Society has an obligation to have a positive view toward life, a positive belief in God and the "hereafter," and a positive view toward babies and children. When society has these three things there is a safety net that works as a powerful antidote to depression and other emotional imbalances. Society has totally failed the past two generations. What many have believed is "freedom" has been the dissolution of the healthy safety net that is not only the obligation of society to provide but also the abandonment of the truth in favor of "relativism" with a morbid twist.
Prior to the 1960's except in a few "avant guarde" families it was virtually unheard of for an American child to be born without belief and instruction regarding God at the earliest age. Nearly every child, rich or poor, was raised with knowing "Jesus" by sight, by name, by love and by trust from their earliest years. Even if that child grew away from the faith as an adult, that inner certainty of a personal God stayed with him or her and was a buffer from potential depression or other disorders. Likewise every child in the generations before these past two generations knew that babies were precious, again, whether the family was rich or poor. This is not to say that there weren't harsh treatments in disfunctional families, but the difference is that babies were rarely the subject of resentment and certainly not abuse as we see today. Dad may have ranted and raved in some households but the babies were never faulted and that same dad would work long hours in grunt jobs to provide a safe home for that baby. And the third point is that it was an exciting time of continual medical research because all life was sacred and people thought each age was golden years of breakthroughs: vaccines, insulin, antibiotics, geriatric medicine, prenatal care, prevention of heart disease and so on. Children born in every generation previous to these two generations grew up knowing God and feeling his love, knowing that "baby ruled the roost," and surrounded by optimistic and exciting pro-life medical, health, and nutrition developments. For example when I was young, one of the great scandals of the time was the outing of poverty in Appalachia. The war against hunger in America was a huge thing when I was young. But medicine, like society, took a dark twist and turn to have a morbid taint and away from the true progressive medicine that each generation until these past two generations enjoyed. Now medicine is a dogged and grim battle against cancer (while still refusing to understand the true causes), crisis reactive (HIV, various flu threats), how to grind out more and more abortions, and the massive drugging of the vast majority of Americans using powerful drugs that often do more harm than good. Oh, and plastic surgery.
Can you see the contrast? It is appalling to me. I literally do not recognize the world and it's not because I'm some sort of square unprogressive sour old prude. To the contrary, I see people have willfully beaten to death their own joy and thrown it away as a society. Everything that was stable and good about life has been demeaned, dirtied and discarded: love of God, love of babies and medicine in the service of the greater good. I'm telling you and I swear this is the truth, a dull normal day in mainstream America 50 years ago would seem like heaven compared to a day today. And you wonder why so many of you have depression, anxiety, mood swings, paranoia? I've not even gone into the usual physical sources that I've written about before because it's so important that I paint this accurate portrait for you of the philosophical and psyche damage and scarring that has taken place in America (and much of the Western world) because of the lack of the three foundations I described above. The damage is truly terrifying and the bottom has not yet been hit.
It's going to sound somewhat incongruous to now tell you that you have to be positive about life after just giving you such a jarring wake up call to how twisted and destructive our own society has become. We don't need sci-fi horror stories about mad robots taking over because worse has already happened. The LIVING have turned against life.
That is one reason that many of you suffer from the ailments I've described above. Your bodies, minds and emotions are crying out for what you don't even realize you've been cheated of, which is the affirmation of life. It's not like this generation is the smartest that ever lived and have "wised up" to "reality" and that is why it's so dark and depressed and anxious. To the contrary, this generation was raised by the most pig ignorant selfish self-medicating generation that ever lived on earth, and they have robbed this generation of the basic intelligence of the goodness of life and how to cope with the challenges that life can bring. Thousands of years of wisdom and familial development have been thrown into the garbage can and spat upon.
