depression

[amandavanvels]

Keeps you in bed all day?  That is serious depression.  I have lived with depression since adolescence.  On and off of medications.  Off for the past 12 years with the use of high dose Omega 3 fatty acids.  I feel better off of meds than I felt on them.

 

Ditching the sugar helps me.  Getting out of bed, getting dressed, doing work at a cafe or park to just be out with people.  If you have a dog... walk it!  Enjoy that sunshine; it will make you feel better.  Force yourself to take a class:  yoga?  painting?  cooking?  

 

Don't wait for the depression to lift before you move on with your life in CA.  

 

In addition to the Omega 3s (fish oil is what I used), I take Vitamin D.  Healthy fats.  You can try Rhodiola or St. Johns Wort, too.

 

Keep pushing!  You might never feel the depression is gone, but you sure can get to the point where you are NOT defined by it.  

 

thanks for your advice! i just started taking cod liver fish oil and st. johns wort and i feel like it's helping a bit...i'm going to give it more time to full say if it's helping yet or not. i'll definitely look into taking vitamin d! it's been extremely gloomy in california lately and i feel like it's definitely not helping, so making taking vitamin d would be good for me. thanks again for the suggestions!

[amandavanvels]

Your meals look great, there's not much I would think to change... maybe some green veggies at the first meal but that's starting to get nit-picky!

 

I hope that you start to feel better and walking and church help but if you find they don't, please seek help... Like the poster above said, depression can get to a point where going for a walk seems laughable since you can't get out of bed but the guilt associated with the fact that you 'should' just be able to 'make' yourself do it has an exacerbating effect on depression!

 

i did email my church today to see if i could talk to one of their counselors, which i think is free, so i'm actually excited about the possibility of doing that. and yeah, i hate the guilt that makes you feel worse. it seems so easy to just go for a walk but it's not sometimes. thanks again for all of your input!

[Carlaccini]

I know realizing something and doing are two different things while a person is struggling with depression.  Good for you on taking action. This is huge!

 

Your meals look good overall - but I do encourage you to play around with starchy veggies. Or even combining starchy veggies and greens.  But don't worry about it too much - just work with what feels good for you any one single day.

 

For instance last week I was all about the starchies (pre period) - this week I am all about green veggies.  It is what I want right now.

[praxisproject]

Some people need a serve of starchy veg with every meal, so if you feel you're not getting enough you can have more

 

Emailing your church is great progress

 

Sometimes if you're not up for a long walk, sitting on a park bench in the sun can be nice.

I love it in parks where there's lots of birds and people with dogs.

[PamH]

thanks for your advice! i just started taking cod liver fish oil and st. johns wort and i feel like it's helping a bit...i'm going to give it more time to full say if it's helping yet or not. i'll definitely look into taking vitamin d! it's been extremely gloomy in california lately and i feel like it's definitely not helping, so making taking vitamin d would be good for me. thanks again for the suggestions!

Vitamin D will take a while to build up and actually help.  I think a blend of D3/K is helpful; at least 2000 IU/day.  Do you have a deck or patio that you can sit on to take advantage of the sun when it makes an appearance?  I actually believe my low cholesterol played (plays?) a role, too.  Do you happen to know your lipid numbers?  Total cholesterol should be above 150 for sure.

 

I know it is so much easier to give advice than to act on it when you are feeling depressed.  I've been there many, many times.  I just know how much physical activity helps me... but this is you we are talking about.  

 

I hope you find a person you can relate to at the church.  That would be wonderful.

 

Take care, and keep us posted!  We worry about our peeps.  lol

[Anasus]

Hi Amanda,

 

I am also in a similar situation, and I have a lot of faith that a diet change will help me, and same as you I do not feel an emotional change, for that reason I will keep going for a long whole30. Same as you for me it is no easy to go to therapy. But I really think that the sun (VItamin D) helps a lot, so I highly recommend you to go for a walk, the more the time you spend at home, more difficult would be to go out.

 

I wish you all the best

[coconutty619]

Hi Amanda and everyone,

 

Living in SoCal is tough--good looking, happy people everywhere and the cost of living is often overwhelming. That + depression = hard, very, very, hard. 

 

One good thing about living in SoCal, however, is the access to whole food, and access to nutritious living is on almost every corner. So is the beach, or a hiking trail, or a farmers market. Tackling depression is not as easy as some people think, but I find it's a lot easier on the W30, and that you never know what will help until you try. 

 

I have a family history of depression and am currently doing a strange dance with perimenopause, and nutrition has lessened the impact of these things on me, as well as exercise.  Walk on the beach at sunset, buy some kombucha from a farmers market, hike a new trail, and reward yourself somehow. 

 

Health care, whether traditional, employer-sponsored, holistic can be very expensive as well, but a call to Health & Human Services can get you referred to a doctor who can do a simple blood draw, and you can determine, or eliminate, many things factoring into how you feel. 

 

For me, potatoes feed my brain the carbs it needs. To keep up stamina, I add collagen protein (Great Lakes, green can) to everything I consume. Coconut coffee twice a day gives me a boost, but so does black tea from the Starbucks. Whole Foods just opened an Everyday 365 store in SilverLakes, Trader Joe's sells a lot of W30 complaint food, and Sprouts is a Whole 30 value-shopper's dream. 

 

I hope you stick with nutrition and get out there and enjoy what life in SoCal has to offer. Don't give up.