Mood Change Medicine
DEPRESSION
INSOMNIA’S UNBIDDEN BEDFELLOWS: Anxiety & Depression
Insomnia, depression and anxiety share common causes and often occur together. All 3 feed a vicious cycle worsening each condition. Stress is the common thread tying insomnia, circadian disruption, anxiety and depression together. Stress ignites a firestorm of inflammation suppressing levels of the sleep-hormone melatonin and elevating the stress-hormone cortisol.
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Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: A Swiss-Army Knife for Tackling Anxiety & Depression
The value of reducing stress is widely embraced. An analytic review of 39 studies including 1,140 people with conditions including generalized anxiety disorder and depression found that mindfulness-based therapy, a widely-used stress-busting technique, was associated with significant improvement in anxiety disorders and depression. Continue reading
Harness Hidden Strengths with Hypnotherapy
A 2021 study comparing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to hypnotherapy showed hypnotherapy is at least as effective as gold-standard CBT for reducing symptoms of mild to moderate depression.
A 2019 analysis of 15 studies found “the average participant receiving hypnosis reduced anxiety more than about 79% of control participants.” Continue reading
How to De-Stress Your Way Out of Anxiety and Depression
Biofeedback technology helps people shift out of the physiology of stress and anxiety into a calm state. It helps people slow speedy hearts, quiet anxious breathing and relax tense muscles. These new skills build a sense of empowerment and safety. It can avert anxiety before it can gain a foothold. Continue reading
CBT First on List for Depression and Anxiety
The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for depression is nearly identical to that of pharmaceutical drugs. But when CBT and drugs are discontinued, the chances of depression returning are more than three times greater for people on drugs. For antidepressants, there’s a 54% chance of relapse. It’s 17% for CBT. Continue reading
Talk Therapy Changes the Brain with Lasting Benefits
CBT was found to reduce the size of over-active amygdalas, in people with social anxiety. CBT was also found to reduce amygdala overactivation. The researchers postulated that reduction in both the size and overactivation of the amygdala resulted in decreased reactivity to anxiety-provoking situations, explaining how CBT reduces social anxiety. Continue reading
Escaping the Vicious Cycle of Stress
Chronic stress causes Inflammation and can be very damaging to mental and physical health. Stress does damage through repeated activation of the fight-or-flight mechanisms of the body. This causes a cascade of biochemical events leading to hyperactivation of inflammatory proteins linked to depression, anxiety and a host of other conditions. Continue reading
Inflammation: Foe of Mental Health
Depressed patients starting psychotherapy with higher levels of inflammation are less likely to be helped by it, a 2020 study showed. And for those who had somatic symptoms of depression—like appetite changes, fatigue, aches and pains and sleep disturbances—the worse the symptoms, the higher the levels of inflammation. Continue reading
My Thoughts on Supplements for Anxiety, Depression and Insomnia
Mood Change Medicine’s website offers information, without a paywall, about some of the most popular supplements for anxiety, depression and insomnia. This article has links to two other articles, each of which provide links to articles on specific supplements for each of these conditions. Continue reading
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