I have the counterintuitive hope that many of you who have suffered from depression, anxiety, ADHD, mood swings and other disorders will actually be the vanguard of recognizing how there is nothing "wrong with you" except that you've been cheated out of what your generations of ancestors worked so hard to cherish and pass on to you, which is the goodness and affirmation of life and how to live it even in the toughest of circumstances. I'm hoping that if it is not too late that many of you who have suffered from these problems will be the drivers of the turnaround so the next generation is not as polluted and cheated as this generation has been treated.
I hope this helps. I know this is not a cheery action list, huh? But it is so essential that you understand what has happened so we can stop the downward slide into total decay and darkness of thought and deed.
I hope people read my previous post and have started working on the getting more regular sleep even if you can't get to sleep yet problem! The more I read about what "sleep aids" are doing the more you must try to get back to the pure form of working with sleep like you would any other activity, which is organization, discipline, practice and experimentation. It's one of those "things we can easily start to try to do that can have huge beneficial effects."
Showing posts with label mood disorders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mood disorders. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
More advice regarding depression, anxiety, BP etc.
While my continuing series of advice is directly mostly to depression and anxiety disorder sufferers much of what I explain applies also to people with mood disorders. Here is an example that everyone can learn from including people who are of good health and who wish to preserve their good health for as long as they can.
First, do understand that humans evolved into their current bodies and mental faculties over a period of millions of years. Think of the body as being sculpted for maximum success and health. Over millions of years the human body is like a sculpture that is being made better and better for health and vigor and the ability to successfully reproduce and raise children. For all of those millions of years humans slept when the sun went down and woke when the sun rose. Therefore the human body has been sculpted to require a full night's sleep every night in order to be at its maximum capability for health and normal operations.
Humans slept for 8-12 hours every single night for millions of years. The body has been created in a nursery, if you will think of it that way, where the sun required "lights out" in the early evening and all humans slept until "lights on" at the dawn. So when people say that humans need a good long night's sleep every night, it's not like prudes discovered that because they have a dull life. People who have been stating that people need a good night's sleep every night realized that it is a fundamental of successful biological life. The human body (and mind) have been sculpted by millions of years to be healthier and healthier and better and better, and all of this was done with the basic configuration (think of bodies like a computer now) of "down time" every night from sundown to sunrise. "Maintenance" takes place during that down time that is vital to healthy bodies.
A recent study shows that dieters lost more fat when they slept MORE. People think the opposite must be true, that is, they think the more active you are the more you "burn fat" and the more lethargic you are the more you gain fat. That's true of exercise and daily activity but that is not true of nighttime. Sleeptime is maintenance time for your body including correcting fat and other imbalances while you sleep. Your body is busy doing "maintenance" during your "downtime," and this is both bodily and mental optimizing and conditioning.
For two generations now adults have not gotten enough sleep and they have sleep deprived their babies and children. This has caused many of the physical (cancer, heart, blood sugar) and mental (depression, ADHD, anxiety, moods) disorders that people are scratching their heads (or their asses) over in puzzlement today. Sleep is not the "cure" but sleep is a requirement for good health, just as is food, water and air. If you are struggling with depression and other disorders one of the best things you can do it to get yourself on a schedule of at least eight hours of straight sleep a night. I know that's hard to do but trust me, it's got to be done.
It's a feedback loop within a society that is now set in concrete against full and good night's sleep so I understand that it will be hard to implement, but you have to do it for your own good, for our children's good and for society as a whole.
First start be redefining your idea of being a perfect person or, rather, a "high achiever." For millions of years the human body was evolved (sculpted) to be a "high achiever" if you got enough air, water, food, shelter, heat and sleep in a day. THAT was a successful day. It was a HIGHLY successful day if you could do that for yourself and for someone else, that is, your spouse and your family. Because obtaining air, water, food, shelter and heat all required physical work humans developed the perfect balance of the active body in the daytime and the receiver of a full sleep night every day with certainty. You are not a "high achiever" if some activity is keeping you from getting a regular full night of sleep every single night for yourself and your family.
