Feeling depressed?

Natural News reports that

Instead of grabbing the nearest bottle of antidepressant or alcohol, people crippled by anxiety and depression should consider lifestyle changes based on older, simpler, and wiser times. By making life simpler and more meaningful, a person could improve his or her mental health far better than resorting to pharmaceutical drugs.

...The Therapeutic Lifestyle Change Project...
investigated low-tech societies like the American Amish and the Kaluli natives of Papua New Guinea. He found that depression is virtually unknown among those people. After studying the similarities between these depression-free societies, Ilardi identified six variables found in all of the groups. He used these variables to develop what he called the Therapeutic Lifestyle Change Project.

Participants implemented half a dozen changes in their lifestyles. They followed a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, took up a daily dose of physical exercise, obtained plenty of exposure to natural sunlight, slept for sufficient periods during the night, participated in social activities where they could connect with other people, and performed useful tasks that kept them too busy to think of negative thoughts.

Read more here.

The secret to destroying fear and anxiety

Ann Voskamp writes a post showing how anxiety can wear anger’s mask.

Fear of failing, of falling, of falling behind, it can make us fierce. Oh, yes’m: Life can be messy before nine in the morning.

...It can happen — I felt it —

how unceasing thanks can make all these moments dance brave and unafraid.
Read much more here.

Anxiety, depression, and the presidential candidates

Why are Hillary and Donald running for president? In the Wall Street Journal Peggy Noonan opines that Hillary is the depression candidate and Trump is the anxiety candidate. Stuart Schneiderman disagrees.

when you are depressed you might very well throw tantrums, the better to buck up your flagging self-esteem. Freud once noted that depression was anger turned against yourself. He was wrong about that—depression is learned helplessness—but he pointed to the fact that people who are depressed often try to cure their condition by striking out in anger. The correct term would be impotent rage, because it’s better to be enraged and to hide your impotence than to show the world that you are helpless.

...As for the rationale behind the Hillary candidacy, I find it intriguing that Noonan pictures Hillary alone in her house in Chappaqua, watching television. That is, without a husband and without Huma. But, now that Huma is going to be single, perhaps she can move in to Hillary’s place in Chappaqua, to keep her company. As of now, it appears that Hillary and Huma share a suite when they travel for the campaign. Hillary is effectively never alone. Her shadow is always there.

If I may disagree with Noonan, I think that Hillary has a “darker purpose.” She is running in order to vindicate and validate her life. She entered into a marital arrangement with Bill Clinton in order to advance herself, to gain power for herself and to advance the cause of feminism. When you sell out at that level, you are sorely in need of a large payoff.

Hillary’s surrogates keep saying that she is tough enough for the presidency. They thought the same of Barack Obama, one of the weakest presidents in memory. Foreign leaders never respected Obama and they surely do not respect Hillary.

And that spells a general anxiety about the nation’s prospects. Putting the military in the hands of someone who is weak and ineffectual—we’ve done that already. How is it working out?

...Trump did go to Mexico. Hillary did not. Trump traveled to Lousiana, Hillary did not. Trump puts himself out there in front of the press. Hillary refuses to do a press conference.

Trump would be foolish if he was not afraid of winning a job he is unqualified for, but he is looking a lot less afraid than the dowager empress of Chappaqua.

Hillary is pretending to be confident and in command. But, by avoiding all difficult situations she is looking like a coward. And that makes people anxious.

Surely, Trump is more bluster than courage, but, compared with the feckless Hillary and our current coward-in-chief, he looks like a tower of strength. Thus, as a cure for anxiety.

Read more here.

I hope this isn't you

Dr. Joy Bliss writes at Maggie's Farm,

A good, personal description of one form of what we put under the umbrella label of "depression":

Having anxiety & depression is like being scared and tired at the same time. It's the fear of failure, but no urge to be productive. It's wanting friends, but hate socializing. It's wanting to be alone, but not wanting to be lonely. It's caring about everything, then caring about nothing. It's feeling everything at once, then feeling paralyzingly numb.