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Natural Alternatives for Depression When There Is No Pharmacy

By Cat Ellis

Depression impacts millions of Americans every year. Most of these people are taking some form of antidepressant. In an SHTF situation, pharmacies will not be available. This article will cover alternative ways to manage depression where prescription drugs are not an option.

What Is Depression?

If we are going to form a backup plan, we need to understand what depression is. Depression is more than just sadness and grief. According to Psychiatry.org:

Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.

Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:

  • Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
  • Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
  • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
  • Loss of energy or increased fatigue
  • Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., hand-wringing or pacing) or slowed movements and speech (actions observable by others)
  • Feeling worthless or guilty
  • Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
  • Thoughts of death or suicide

Symptoms must last at least two weeks for a diagnosis of depression.

What Causes Depression?

Depression is a complex condition without a single, root cause. It used to be thought that depression was just a lack of certain chemicals, neurotransmitters, in the brain. According to Harvard Health Publishing, however, depression is caused by a combination of factors.

It’s often said that depression results from a chemical imbalance, but that figure of speech doesn’t capture how complex the disease is. Research suggests that depression doesn’t spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, medications, and medical problems. It’s believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression.

The article goes on to point out the importance of connective pathways, and not just the levels of the chemicals that travel them:

Popular lore has it that emotions reside in the heart. Science, though, tracks the seat of your emotions to the brain. Certain areas of the brain help regulate mood. Researchers believe that — more important than levels of specific brain chemicals — nerve cell connections, nerve cell growth, and the functioning of nerve circuits have a major impact on depression. Still, their understanding of the neurological underpinnings of mood is incomplete.

Other factors play a role as well. Genetic predisposition, hormonal shifts, diet, lifestyle habits, experiencing trauma and loss all can increase your risk of depression. Nutritional deficiencies, food sensitivities, and imbalances in gut bacteria are often ignored causes of depression.

Depression doesn’t discriminate either. People from all walks of life may develop depression. However, gender and financial security are two factors that increase the risks. Women are twice as likely to develop depression as men. Not surprisingly, people with more financial security experience less depression than those struggling to get by.

How Many People Have Depression in the US

According to the CDC, depression impacted 8.1% of Americans over a two-week period from 2013-2016. The US population in 2016 was 323.4 million, according to the US Census. This means, in 2016, there were almost 26.2 million people with depression in the US.

This is different, however, than the number of people taking anti-depressant drugs. Anti-depressants are prescribed for multiple conditions, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and generic “mood disorder” diagnoses.

According to Time Magazine, 13% of the population was prescribed anti-depressant medications in 2017. Given the US population in 2017 was 325.7 million people, 13% works out to be over 42.3 million people.

That’s 42.3 million people who will run out of medication post-SHTF that will need other options. Read that again.

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One Comment

  1. Jack Jack November 26, 2019

    Two remedies the author forgot: 1) Singing some really good C & W or rock as loudly as you can. Solo car journeys are great for this! 2) Kicking the crap out of some ANTIFA punk, legally, because you were lucky enoug to find them at what what was an otherwise peaceful demonstration, assaulting someone who us defenseless. You’ll feel better for weeks!

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