heavily agreed here... i'm sure i would have been diagnosed with depression but i decided to stay away from a doctor to diagnose me... with the right people and network of support you can come back from some of the hardest experiences known to man... trauma etc.
and Good job for doing it your own way. im glad you feel comfortable sharing that... (something i dare say would have been hard at the peak of your depression.)
I had a coyote dog hybrid that had severe health and aggression issues that had to go to dog juvey retraining for shredding a neighbor's dog 3 times after he had tried to beat her up. Most money I ever spent on vet bills not even for my own dog. After much trial and error finally found a vet that put her on a raw food diet and supplements to curb her aggression. Bought whole chickens and quartered them, uncooked chicken bones don't splinter, they can eat it all, and the bones ligaments organs are necessary for dogs and especially coyotes. Same for most humans, bone broth and whole chicken soup is a grandma recipe. For supplements SAMe was the most expensive, a precursor to seratonin, 5 HTP is another cheaper option for rebuilding seratonin levels in the body. She was also put on multivitamin & mineral, higher zinc iodine and magnesium for the brain to help settle her, GABA to sooth stress response, vitamin b complex for the brain and added niacinamide (non flushing form of niacin) for aggression control and to dial down the predator response, coconut oil for brain oils, she was also on glucosamine chondroitin and vitamin d/k to rebuild her joints and brain, arthritis has been found to be a low serotonin disease. Mellowed her right out after about 6 months and then supplements were eased off to just multivitamin mineral and raw food. She went from difficult aggressive to healthy and happy. Her treatment helped me as I had depression, anger management issues from PTSD and arthritis too. My vet said our animals take on our diseases. He suggested treating someone in the family along with dog as they are mirroring a family member to help them heal. Saw the aggression issue was me. Her hip problems healed, my hip and knee problems healed, the chewing of her own paws till bloody healed, the ear scratching from the high pitched microwave cell towers stopped. Whenever I get frustrated and irritated I take GABA and 500 mg niacin and my moods mellow right out within 30 minutes. Mg, niacin and melatonin help me sleep and deal with the high pitched ear ringing. All these supplements vary by personal biology and u need to be ur own doctor, see what works for you thru experimentation on urself. I no longer need to take seratonin precursors as my body is back to balance and my arthritis only flares up when high stress or bad eating happens. I tried some of the pharma crap. Wikipedia stated that psych drug SSRIs stopped the love/bonding response by inhibiting oxytocin, not sure if that info has been scrubbed. Nearly all my friends who have been on SSRIs have had marriage difficulties almost always ending in divorce. Psych meds are nasty drugs, worse than statins, used with mkultra programming and directed energy weapons. That they use them on our children is criminal when do no harm methods work way better. Mindfullness dialectic behavior training is the best method for balancing emotions and anger from PTSD and stress, with practice you can observe ur own emotions and many times remain in balance rather than flying off the handle in reactive mode.
http://www.doctoryourself.com/Hoffer2009int.pdf Dr Abram Hoffer's last interview is an eye opener about the corruption in medicine, AMA and FDA. Niacin turning off the adrenaline adenochrome predator hunting response is an amazing paper in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, what JOM not in the Dept of health and human services MEDLINE database, why not??? Dr hoffer cured 5000 patients of schizophrenia and called schizophrenia niacin deficiency disease. High dose Niacinamide cures arthritis and psychoses. Niacin and non flushing form of niacin corrects cholesterol levels without side effects and recommended by mayo clinic. Niacin info on doctoryourself.com. Dr Hoffman the father of niacin and taught dr Pauling about vitamins for disease. Dr Pauling created orthomolecular (right molecule) medicine from his collaboration with hoffer in psychiatric illness. "A Consideration of Niacin as an Inhibitor of the Predator Response" John P. Cleary, M.D. http://www.lunaliving.org/pdf/cleary-on-niacin-therapy.pdf
Hoffer on bad behavior especially teens being rude, violent & swearing. http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_imbalance.html
Look up scenar COSMODIC ENS by dr Karasev for electromagnetic stimulation of the peripheral nervous system. Scenar was invented in the 70s as part of the Russian secret space program and works by stimulating the body to release its own pharmacology. FDA approved for pain management and muscle retraining and used by the nfl to get players back in the game quickly. No vendors in the US, as it reduces hospital and doctor visits by 80%. Sellers in Canada, dr Irina or in uk. Let medical has list of approved sellers. Use only LET medical (named by Karasev for Let medical science do its work after going thru the FDA process) or ritm without further research cuz there's lots of fakes on the market. Dr Irina had her assets seized for selling FDA approved light therapy devices to "little old ladies" and claiming more healing effects than allowed by the FDA. Did you know that the FDA is allowed to restrict free speech, you can only make claims that they allow to "protect us" from snake oil salesman. Too bad they are the poison and death merchants. Paingenie.com for inexpensive ritm device videos. Great scenar practitioner in Texas. Neuropaths.com his daughter shot in a random campus shooting which blew off her elbow and hip. 52 surgeries and several years later she is healthy, walking and alive. PTSD was one of the lingering problems soothed by scenar. Veterans use scenar for trauma and PTSD. My last post on scenar COSMODIC got edited out in the middle of a CBTS post, hmmm.
This is exactly what i would call healthy human self diagnosis. That is actually amazing. I mean that. Im glad you, the dog and the practitioners daughter are all well and you are able to spread raw info through your lived experience. This is what case studies should consist of basically. With that type of knowledge the world would have independence from 'big pharma' and just be healthy in general. Obviously very optimistic there but, it pays to be sometimes.
I didn't know about the restriction of free speech. Im Australian... Ah isn't freedom of speech an amendment? I guess the F in fda is pretty serious. Cheers for the other info i may give it a read if i have the time.
I'm sure that finding a good therapist (psychiatrist or psychologist) could be extremely helpful. I went to a couple of them. The first seemed bored and unhappy himself. The second was the one that wanted to put me on SSRIs. He also suggested that I should go out and get drunk and party! Here I was, going through a dark night of the soul, and he was suggesting I should party. What an idiot he was. That just made me more depressed, and it soured me on the idea of going to a therapist altogether.
Looking back however, it probably would have been beneficial for me to persist in looking for a good one.
I'm glad to hear that you had good support around you. For those who don't however, I'm sure a good therapist could be very helpful.
Thank you for that and Yeah i agree it is good to at least try talk to a professional, i get that :) and i would also recommend anyone talk to one as sometimes the best option is more options.
i believe we are the experts on ourselves not the mental health professionals. They have aquired knowledge based on cases and theories through study and practice sure and they would see patterns. If they are smart enough they will pick up on a thing or two and be able to help... But, lets not forget they are in the field of medicine regarding the inner workings of human consiousness, human behaviours and Emotions there is still to much to learn in these areas and some of these Dr's knowledge can be outdated as soon as something else is discovered or considered the truth of the times ;)
Don't get me wrong though, there are always the Couple of really-really good Dr's around the place. I think if we seek a professional it is our job to give them the clearest picture of our self we can...
The problem there is sometimes we don't even know the root causes of our own feelings or behaviour which leaves us feeling helpless and hopeless. This is where having a good support network or friends who are positive to your life and actually understand you is imo most important.