that an underlying cause of heart disease, diabetes, AND depression may be inflammation in our bodies. Depression-fighting foods, particularly those high in Omega-3 fatty acids and B vitamins, reduce inflammation. But all of the B vitamins in the world will not get you above zero if you what you really need is rest. All of the Omega-3s in the world will not get you above zero if you insist on involving yourself in ugly political battles or workplace battles that don’t need your help.
Foods and nutritional supplements are a great place to start and may provide miracle-like results if you are deficient in those nutrients. Look around at your own life and make the changes that are going to get you further out of the hole or, hopefully, well above zero.
Comments (4)
Hi,
Really like your website, found lots of interesting info. Keep up the good work!!
Nutrition, nutrients and water are KEY to health!!
As a website owner myself, we believe this article may interest you.
You can get paid up to $4,800/month to add a banner ad on your website. A famous network just offered to pay any website owner up to $4,800/month to show their banner ad on their websites!!
And listen to this...Even if you chose to remove their banner ad from your website after the one month of exposure, they'll keep on paying you that amount every month afterward!!
Read the article. Link http://viralurl.com/acemarketing/CTmoney
I can say that this has allowed me to increase the traffic to my website, increased my sales, brought in new business builders into my business, allowed me to contact other networkers, advertise for FREE and make more money on top of all of that. I am able to use a simple keyword search and find affiliates of all programs....including, clickbank, ebay, paypal, network marketers, etc. Just 2 months old. Great results over all.
Will soon be back to visit again.
All the best....
Angela
P.S. Feel free to leave a comment on my blog page and leave a link to your main website. www.netwebmarketer.com/acemarketing
Posted by Angela | April 28, 2008 2:29 PM
Posted on April 28, 2008 14:29
How right you are Amanda! (as usual) Rest, rest, rest! It's one of the things that has gotten me to a place of healing from Lyme Disease that and so much of the other food advice you give.
What I would give to see those great Sequoias. My sis took me in 98 and we got lost on another mtn! LOL! We did see some big trees but mostly spent our time riding around trying to figure out where they moved the visitor center! Oh my sis just can't read a map! She took my other sis a few weeks ago but her husband drove and they found the trees.
For mother's day I got a "relaxing" chair for the deck...just like you I will take some time off to rest in it.
Hey, I've thought of you a lot this spring...I've had Poison Ivy several times and once was before it even leafed out....I laugh thinking about it...when will I learn that it doesn't die in the winter!
Take care and enjoy the big trees. Sun is also a great healer.
Diane
Posted by Diane | April 29, 2008 4:57 PM
Posted on April 29, 2008 16:57
Diane,
I am sorry you missed the redwoods! They are really spectacular. I tried to drive up yesterday but the road is closed and, apparently, the redwoods are still covered in snow. From here it doesn't look like we have much snow up there but apparently we do.
On the poison ivy/oak, my system now (after eight exposures in the last year) is to strip outside and quarantine the clothes, shower with Tecnu's soap, and start taking the Hyland Homeopathic remedy immediately. It all makes a big difference. I also wear pants and long sleeves. That probably helps a good bit.
Enjoy that chair!
Amanda
Posted by Amanda Rose | April 29, 2008 6:53 PM
Posted on April 29, 2008 18:53
Amanda,
My husband recently began growing and selling an oil made from camelina seed. It's high in Omega 3 like Flax but he's been trying to sell it as a anti-aging skin serum. After reading your blogs about the relationship between Omega 3 and depression, I thought I should try to take it internally. I've been on anti-depressants for around 5 years now. I started taking a tablespoon a day of the camelina oil and stopped taking my medication. I've been doing surprisingly well for the past week of this experiment. I have 2 questions for you. Do you think 1 Tablespoon is a good dosage of an Omega 3 rich oil? Also, have you done any research into Omega 6 fatty acids? The camelina oil contains 1 part Omega 6 for every 2 parts Omega 3.
Posted by Sandy | July 1, 2008 1:38 AM
Posted on July 1, 2008 01:38