It is absolutely possible to cure depression
(I know this because I have done it)
I know that it is possible to cure depression.
I know this because I have done it myself through lifestyle changes (and without drugs). I’ve also seen other people cure depression the same way.
I do not say that it is easy (it isn’t), I say that it is possible.
When you’re suffering from depression, you need hope. You need to start from the assumption that depression can be fully cured with time, patience and work.
How common is depression?
In England, an estimated 8.3 million identified patients received an antidepressant drug in 2021/22 – a 5.7% increase from 2020/21 (and the 6th consecutive year of increase). This represents approximately 15% of the population.
And this is just the % of the population receiving antidepressant drugs…the total number suffering from depression (including those battling it without drugs) will be higher.
I’m not saying that people shouldn’t discuss depression with their doctor. But it usually makes sense to start with lifestyle changes first before resorting to drugs.
Doctors are often pushed down the route of prescribing drugs by their training, regulation and career incentives.
And often the drugs don’t work. Even if they work initially, they often lose effectiveness or give rise to dependency or serious side effects.
As always, this is not medical advice, for which you should talk to your doctor. Some people find anti-depressants a useful “bridge” back to normality. But the odds of achieving successful long term outcomes using anti-depressant drugs are not great and there are significant risks of dependency and nasty side effects.
The causes of depression are complex
The human mind is the most complex system in the universe. And depression is triggered by a complex mixture of factors that no one fully understands.
We do know that these factors are a mix of nature and nurture: genetics, environment and lifestyle all matter. Everyone is different. An individual’s genetics play a role in their pre-disposition to depression. As does stress (especially long term chronic stress…the type you can’t fight or flight your way out of).
According to Professor Huberman, depression is a condition of inflammation. Inflammation plays a valuable role in wound healing, it’s an integral part of our immune system. But too much inflammation for too long can lead to or exacerbate depression.
Prof Huberman explains how inflammation can impact the circuits of the brain that relate to norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin and can reduce the synthesis of these “feelgood” neuro-transmitter chemicals. This is by necessity a simplification of an infinitely complex system…the map is not the territory.
What is clear is that the mind and body are not separate entities; we are one complex biological system. Depression does not reside only in the mind and depression is not just a simple deficit of any one chemical. This is why the drugs can not work for everyone.
Thus tackling depression requires a holistic, multi-faceted approach. We need get to the root cause(s).
Does therapy help?
Counselling or therapy provides an alternative to a drug-led approach. And this helps many people.
It is certainly helpful to talk to someone who can help you see your blindspots or limiting beliefs and bring a fresh external perspective. But talking may only provide part of the solution.
Here is a useful generalisation (there are always exceptions): women often find talking about a problem to be liberating. But men generally need to work on practical solutions. Men need to feel effective, powerful and capable in order to shake off depression. Talking alone may not be enough to achieve this.
There are 2 other problems with the traditional talk-therapy approach.
Problem #1 with traditional therapy is that it’s often too slow. The idea of everlasting therapy is good business (for the therapist) but I think therapy should have an exit plan.
And problem #2 is that in therapy the patient is supposed to come up with their own insights and their own strategy (a patient-led approach). But how effective will this be in cases of depression where the patient feels hopeless and is not thinking straight?
In such cases, a more prescriptive approach may be required and it might be necessary to widen out the approach to include health and lifestyle interventions (e.g. stop drinking alcohol, start exercising with intensity etc etc).
What will you have to change?
If you have allowed your health to slide for years, you may need to change your entire outlook on the world.
My experience is that to cure depression it is often necessary to make multiple changes. It is likely necessary to address sleep, drugs / alcohol, exercise, diet and time outdoors…as well as talking about the problem.
Ultimately, I also had to move job (as well as get my health game on point). This suggests that depression is curable but there may be no easy answers, hacks or shortcuts. You may well have to change the actual circumstances of your life (as well as your mindset and bio-chemistry).
Alcohol
How many people are drinking alcohol (or taking other drugs) in a futile effort to mask pain and temporarily cheer themselves up…unaware that alcohol is literally causing their depression?
Hangovers are never much fun. But with depression, hangovers became intolerable. If you are suffering from depression, the only correct amount of alcohol is zero. Listen to your body and remove the booze entirely.
Sleep
This is a problem because sleep is the time when your body replenishes neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, the disruption of which can be causes of depression.
