Treatment can sound scary, ominous and unpleasant.
Visions of pain, unpleasant medical facilities and doctors in white coats might fill your mind. Ok, yes, some treatments may be a little scary. Medications you haven’t tried with possible side effects. The proverbial therapist’s couch where you discuss your innermost thoughts. These are important treatments, but they aren’t the only ones. We’ll will review some of these more traditional treatments later. Today, however, I want to discuss some of the more relaxing and (and less scary) activities for depression. These activities may help both depression and physical pain. Depression can manifest itself as both emotional pain and physical pain such as headaches or stomach upset. Therefore, it can be helpful to treat both. If you have ever had a massage, think about how you felt afterwards. Chances are, you felt both relaxed physically and mentally. That is the feeling I hope you get with some of the activities I mention below.
*The amount of research on psychological and physical approaches varies widely depending on the practice. For example, researchers have done many studies on acupuncture, yoga, spinal manipulation, and meditation, but less so on other approaches.
Let’s start with yoga. It started years ago as a spiritual practice from an Indian philosophy. As time passed, it has changed into a way to get in shape both physically and spiritually. There are so many types of yoga nowadays- beginning stretching yoga, advance yoga, hot yoga, etc. You can find a type to fit both your physical ability and interest. You can take a formal class or find a video on-line. Be sure to start slow. The moves look easy but if you have not done it before, or if it has been a while, you may time to get used to the moves. The last thing you want to do is hurt yourself! That defeats the whole purpose of feeling better! Years ago, my husband and I decided to take a yoga class at our local gym. We were looking for something to do besides a spinning class or an aerobics class. To our surprise, we really enjoyed ourselves. We found ourselves coming home relaxed, albeit a little sore, and ready to care for our two little ones. You learn how to stretch, improve your flexibility and learn to breathe deeply (something that is always helpful!).
Now, let’s talk about acupuncture. Ok, yes, it may be slightly scary because there are needles. Acupuncture is a technique in which practitioners stimulate specific points on the body—most often by inserting thin needles through the skin. It is one of the practices used in traditional Chinese medicine. It has been around anywhere for over 2000 years. Some sources believe it may be over 4000 years old! The needles used are very tiny. They may cause little to no discomfort. I have tried acupuncture. It is hard to believe it can be helpful. It looks like magic to me or hocus-pocus. But a good practitioner can be very helpful; especially when combined with herbs. Some insurance plans cover a few visits for pain or nausea with pregnancy. Some people find it very helpful for significant pain and it can help depression as well.
Spinal manipulation, better known as chiropractic care, has become more common and mainstream. Chiropractors are specially licensed providers that move the spine and joints by gentle pressure and stretching. The supposed story of modern chiropractic care began in 1895 when David Daniel Palmer adjusted the misaligned spine of a partially deaf janitor. The janitor, whose hearing issue started when his spine popped out of alignment, returned after Palmer’s adjustment. Palmer opened a chiropractic school a couple of years later. I find spinal manipulation extremely helpful. It took some time until I found the right chiropractor for me. Now, after a short 15-minute visit, I can go from pain to feeling good. I experience pain and stiffness in my neck. When my neck hurts, I can become irritated. I know truly understand the saying “pain in the neck!” Relief of my neck pain helps my mood as well.
Meditation is a little bit harder for me to describe. I don’t quite really understand it myself. I tried different types, read different articles and books about it but it is still hard for me to grasp. Meditation is thousands of years old and is thought to come from the East. The purpose is to calm the mind and help the mind and body work better together. I do find it helpful to take a few minutes out of my schedule to close my eyes and take some deep breaths. Many people tout the benefits of meditation saying that they find a sense of calm and peace with it. Therefore, I plan to explore it further.
Yoga, acupuncture, spinal manipulation and meditation are some of the most common treatment options. The cons are that they may involve a small cost and you need to find the right situation/provider. The pros are that you can see results in just a few visits and there are no side effects. If you have tried any of them, I would like to hear about it!
While these tend to be more common modalities, there is so much to choose from. The “fun” part (looking at the glass as half full) is that most anything can be a treatment option. My definition of treatment is anything that makes you better, does not negatively affect other treatments, causes harm to self/others or is illegal. That is a lot of options! Some examples include art therapy, music therapy, dance, hypnotherapy, reading, hiking and writing poetry just to name a few!
In the coming weeks, I want to take look at some of the other types of treatment options, delve into the types of depression and go into what it feels like to live with depression on a daily basis. It is one thing to read it in a textbook or article about it but quite another to live with it.
Tune in Saturday for Jamie’s corner. Look forward to seeing you soon!
Acupuncture: In Depth | NCCIH (nih.gov)222
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