Words of WisdomDepressionJune 2007  Feeling worthless, helpless or hopeless, sleeping more or less than usual, eating more or less than usual, having difficulty concentrating or making decisions, loss of interest in taking part in activities, decreased sex drive, avoiding other people, overwhelming feelings of sadness or grief, feeling unreasonably guilty, loss of energy, feeling very tired, thoughts of death or suicide. These are all signs of depressions. Most people have felt depressed at some time in their lives and for many, the depressed moods are brief and disappear on their own. When a case of the "blues" won't pass after a couple of weeks and begins to interfere with work, family and other aspects of life, the low mood is usually a sign of clinical depression. According to Health Canada and Statistics Canada, approximately 8% of adult Canadians will experience a major depression at some point in their lives, and around 5% will in a given year. Depression continues to be Canada's fastest-rising diagnosis. From 1994 to 2004, visits for depression made to office-based doctors almost doubled. In 2003, that meant 11.6 million visits to doctors across Canada about depression. Depression is not prejudicial. It can affect children, seniors and adult men and women of all socio-economic backgrounds and is very sneaky. During a major depression, a person's general outlook on life can shift dramatically. It can lower a person's sense of self-worth and change how they feel about friends and family. Since depression affects the whole body, it can alter eating and sleeping patterns, increase restlessness and overall fatigue, and even cause mysterious symptoms of physical illness. Disabling episodes of depression may occur many times or only once, twice or several times in a lifetime. Twice as many women as men are diagnosed with depression. However, this may simply indicate that men are less comfortable seeking help or do not get an accurate diagnosis since depression in men often manifests itself as a substance abuse problem. You can have control over your health! Healing is both an inner and outer process, and the 8th Side is very conscious about working with our medical professionals when it comes to caring about the entire person. We encourage you to involve your medical doctor in your therapy sessions with us and communicate what has been effective. What we offer is a different way of approaching health that is able to work in conjunction with traditional medicine.   |
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