Message for those with depression

Depression has concerned me since I was a child and recognized it in members of my family, my playmates' families, and as I grew up, would see even more of it in college and the work place. It strikes those who have much stress in their lives, and those who really don't have anything to be depressed about. It's been a national epidemic for decades and the answer is not medication alone. Medication is essential when the pain of depression is unbearable, but one should always seek a cure for the root cause of the depression and remedy that, rather than throw one's hands up in despair and feel victimized. Depression is a question for both medicine and faith.

I'd like to give a series of suggestions from time to time. Let me start with the most incredibly easy first step. Everyone who suffers from depression should be sure that they are taking a one per day multivitamin that has 100% of the daily needs for all of the "vitamin B" family. Do NOT take more than the one per day!! Vitamin B is not a cure for depression, but it is a necessary "food" to intake each day that contributes to the body and mind's natural self regulation. In other words, if you do not have 100% of the recommended DV (daily value) of the vitamin B family each day, you know that part of your body and mind is deprived of something it needs for overall well being. You don't need name brand vitamins, you don't need more than the one multipurpose vitamin, and you certainly should not think that "if one is good then more is better" because it is not.... excess vitamins and supplements throw the body off in the other direction then, and can be dangerous. But every single person who suffers from depression should be taking a good old simple one a day vitamin... just be sure that whatever brand that you buy has on the label in the back that there is "100% DV" for Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, and Vitamin B12. Sometimes they go way over 100% for the Vitamin B12, and that's OK, your body will flush what it does not need.

Make it a part of your routine with the meal that you eat each day that you are most regular about having. For me that is lunch... I'm virtually certain to have lunch each day, with a beverage, so I usually take my vitamin then. If you have trouble swallowing get a chewable, but they are not cheap. When I was working in the psychiatric outpatient area, virtually none of my patients were taking vitamins. It's amazing... they would take any drug under the sun, both legal or illegal, and yet they do not take a simple one a day vitamin. Some could not afford them, so I'd buy them out of my own pocket (and then watch as they would not take them, *sigh*). The other end of the economic spectrum takes every health food or supplement imaginable, yet loses the maximum benefit by either skipping the simple one a day multivitamin, or over doing it in buying every expensive goofy supplement (and then going through purges and "detoxification", but that's another subject.)

Anyway, first step for everyone with depression... get a simple bottle of those one a day multi vitamins, nothing fancy needed, just get that 100% of the vitamin B family once a day.