Massage as a Depression Treatment
Natural Treatments for Depressive Disorders

Everyone will be affected by depression at some point in their lives. You may be depressed yourself or have a friend or family member who is depressed. While massage is not a depression cure, it can help decrease depressed feelings.

It's normal to feel down sometimes. We all experience the ebb and flow of emotions, but if your sadness lasts for weeks without letting up and it affects your ability to function, you could be clinically depressed. Some other symptoms are:

• feeling tired all the time
• difficulty concentrating
• feelings of hopelessness, that you can't go on, suicidal thoughts and/or actions
• lost of interest in life and things you used to enjoy
• sleeping too much or the inability to sleep at all
• overeating or loss of appetite
• feelings of emptiness
• irritability

A variety of factors may contribute to your sadness. Genetics plays a role. Stress, such as financial difficulties, a bad break-up or difficulties on the job can contribute to your sense of sadness. If you had a traumatic event in your life, such as the death of someone close to you, or you were the victim of abuse, you are more likely to have this problem. Also a low sense of self-worth can contribute.

Types of Disorders

There are different forms of depressive disorders.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) occurs during winter months. This depressive disorder is the result of lack of sunlight and is often treated with light therapy.

Major depressive disorder is a disabling depressive disorder that interferes in your daily life. It makes it very difficult to get up in the morning and participate in daily activities. People who get this depressive disorder often have it more than once.

Psychotic depressive disorder is when you experience hallucinations and delusions along with your sadness. People who have this disorder lose touch with reality.

Dysthymic disorder (dysthymia) lasts two or more years. This is long term depressive disorder isn't disabling but is still very difficult to deal with.

Postpartum depression is when a new mother has a depressive episode after giving birth. This usually occurs within a month after delivery.

Massage

When you're depressed your brain produces less neurotransmitters. Massage helps increase production neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. Massage also helps lower the stress hormone cortisol.

Florida Atlantic University did a study on the affects of massage and music therapy on depressed teenagers. They did brain scans on the teens before receiving therapy to measure their levels of depression. Then 14 teens received massage therapy and 16 teens received music therapy. After the therapy sessions the teens brains were scanned again and they all showed more normal brain activity than they had previous to therapy.

If you're feeling depressed consider getting a Swedish massage or some form of relaxation massage. The smooth fluid strokes of this type of massage really help calm the mind. If you continue to feel depressed for an extended period of time, you should seek some other professional help.

Other Natural Depression Treatments

There are some other things you can do to help manage depression naturally.

Eat a healthy diet--Vitamin deficiencies can affect your mood negatively. Make sure you eat a good amount of vegetables and fruit. Having a healthy varied diet will help you stabilize your mood. If you don't get enough omega 3 fatty acids you are more vulnerable to depression. You can get omega 3 fats from oily fish like salmon--make sure you eat the wild kind to avoid mercury contamination. Walnuts and flaxseeds are the best sources of omega 3 acids.

Exercise--Exercise helps enhance your mood. While scientists aren't sure exactly how, they know that exercising 30 minutes a day 5 days a week will help ease depression. Even if you're not able to do that much exercise doing even small amounts can help. Exercise is thought to lower cortisol levels like massage does.

Get out--Get out and do something. Go for a walk. Go shopping. Eat lunch with a friend. Getting out of the house and being active in your community will help you feel better about your life and yourself.

Serve others--Helping someone else helps build self-esteem and gives you purpose. You can start by doing small things to help others. The joy that others feel when they receive help from you will help you feel joy too.

Find a spiritual connection--Faith can help you feel better about the world around you. If you don't have a religious affiliation try starting a regular meditation practice.

My Story

I suffered from depression when I was in my late teens and early twenties. My last serious incident of being depressed lasted more than a year. I felt like there was a darkness around me that would swallow me up. It was terrible and I thought it would never end.

I know what it's like to feel so sad that you can hardly manage to get out of bed. I was able to get over that feeling with the help of some counseling and changing my lifestyle to include some of the things I mentioned in the section above. I was able to come out of my depressed state eventually, but it didn't happen all at once it was a gradual process.

If you're feeling depressed and hopeless, I just want to let you know that there is hope. I overcame it and so can you. If you're feeling of depression persists for too long seek medical help.