Overcoming Depression and Finding Happiness

Some severely depressed people need medicines to control their depression, but most people can conquer depression by following the suggestions in this excerpt.  Even those people on prescribed medicines for depression will benefit from the suggestions here.  If you feel severely depressed, most psychiatrists will use trial and error to find a drug that will help you.  But certain blood and urine tests can detect biological depression, pinpoint which drugs are most likely to be effective, and reduce the risk of depression recurring by determining when the biological imbalance ends.  For the fastest, most effective treatment of severe depression, find a psychiatrist who will use the dexamethasone suppression test (DST), the thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation test, and the MHPG urine test.  In both the DST and TRH stimulation test, the psychiatrist administers a hormone and monitors your body's response with blood tests.  Using these tests finds imbalances and predicts the effectiveness of antidepressants.  The MHPG urine test helps in choosing among antidepressants.  The tricyclic dose-prediction test, involving a test dose of antidepressant and a blood test 24 hours later, predicts therapeutic dose, minimizing dose changes and side effects.  When psychiatrists prescribe an antidepressant, they should order one or more blood tests to make sure your blood level of the drug is in the effective therapeutic range.

Perhaps one of the most common reasons for depression is a lack of enough interests and activities.  A small number of them tends to become routine and often boring.  Interests and activities are very important in mental health, contributing to self-esteem and happiness.  They give satisfaction, help make you feel good about yourself, and keep your mind off problems and negative thoughts and emotions.  Simply cultivating them can sometimes cure depression, grief, addiction, explosive anger, anxiety, excessive worrying, or guilt, especially if you do the activities whenever you feel the negative emotion.  They are also important social skills that give you pleasant and interesting things to talk about, improving your conversation skills and helping in making and keeping friends.  Children with many interests and activities are less likely to have behavior problems, including alcohol or drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, violence, and crime later on.  Their wide variety of interests keep them busy and out of trouble and naturally build different circles of friends, so they are less likely to be influenced by the wrong kind of friend.

There are three main kinds of helpful interests and activities: pleasurable, constructive, and altruistic.  Of course, pleasurable activities give us enjoyment.  We may do them just for fun or relaxation.  Constructive activities produce or accomplish something and give a sense of pride.  Examples include getting things done around the house, working on a project, practicing a skill, or studying a subject that interests you.  Altruistic activities help other people.  Examples include teaching a friend a craft, helping sick or old people, or volunteer work.  Altruistic activities give companionship, gratitude from other people, and a sense of pride.  Helping others is one of the best ways to lift yourself spiritually.  Helping less fortunate people can also give a healthy sense of perspective.  For example, your personal problems may appear trivial after a day volunteering with mental patients or dying cancer patients.