You know how when you don't eat enough salt you crave chips or something, or if you've not had fruit for a while you crave some sort of citrus? People with depression unknowingly crave sleep, which is why they often do sleep. They get criticized, though, by "mental health professionals," who have all bought into the high achiever myths themselves and view people with depression who sleep as "showing symptoms" and "being escapists." Um, no, that's not quite it. People with depression are like the canaries in the mine who are the first to recognize, but at a subconscious level, that people are not getting enough sleep. Now the trick is to make yourself stick to a good healthy sleep schedule every night, rather than compensating via naps.
It's hard to get to sleep these days with so many stresses, pressures and worries on your mind every night AND the fact you lack a full day of physical activity to make you tired, which is the way human bodies were sculpted to be. So I understand that it is hard to sleep when mentally under siege and when you don't have enough tiredness in your physical body to crave the sleep. This is why sports at the end of the work day is such a great thing. Forget the stupid TV and computer and video games. If you work at a desk all day try to get involved in a sport after work. Trust me that will make a huge difference for both adults and children. It's hard because consumer society has conspired to rob people of good health and peace of mind. Everyone has to be an overachiever, so they pile on the job stress, the homework assignments, and the whole "perfect" lifestyle of coolness and this sucks away the basics around which the body was created to thrive, which is as I said, goals that are modest and life affirming each day, with physical activity and with a solid regular long block of sleep at night every night.
Sometimes when you make the change you just have to lay in bed whether you can sleep or not. Old studies (not talked about these days because they are anti high achiever propaganda) show that if you just lay in bed all night and don't actually sleep because you can't, you still get a high percentage of the physical and mental benefit of sleep. So don't take sleeping aids unless you absolutely must due to a medical condition! Stick with a schedule even if you feel like a dummy laying there awake. Eventually your body will adjust back to the way it should be, especially if you have, like I said, a sports activity to make up for the desk job all day. Also, obviously, don't have caffeine and energy drinks after 2 pm each day if you are working on regaining this good sleep schedule. The mid afternoon boost of soda or coffee break during the work day should be your last consumption of an energy or caffeine beverage, just to get you over the hump of the end of the work day, but not to carry into the evening. Once you get back in a good regular long night of sleep you can fine tune this and maybe have a soda at dinner or something like that, especially if you are having a sport activity. Drag your kids away from their homework and their Facebook and make them shoot hoops with you after dinner. That's what we used to do in the 1950's and early 1960's. Kids and adults had no trouble sleeping then and they got good grades.
I hope this helps and best wishes to all.
First, do understand that humans evolved into their current bodies and mental faculties over a period of millions of years. Think of the body as being sculpted for maximum success and health. Over millions of years the human body is like a sculpture that is being made better and better for health and vigor and the ability to successfully reproduce and raise children. For all of those millions of years humans slept when the sun went down and woke when the sun rose. Therefore the human body has been sculpted to require a full night's sleep every night in order to be at its maximum capability for health and normal operations.
Humans slept for 8-12 hours every single night for millions of years. The body has been created in a nursery, if you will think of it that way, where the sun required "lights out" in the early evening and all humans slept until "lights on" at the dawn. So when people say that humans need a good long night's sleep every night, it's not like prudes discovered that because they have a dull life. People who have been stating that people need a good night's sleep every night realized that it is a fundamental of successful biological life. The human body (and mind) have been sculpted by millions of years to be healthier and healthier and better and better, and all of this was done with the basic configuration (think of bodies like a computer now) of "down time" every night from sundown to sunrise. "Maintenance" takes place during that down time that is vital to healthy bodies.
A recent study shows that dieters lost more fat when they slept MORE. People think the opposite must be true, that is, they think the more active you are the more you "burn fat" and the more lethargic you are the more you gain fat. That's true of exercise and daily activity but that is not true of nighttime. Sleeptime is maintenance time for your body including correcting fat and other imbalances while you sleep. Your body is busy doing "maintenance" during your "downtime," and this is both bodily and mental optimizing and conditioning.
