September is Suicide Prevention month; give a moment of support to all of those who have family problems, health struggles, job issues, worries of any kind and just needs to know that someone cares. BUT BEYOND THAT: depression is regulated by the amygdala. You can cure or alleviate depression thru meditating, for the science behind it, search Richard Davidson, U of Wisc. Learn how to meditate and teach it to your loved ones. Then contemplate the notion that you chose this life for a reason, its not random. In that choice, is all you need to know about why you're on the planet. What lessons you chose to learn, what difficulties you chose to overcome. Meditate on all those you've helped, or who have helped you, and thank them in your heart. Then open your heart to everyone and all things, and know that whatever is bothering you, like a raging storm, will eventually pass, and you can affect its passing via meditation or mindfulness. My 2 cents on suicide prevention month.
Some folks associate meditation with religious or holistic or natural cures. My point is, the science, the actual data, the peer reviewed data, shows that a particular form of meditation ("tonglen") cures or alleviates symptoms of depression by directly affecting the amygdala and its ability to regulate seratonin.
If someone has been using seratonin release inhibitors (for depression, anxiety, nervousness, sleep) theres a safe, no side effect, medically proven alternative to paxil, zoloft, prozac.
You don't have to be a monk to learn tonglen, but davidson himself told me its what he used in his ground breaking study.
I believe any doctor who doesn't acknowledge alternates to medication either hasn't read the study, doesn't believe the results, or is addicted to prescribing meds with severe side effects. It's not an "alternative medicine" option, in my opinion, it should be the main prescription, with psychotropic meds reserved to treat the extreme cases.
We tend to dismiss evidence if it doesn't fit the money making paradigm. It's not an opinion on my part, as i attended a lecture at UCLA where Davidson presented his evidence to a room full of doctors and psychiatrists eager to hear of a way to not "prescribe psychotropics to teens" as one doc put it. "Tonglen can cure or alleviate symptoms of depression." It should be taught in med schools worldwide. My two cents.
