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Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

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Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#261

Post by b800h »

parag0ne wrote: post #111
b800h wrote: post #10

Can I just add: In addition to this, if you struggle with anxiety or have some sort of ADHD, then try cutting out caffeine entirely . Not just switching to "decaf" (which isn't), but cutting out tea and coffee, and switching to an alternative like Barleycup. Doing this has had a massive positive effect for me, and combined with decent nutrition and daily exercise, has been wonderful.

Agreed, anyone that already struggles with something like this should quit caffeine. My life is so much better off of it, but I struggle to stay off of it because I'm addicted to the 2hr productivity boost vs the all-day steadiness when you're not on caffeine. Things that improve for me were: No sense of urgency for every single thing. Significantly improved confidence. Word things better and speak better in general.…

The silly thing is that when I drank caffeine, the hit from it would make me overcreative. Yes, I might do more, but it probably wasn't what I was supposed to be doing - I'd pursue some new and exciting thing with tremendous fervour, before realising later that it was a load of nonsense.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#262

Post by johnisgood »

tefkah wrote: post #233
johnisgood wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you become a vegan if apparently even non-vegans are deficient in B12? Do you supplement B12? Since B12 is mainly found in meat, and B12 deficiency is irreversible.

why do you think the reason for them becoming vegan has something to do with B12 levels? likely they became vegan for different reasons, became much more aware of the importance of B12 and started taking a supplement. every vegan should supplement b12, so they probably do too

> All my nutrient numbers improved when I became vegan because nearly every one in the US/UK is deficient in VitD, Omegas and B12.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#263

Post by [deleted] »

citrin_ru wrote: post #227
paufernandez wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. But sometimes there is no "root cause", the brain is still a mystery. If you had been depressed even when you knew there was nothing to worry about, you would see it differently, because then you deduce that the black cloud is produced within. Chemistry trumps psychology. Good enough chemistry enables cognitive treatments. But to fix the wrong chemistry you need chemistry.

If you view a world at a certain angle there is always something to worry about: 1. World in not perfect, it doesn't confirm to how we want it to be (and could not even in theory given that different people want it to be different) 2. The future cannot be predicted with 100% accuracy so even if all is perfect today you can worry that it will turn bad in the future. When looking at the same reality one persons sees th…

[deleted]

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#265

Post by quietbritishjim »

serpix wrote: post #12
vegancap wrote: post #2

I found this to be the case. Tried Sertraline for a while, gave me headaches and made me feel sick. Then as part of a new gym plan, started taking Omega 3+VitD daily, and I just felt a sense of calm and peace after a few weeks. The massive uptick in exercise probably also helped. I also felt quite an extreme uptick because I was a vegan for 10 years, and found out I had basically zero Omega 3 in my blood. I suspect o…

Omega 3 comes from algae, which might be okay for some vegans.

I think they meant their vegan diet didn't naturally have Omega 3 in it if they didn't take supplements; not that they couldn't take the supplements once they realised it.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#266

Post by kranner »

jonasdegendt wrote: post #183
mvcosta91 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“God, I see what you’re doing for others, and I want that for me.” I had a very similar experience, except it killed my libido, so I chose to endure the suffering of Winter rather than live with emotional numbness. Still, I strongly recommend it for people flirting with the abyss. It was life-changing for me while I was raising an autistic 2yo during the pandemic.

> I had a very similar experience, except it killed my libido Did you, as well as the other people seconding this, have any libido left in the first place? I got on Sertraline because I was depressed, and it actually brought my libido back, by virtue of just bringing me back to a better emotional baseline. All to say, if it had affected my libido, it'd have been a NOOP anyway in my case.

> All to say, if it had affected my libido, it'd have been a NOOP anyway in my case.

Wouldn't a "NOOP" be the opposite of a "Nope"?

Sorry for the pedantry, but this forum seems an appropriate place for this.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#267

Post by 16bitvoid »

citrin_ru wrote: post #227
paufernandez wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. But sometimes there is no "root cause", the brain is still a mystery. If you had been depressed even when you knew there was nothing to worry about, you would see it differently, because then you deduce that the black cloud is produced within. Chemistry trumps psychology. Good enough chemistry enables cognitive treatments. But to fix the wrong chemistry you need chemistry.

If you view a world at a certain angle there is always something to worry about: 1. World in not perfect, it doesn't confirm to how we want it to be (and could not even in theory given that different people want it to be different) 2. The future cannot be predicted with 100% accuracy so even if all is perfect today you can worry that it will turn bad in the future. When looking at the same reality one persons sees th…

That's incredibly reductive. I'm sure some people's depression can boil down to a matter of perspective, but it's naive to extrapolate that to everyone with depression.

I'm incredibly optimistic and am content with my position in life. My default state is being mindful of the present and I don't think about things too far into the future. I very rarely ever feel stressed out over things in life.

However, none of that changes the fact that I feel completely empty and find no joy in things. Interests are nearly non-existent, emotions dialed to 1, and the only thing I'm motivated to do is lay in bed staring at the ceiling... unless I'm on sertraline.

Admittedly that's just anecdotal, but I worked in a clinical neuroscience lab researching treatments for severe treatment-resistant depression (read: people who tried so many options including CBT that they even tried electroshock therapy). The only thing that helped those subjects was a regimen of personalized neuroimaging-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation for 10 minutes every hour for 10 hours every day for a week. Even then, it wasn't permanent. Some saw improvement for months, others only weeks.

For some people, it's not just a matter of "perspective".

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#268

Post by driverdan »

b800h wrote: post #10

Can I just add: In addition to this, if you struggle with anxiety or have some sort of ADHD, then try cutting out caffeine entirely . Not just switching to "decaf" (which isn't), but cutting out tea and coffee, and switching to an alternative like Barleycup. Doing this has had a massive positive effect for me, and combined with decent nutrition and daily exercise, has been wonderful.

> if you struggle with anxiety or have some sort of ADHD

Those are two different things. Cutting out caffeine can help with anxiety but not ADHD. It's the opposite for ADHD, stimulates help significantly.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#269

Post by hu3 »

subscribed wrote: post #229
bflesch wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no experience about antidepressants myself so please excuse my stupid question. When I hear people say "it killed my libido" I always think about the fact that hyper-sexuality can be a trauma response, and if your body is healing the hyper-sexuality is most likely also reduced. It's like when you have a disease and then read the side effects of a medication and notice that a lot of the side effects are basical…

Stupid question - why do you keep suggesting that having a libido equals hypersexuality? Is this your trauma speaking, or do you automatically associate any sexual needs with a pathology? You've done it twice in this thread alone.

I'm not whom you asked. But it's a resonable association for some cases.

But I understand that it would have been better to ask and not associate because it's a fraction of the cases.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#270

Post by ivm »

b800h wrote: post #10

Can I just add: In addition to this, if you struggle with anxiety or have some sort of ADHD, then try cutting out caffeine entirely . Not just switching to "decaf" (which isn't), but cutting out tea and coffee, and switching to an alternative like Barleycup. Doing this has had a massive positive effect for me, and combined with decent nutrition and daily exercise, has been wonderful.

Tea, especially green tea, doesn’t have the same caffeine bioavailability as coffee – otherwise people would abuse it just as much as coffee.

I’m quite sensitive to caffeine, yet I can drink green tea all day without noticing much effect, while even a light coffee or a caffeine pill is clearly noticeable. I can also drink tea before going to sleep without any problems.

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