This article offers a perspective regarding the causes and treatment of mental imbalances such as depressive moods or attention disorder. The author has practiced for some twenty-four years various forms of Buddhist meditation, and has experimented with spiritual healing.
It’s winter again, the time of big seasonal festivities such as ‘Thanksgiving’ and ‘Christmas.’ Friends and families get together, and celebrate. But it can be a cold, gray and lonely world for some of us, too. That is when depression strikes frequently. I suffer from it at times. It affects those dislocated far from loved ones, mired in deliberate or forced isolation and loneliness. Other fall into depression after meeting loved ones, whilst feeling unable to handle waves of unexpected, deep emotions.
Modern medicine tells us that depression in its lighter forms constitutes a chemical imbalance of the brain, which often can be linked to viral diseases such as flue. It can be triggered by disappointment (in the context of family, or work), or when confronted with professional or personal failure. It hits us after experiencing the loss of a loved one. Depression can come in various forms, from a passing blue mood to a severe psychological condition like major depression or manic-depressive illness. Serious conditions require medical treatment, and there seems to be no easy way to avoid that. General psychology has determined that depressive disorders are often caused by a combination of genetic, psychological and environmental factors, but can also be caused by other illnesses. Women experience depressive disorders twice as many as men, and hormone levels are likely to have a significant influence.
Depression comes in the company of doubt, and fear. A depressed person cannot see positive aspects of his or her life, and feels submerged in doom and gloom. Depressive moods are profoundly linked to the perception of our existence, our ego, and have to do with fear, fear of failing, fear of death, fear of falling down, fear of losing a partner or loved ones. Some voice in us tells us that the portray we are painting isn’t quite a truthful one.
What can be done to overcome depressive moods? I believe there are at least four avenues of approaching the problem. Let me share my experiences with you.
Mood Enhancers or Stabilizers.
These chemicals interfere with highly complex and only partly understood processes in the brain. Although a quick fix, side effects can develop over time. Several chemicals may cause addiction, lead to future imbalance, or may affect one’s personality structure.
I would like to tell the case of my son Carl, a vivid child of seven years, who in the past often expressed disruptive behavior in the class room. He looked often deeply depressed, and couldn’t verbally articulate his emotions. He was diagnosed with ‘Attention Disorder,’ and we were advised to treat him with a prescription drug called ‘Concerta’(another frequently used drug is called Ritalin). On the first ‘Concerta’ day, Carl came back from school with an A+. But he looked unusually depressed. He complained about heavy headache. He then climbed a metal ladder in our Houston garden and sat there motionless for a while. I watched my kid, as he sat there lonely and unusually quiet. This wasn’t the kid I knew. Then he suddenly collapsed and fell to the ground. We were lucky- Carl didn’t break his neck, because the garden soil was soft after a rainy night. He survived unharmed, and my wife and I knew that continuing to treat him with psycho chemicals was a hazardous if not irresponsible avenue.
This little story shows how fragile the chemical balance in the brain can be, and how dangerous chemicals are, that taper with our brain chemistry. This said I know several cases where friends cured extended periods of depression successfully with mood enhancing drugs without any significant side effects, as far as I can tell.
My wife Melanie also used a drug called ‘Prozac’ for a while. In that particular year there was civil war in her native Congo, the telephone line was dead, and she had no news of her extended family. The drug clearly helped her over the worst.
In a nutshell, psycho drugs are very powerful tools, but require the greatest caution. Many ‘specialists,’ who sign a prescription form may not fully understand the behavior of a psycho drug, or its correct dosage. For this reason I do believe synthetic mood-enhancing chemicals should be avoided as long as possible, as long as there are any other good options left.
Positive Distractions.
Look for a good movie, a nice sports game, exercise, vacation, music, a visit to the zoo, dance, opera, good literature. Very often such distractive engagements are powerful enough to get the toad out off the hole. Nature always had a healing effect on my mind. I always return happy from a long walk along the sea shore, or a hike through the forest. To me, signs of eternal strength (a bolder in the sea, the purity of a clear evening sky) have a strong healing element.
Healing
Being healed by a mere loving touch through divine power is a vision far too fantastic to be true . Most people might never accept that this could be a real possibility. It may sound unbelievable, but I have seen it happen. I once healed my sister-in-law in Congo from violent mental perturbations that were possibly caused by black magic. My son Carl (in the above case) was also treated by two experienced spiritual healers. We had stopped ‘Concerta’ after the first, eventful day of treatment. Carl is now in his second grade, and is completely free from symptoms of depression and ‘Attention Disorder.’ As a boy of five years he couldn’t speak a word of English. Now, at age seven, he speaks fluently English, and French. He has become a happy child, always in good mood, compassionate, and often with a merry tune on his lips, all without prescription drugs. His healers explained it to me like this: imbalances such as attention disorder or depression can stem from suboptimal information flow in parts of the brain (in Carl’s case the center-right). Cerebral activity can be stimulated with the help of an experienced healer. Symptoms such as depression and attention disorder gradually disappear during a regular treatment that may require several months.
Meditation and Prayer.
Rather then relying on a spiritual healer-friend, we also can try to create our own, private access to divine power. When depressive moods overwhelm with a sensation of loss, it might help to ponder about the elusiveness of existence. All we have right now, we are going to loose anyhow some day, sooner or later in the face of death. Confronting the limitations of our personal reality we can try to open up to spiritual eternity. I believe both Christian and Buddhist (I cannot comment on others) meditations and prayers have the power to free the mind from depressive egoistic perspectives. The only requirements are time, a quiet place and our determination to open up, and to confess from our heart. In my experience the chanting of the Buddhist Mantra ‘Om Mani Peme Hung’ is particularly efficient in overcoming depressive moods. It has the power to erode/remove ignorance and suffering in the invisible world that surrounds us.
Let me finish this article with the wish that mental imbalance such as depression can be overcome. May we all be blessed and live as happily as we possibly can, on this Christmas, and thereafter.
©2004 by Franz L Kessler
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All the best to you and yours in 2005!
Gina
Thank you, Rebecca