There has been an onslaught of medication prescribed for Anxiety and Depression, and though it can be a life-saver to get many through tough times, I believe most are smart enough to admit that their problem is NOT caused from a deficiency in Celexa. Though the symptoms need to be addressed (thank God for medication), it is ultimately necessary to treat the CAUSE.
An estimated 1 out of 5 women and 1 out of 10 men will experience depression at some time in their lives, which makes this a very common ailment. Depression can prevent people from coping with their normal activities, their work, and their relationships, thus seriously compromising their sense of well-being and their ability to live their lives.
Psychiatrists generally consider someone to be suffering from depression when they present at least 5 of the following symptoms almost every day for at least 2 weeks:
| ? Depressed mood for a large part of the day |
| ? Lack of interest or pleasure in almost all daily activities |
| ? Decrease or increase in weight or appetite |
| ? Insomnia or excessive sleeping |
| ? Agitated movements (such as wringing of hands) or slow movements |
| ? Fatigue or loss of energy |
| ? Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt |
| ? Indecisiveness or difficulty in thinking or concentrating |
| ? Recurrent thoughts of death (in 60% of cases) or suicide (in 15%) |
Once a doctor diagnoses depression, it is the course of treatment taken that disturbs me:
“I was diagnosed with depression last September and my doctor gave me a prescription for Prozac which I took faithfully for 3 weeks. I went back to him after that because my symptoms just got worse – not so much with the depression, but I couldn’t get a decent night sleep. I be waking up every night and would be exhausted during the day. He prescribed another med that I took to help the Prozac and it seemed to help for a while but then my insomnia just got worse and I started having panic-y feelings and the jitters at times. I thought I was going crazy, but I still really like my doctor and I trust him. Then I heard about Brain Based Therapy and things really made sense. Treating the cause makes sense to me too. It works.”
Research on the causes of both Anxiety and Depression have increasingly revealed that it is not a ‘simple’ as a neurotransmitter imbalance needing an SSRI, and that ‘playing’ with these important brain chemicals can be a dangerous game
Anxiety and Depression is coming from several specific areas in the brain called the Frontal Lobe and the Mid-Brain. One of the regions of the prefrontal cortex that is most affected both by depression and by the manic phase of manic depression is the ventromedial cortex (also known as the subgenual cortex, because it sits beneath the genua, or ‘knee’, of the corpus callosum). This area deep inside the frontal lobes, on either side of the center line separating the two hemispheres, lets us switch from one kind of affect or emotion to another. It is also heavily involved in pleasurable and content feelings.
The ventromedial cortex (part of the frontal lobe) has very dense connections with the limbic system (another emotional center in the brain). These connections make the ventromedial cortex an ideal structure for linking the conscious to the unconscious and for ascribing meaning to perceptions by associating them with a meaningful ‘whole’ or ‘big picture’ (mainly associated with the Right frontal lobe).
There are other Mid-Brain structures involved in both Anxiety and Depression as well as hormonal influences that may be involved, but the frontal lobes are most important of all these since the frontal lobes are responsible to ‘fire’ back on the more ‘primitive’ areas of the brain to coordinate their function.