If you are depressed, you need to get as much sleep as possible. People act as if sleep is just something that happens automatically. But you may need to be more intentional. To optimise sleep, you need to sort out your circadian rhythm, your light environment, time outdoors and manage your smartphone usage.
Sunlight
Sunlight is a natural stimulant and anti-depressant.
The main cue for our circadian rhythm (i.e. our internal body clock) is light (which regulates cortisol, dopamine and melatonin amongst other things) and so it’s important to expose yourself first thing in the morning to natural light. You just get out and watch the sunrise for ~15 minutes each morning.
Exercise with intensity
There are many studies that show that exercise is much more effective for fighting depression than traditional approaches. In other words, exercise is more effective than counselling / therapy or prescription drugs.
This meta-analysis (a review of many other studies) found that:
exercise is more beneficial for conditions such as anxiety and depression than standard psychotherapy or medications.
essentially all forms of exercise produced significant mental health benefits.
high intensity exercise programs produced the greatest effect.
The results are so clear that one wonders why these findings are not better known.
Perhaps it is because people with depression might take the findings as implied criticism? Perhaps exercise just seems too crude and simple for such a complex condition?
But here’s the thing; it works. There is something uniquely beneficial about exercise and how it helps clear your mind as you mentally “get in the zone”. Exercise can help you turn-off the over-thinking and the anxiety and help bring you back into the present moment.
I know how crazy and counter-cultural this may sound but people unused to exercise need to learn to push themselves much harder. By this I mean push themselves physically to the point where it hurts and beyond. No pain, no gain.
There are a number of things going on here:
1) Obviously running is a great form of cardiovascular exercise with all the many benefits that exercise has for mental as well as physical health.
2) Hard exercise during the day is one of the best ways to ensure that you get to sleep that same night (when people say they have trouble getting to sleep, I always wonder how quickly they would fall asleep if they’d run a marathon that day?)
3) The time outdoors is super-helpful for light exposure during the winter, vitamin D and calibrating your circadian rhythm
4) Running in nature (park, wood, forests etc) is deeply calming for reasons we don’t fully understand but which are evolutionarily adaptive
5) Running provides an alternative and more benign form of addiction. Chasing PBs (personal bests) is a great way to shift focus onto something positive and something external to yourself
Cycling provides similar mental health benefits to running but is low/no impact and pretty much injury-free.
Eliminate sugar and junk food
Sugar is inflammatory. Remove as much added sugar is you possibly can. The seed oils and many of the other added ingredients in junk food are also inflammatory. The answer is simple: eat natural. This means whole foods, minimally processed foods, foods without labels, foods that are not made in factories then heavily packaged and advertised.
Supplements can help at the margin but should be thought of as “the last mile” of the journey.
Pattern interrupts
The problem with intelligent people is that they often over-value their intellect, reason and logical problem-solving abilities. As a result, they get stuck trying to think their way out of an over-thinking problem.
But if you are currently stuck in a bad situation, it was your best thinking that got you there.
“Trying to think your way out of over-thinking is like trying to sniff your way out of a cocaine addiction.”
Chris Williamson (Modern Wisdom podcast)
The fastest way to break out of a rut is to change your state. By state, I mean your emotional, physiological and bio-chemical state.
You have to change something in the body. You have to change your physiology. You have to change your state and the fastest way to do this is to use one of the following “pattern interrupts”:
Cold water immersion
Go for a run
Play uplifting music
High intensity exercise
I know that if you are depressed, you probably won’t want to do any of these.
And, on your own, you probably wouldn’t. This is where the value of coaching and an external perspective comes in.
You have to break out of the slump to change the pattern and shake things up. If you can overcome the inertia of depression, the mental win plus the physiological effects will give you a short term boost and build confidence over the long term.
First you change state, then you can change the story you tell yourself…and then you can get the right strategy.
Don’t suffer in silence
The purpose of all this is the alleviation of unnecessary suffering.
However, the sad truth remains that many people (especially men) suffer in silence and won’t ever speak to their friends and family about depression…let alone go to a doctor or therapist. This is a big mistake (albeit one that I understand well and have a lot of empathy for).
If you think you have depression you should get all the help that you can…good luck and hit reply if you think I might be able to help you.
Love to everyone
Barney
If you would like to talk about Health Coaching, you can choose a slot for a free introductory video call here.
If you have any questions, please hit reply or email me on barney.whiter@gmail.com