Sites like Pillwatch concern me. They're really just a marketing tool for the big pharmaceutical companies and are no doubt funded by them. They impose as a given that the optional treatment for depression and other illnesses revolves around selecting the best medication.

Medication, as pointed out by examinator, only ever masks the symptoms. It does nothing to address the underlying causes of depression. Environmental factors such as stress and loss can contribute, but essentially depression results from a chemical imbalance within the brain. This explains why many people suffer endogenous depression which dogs them persistently off and on for no apparent reason.

This imbalance can be temporarily altered through drug use, but it can also be corrected nutritionally, which is information the drug companies make sure is well-suppressed. Cognitive behaviour therapy may have some use, but finding a professional who is well-trained and experienced in the nutritional diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems, if you can, is I think the real answer.

I'd lived with depression for most of my life. It was my 'normal', I didn't really know or imagine a different state of mind was possible. It was only when my health status deteriorated markedly a few years back that I started to slowly turn things around. I'd reached the stage of panic attacks and mental instability, which thankfully, along with the depression, is all very much a thing of the past now.

I'm not on medication. I still have to pace myself carefully, but have now basically achieved a very consistent mood state, purely through nutritional supplementation and specific dietary change. It's not without cost, in terms of both time and money, but I'd much prefer my hard-earned cash to be going to suppliers of nutritional food and supplements, than to Big Pharma!

I do think it's very different though once you've already gone well down the medication route, as Fractelle has. You would need very good professional advice, both psychiatric and nutritional, to make the switch. And if, like Fractelle, you've already found a workable equilibrium, it's possibly not worth upsetting it.

Bronwyn, vbvb
If one can get jealous over another’s ability to offer sound perspective I am jealous of Foxy’s skills. A complete medical history review is essential.
Bi-polar and the like tend be genetic and once contracted it is for life. One can perhaps manage the symptoms but rarely the condition. It is always there.
Contrary to vbvb’s enthusiasm for drugs or psycho therapies he is on conditional ground. There is no one size fits all solution for genetic conditions like Bi-Polar (better known as Manic Depression). Neither psychiatry nor drugs can fix genetic flaws except on symptomatic level.

The unspoken consequences of a mental malady are its effects on others.
Patty Duke is a clear example of how it can destroy the suffer’s life and families.
The diagnosis often negates the “for better or worse” marriage commitment.
Even those marriages that survive the sufferer views are often faced with their opinion being discounted with ‘it’s the illness’.
The illness often masks or increases more fundamental stress on relationships e.g. emotionally tip toeing around the sufferer that can lead to loss of spontaneity. When faced with counselling the unafflicted partner can harbour resentments or simply deny that it’s their fault with comments like “well he/she has the mental problem not me”.

My final point is that if cures are over sold (as they are) many non sufferers have the impression that cure is only a matter of pills or psychiatry and can become intolerant, comments like “ Why don’t you take your pills” or “go and see your doctor” all this can and does add to the pain of the sufferer.

Most times the sufferer just wants acceptance, to belong like everyone else.

Thanks Bronwyn & Examinator for your understanding. I have found a sort of equilibrium, but it is far from perfect - I am sure that the medication has had an adverse effect on my creativity, but without the medication I become very edgy and emotional, with it I am able to manage myself - hardly a cure. And still the common perception is that all people with mental illness should do is "pull yourself together" as if we are deliberately making ourselves miserable.

I have also had to increase the medication recently as my liver had become too well adjusted to processing a drug that I have been taking for years.

Another issue is that in the workplace or other organisations there is always the bully who has a built in radar for weakness. I am very good at acting, but on an every day basis anyone into bullying can sooner or later pick up whether someone is more sensitive than others. There are some very disfunctional workplaces out there, as a result I find temping the best solution, but this does not pay well.

Sorry to be so down too - but the topic is about therapy for treatment resistant people. I and many like me cope, most of us survive. And I do find joy in the world around me - trouble is that it doesn't pay the bills.

Love to all.

Fractelle:

"Another issue is that in the workplace or other organisations there is always the bully who has a built in radar for weakness."

Are you sure that the above statement is not the main issue?

examiner:
"Bi-polar and the like tend be genetic and once contracted it is for life."
That is a confusing statement, why not say that genes can be altered by drugs,lifestyle and the like?
Also once genes are altered, they should also be able to repair themselves, so that it is 'for life' is also a fallacy.
If I were in trouble with my mental health (if it was pointed out to me by a 'professional') I would be looking at what am I eating/drinking first, if found to be deficient in anything I would adjust that first, next I try to remember past trauma's and write them down (all of them). Then apply EFT on them..one by one.
You should try it. It cost only a bit of study and is free to all. http://apply-eft.tk
Once you get there, get the free manual which explains every thing.

Eftfnc - before you hand out advice in future, please consider the following:

1. You are quick to judge - a common characteristic of many who do not have full understanding of chronic mental illness.

2. If you had read all posts you would be aware that I and others are very careful about diet.

3. A propensity to Bi-polar is generally thought to be genetic - it may be triggered or exacerbated by drugs or other events.

I suggest YOU read:

http://www.depressionet.com.au/what-is-depression/what-is-depression.html

Which gives a very brief overview which is by no means comprehensive being based solely upon depression and not other illness such as schizophrenia, bi-polar, post traumatic stress and many other conditions.

As a qualified mental health nurse I have grave concerns about the pillwatch web-site. People need to be very careful about sites like this.

kalweb