For two generations now adults have not gotten enough sleep and they have sleep deprived their babies and children. This has caused many of the physical (cancer, heart, blood sugar) and mental (depression, ADHD, anxiety, moods) disorders that people are scratching their heads (or their asses) over in puzzlement today. Sleep is not the "cure" but sleep is a requirement for good health, just as is food, water and air. If you are struggling with depression and other disorders one of the best things you can do it to get yourself on a schedule of at least eight hours of straight sleep a night. I know that's hard to do but trust me, it's got to be done.
It's a feedback loop within a society that is now set in concrete against full and good night's sleep so I understand that it will be hard to implement, but you have to do it for your own good, for our children's good and for society as a whole.
First start be redefining your idea of being a perfect person or, rather, a "high achiever." For millions of years the human body was evolved (sculpted) to be a "high achiever" if you got enough air, water, food, shelter, heat and sleep in a day. THAT was a successful day. It was a HIGHLY successful day if you could do that for yourself and for someone else, that is, your spouse and your family. Because obtaining air, water, food, shelter and heat all required physical work humans developed the perfect balance of the active body in the daytime and the receiver of a full sleep night every day with certainty. You are not a "high achiever" if some activity is keeping you from getting a regular full night of sleep every single night for yourself and your family.
You know how when you don't eat enough salt you crave chips or something, or if you've not had fruit for a while you crave some sort of citrus? People with depression unknowingly crave sleep, which is why they often do sleep. They get criticized, though, by "mental health professionals," who have all bought into the high achiever myths themselves and view people with depression who sleep as "showing symptoms" and "being escapists." Um, no, that's not quite it. People with depression are like the canaries in the mine who are the first to recognize, but at a subconscious level, that people are not getting enough sleep. Now the trick is to make yourself stick to a good healthy sleep schedule every night, rather than compensating via naps.
It's hard to get to sleep these days with so many stresses, pressures and worries on your mind every night AND the fact you lack a full day of physical activity to make you tired, which is the way human bodies were sculpted to be. So I understand that it is hard to sleep when mentally under siege and when you don't have enough tiredness in your physical body to crave the sleep. This is why sports at the end of the work day is such a great thing. Forget the stupid TV and computer and video games. If you work at a desk all day try to get involved in a sport after work. Trust me that will make a huge difference for both adults and children. It's hard because consumer society has conspired to rob people of good health and peace of mind. Everyone has to be an overachiever, so they pile on the job stress, the homework assignments, and the whole "perfect" lifestyle of coolness and this sucks away the basics around which the body was created to thrive, which is as I said, goals that are modest and life affirming each day, with physical activity and with a solid regular long block of sleep at night every night.
Sometimes when you make the change you just have to lay in bed whether you can sleep or not. Old studies (not talked about these days because they are anti high achiever propaganda) show that if you just lay in bed all night and don't actually sleep because you can't, you still get a high percentage of the physical and mental benefit of sleep. So don't take sleeping aids unless you absolutely must due to a medical condition! Stick with a schedule even if you feel like a dummy laying there awake. Eventually your body will adjust back to the way it should be, especially if you have, like I said, a sports activity to make up for the desk job all day. Also, obviously, don't have caffeine and energy drinks after 2 pm each day if you are working on regaining this good sleep schedule. The mid afternoon boost of soda or coffee break during the work day should be your last consumption of an energy or caffeine beverage, just to get you over the hump of the end of the work day, but not to carry into the evening. Once you get back in a good regular long night of sleep you can fine tune this and maybe have a soda at dinner or something like that, especially if you are having a sport activity. Drag your kids away from their homework and their Facebook and make them shoot hoops with you after dinner. That's what we used to do in the 1950's and early 1960's. Kids and adults had no trouble sleeping then and they got good grades.
I hope this helps and best wishes to all.
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