I have suffered from depression for years and did not like the side effects that I've had from various medications. The one antidepressant I was on for years stopped working and I was put on a different one. One of the rare side effects of the new one is problems with the heart and within 4 months, guess what? In the hospital with heart problems and I am now in congestive heart failure. Needless to say with that kind of rare side effect, even though the withdrawal was awful, I went through it and am now off all antidepressants. And yet, I'm not depressed even though I'm having some major health issues.
What I found made the difference was doing a radical change to my diet. I cut out almost all refined sugars, all caffeine and cut back on carbs. I added lots of fruit and vegetables to my diet and started seeing a naturopath and am on a ton of supplements. I am gluten intolerant so had cut gluten out of my diet a few years ago.
I'm not suggesting that this will work for everyone but it has for me. I'm not perfect and do cheat on my diet from time to time but always notice a change in my mood when I do so.
Now that I'm off the antidepressants, I need to work on the heart issues. I'm waiting to see a cardiologist in July (the heart problems are fairly new) and am hoping at that time to start working on increasing my exercise which is also good to combat depression.
It's crazy. With the bad health that I'm suffering from since mid-April, I should be depressed but I'm not. I'm not happy but I know the difference between that and depression and so far so good.
