According to the National Institute of Health, 17.3 million adults, 7.1% have experienced a major depressive episode in the past year. 5% of adults experience seasonal depression. 1 out of 6 adults have taken an anti-depressant in the past month. In the past 15 years, there has been a 65% increase in antidepressant use. Is our society getting more depressed and unable to deal with the pressures, stresses, and people in their lives? I’ve seen in my practice that a sense of being stuck or too fatigued to deal with life’s challenges can results in depression. It is reported that over 50% of patients who are diagnosed with depression also have anxiety.

What Causes Depression?

-Low levels of serotonin or dopamine

-Elevated or depleted stress hormones such as cortisol, norepinephrine, epinephrine

-High carbohydrate and high sugar diet

-Lack of physical activity

-Chronic inflammation

-Imbalance in sex hormones such as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone

-Life stress, Type A personality, perfectionism

-Subconscious negative belief systems

-Depleted energy levels in the body, adrenal fatigue.

-Low Qi levels, Liver qi stagnation

-Depleted basic, navel, solar plexus and spleen chakras

-Inability to assimilate and store energy in body

-Weak boundaries, and energetically melding with other people’s problems

Thoughts in Getting to the Bottom of Depression

Taking an anti-depressant is only as good as the placebo effect according to studies. This is approximately 33% improvement. The only problem is that the anti-depressants initially will dull the sensations of sadness or negative feelings that are present making the patient temporarily feeling better. However these medications also decrease happiness, motivation, creativity and other positive emotions. So patients taking these drugs often feel flat. They don’t feel as sad, and they don’t feel happy. This is why some psychotropic drugs are linked to increased suicidal ideation.

To get to the bottom of depression, we do need to correct some chemical imbalances in the body such as hormones, neurotransmitters and dietary nutrients so that the body can make the brain chemicals that contribute to positive emotions and balanced emotional regulation. We also need to work on the thoughts that seem to automatically swirl around the brain. These thoughts include imagination of the worst-case scenarios, sense of impending doom, and those of self-doubt.

Counseling and psychotherapy are helpful in bringing awareness to one’s thought life. But many patients are unable to implement the affirmations, and positive thoughts they are taught to think in their counseling sessions. This can lead to discouragement because negative thoughts just seem to automatically appear and it feels almost impossible to stop the anxious and depressing thoughts. Photo Credit Gareth Williams

What Works Better?

I’ve been blessed to come across some highly effective therapies over the years that have been life changing in so many patients’ moods. I utilized a couple techniques best done when the patient and I are on the phone or video conferencing called Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) and Pranic Healing. Distance does not matter when dealing with these types of healing frequencies. In short these techniques help remove the negative (depressive) information stored in the body and mind. It is like an extraction technique. After giving the body a clean slate, it easier to insert new positive thought patterns. I also work to energize the patient’s electrical field, because most depressed individuals have a very low energy frequency, and this energizing is very helpful in lifting the frequency of moods. They have measured frequencies of emotions. For example Apathy/Hopelessness logs in at 70. Fear/Anxiety logs in at 100. Optimism/Hope logs in at 310. Love logs in at 500. Higher and healthier emotions have higher vibrational frequencies which is the reason for the effectiveness with energizing techniques.

A study published in the Australasian Psychiatry Journal in 2018 Amelioration of mild and moderate depression through Pranic Healing as adjuvant therapy: randomized double-blind controlled trial, shows amazing results using Pranic Healing, a technique I use with my patients. In the study, one group of patients were given Pranic Healing for 20 minutes once per week for 4 weeks, the other group was given a mock/fake treatment for the same duration of time. Using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale HAM-D as assessment tool, 69% of the mock group improved, and 100% of the Pranic Healing group improved.

I do believe that utilizing physics methods of therapy such as Pranic Healing increases the effectiveness in treating depression dramatically because we are both biological and electric beings. When we influence the electric memory and signally systems, the burden on the patient to “try” so hard to change their thoughts is significantly minimized. They feel lighter, see the world more hopefully, feel more ease associated with daily tasks because proper electric wiring is restored and takes a lot less burden for the system to operate.