What is causing you to feel Depressed?
Getting to the root cause
When someone who is displaying symptoms such as sadness, hopelessness, difficulty sleeping, disinterest in daily activities and food, and they are told that they have depression, that’s not helpful. Depression is not the cause of their misery, it’s the name we assign to their symptoms.
I continue to emphasize the importance of treating the root cause of illness because the actual cause of any disease varies greatly from person to person, and in order to properly determine a treatment, we must first understand the root cause.
This applies to any illness. Your heart disease is not the same as your neighbor’s heart disease. Same goes for diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and so on. These diseases are dysfunctions of each individual’s physiological functioning. Each person’s genetic compositions vary, as do the causes of their illness, and therefore, so should their treatment.
Continuing with depression as an example…
The cause of depression could be any of the below:
Leaky gut caused by gluten, which activates the immune system to produce antibodies against the thyroid, leading to low thyroid function and depression
A vitamin B12 deficiency
A folate deficiency
A vitamin D deficiency
Mercury toxicity
Omega-3 deficiency
Prediabetes from a diet high in sugar
Changes in brain chemistry as a result of trauma or stress
Alterations in gut flora from antibiotics
Each of these issues creates a different imbalance in the body, and they can all cause feelings of depression. If any of these happen to be the cause of someone’s negative mental state, the most beneficial and effective treatment may be an increase in certain vitamins, or to clean up their diet and gut microbiome, rather than prescribe an anti-depressant, as the latter does not address the root cause.
I want to be very clear that anti-depressants are absolutely critical in certain cases, and this is by no means a recommendation to stop taking your prescribed medication. You should never stop taking medication without your doctor’s approval. If you aren’t seeing desired results, I encourage you to seek out a health coach or a functional medicine practitioner and do testing to see if any of the above are possible contributors to your emotional state. If so, they can recommend foods and supplements to incorporate into your diet, in additional to the medication your doctor has prescribed, to see if your symptoms improve.
Aside from failing to address the root cause, categorizing symptoms and prescribing a blanket medication reinforces to the patient that control of their health is external, as opposed to within themselves. Helping the patient understand that they have control over their ability to get better is an incredibly powerful healing mechanism. Lastly, the most important ingredient for healing is hope.
Treatment should be personalized to the individual’s genetic makeup, environment, lifestyle, and diet. Practitioners should empower their patients and give them hope.
May is mental health awareness month, so I encourage you to seek help if you need support.
