The winter months test our fortitude every year. Everything is given to make a person feel inferior and think that something is wrong with him.
In winter, it is dark and cold, we are outside less, we see less of the sun. For many of us, the holidays are inherently stressful, and after the pandemic, we can now worry about the recession and food prices. At this time of the year, you can often hear the so-called about winter depression, which begins with the onset of winter and goes away in spring. For this very reason, many people turn to a doctor or a psychiatrist in order to get help with their “disease” in getting through the dark and cold period.
Two difficulties arise in this regard:
• any type of depression (as well as all other psychiatric conditions) can still be diagnosed based on the listed symptoms only, because there is no actual medical test to detect it;
• the other is that the treatment of depression mostly consists of prescribing antidepressants and sedatives, which the patient must then take continuously.
These pills are now often claimed to be safe, have mild side effects, and are not addictive. Yet countless researches and personal experiences show that in some cases taking them can have serious side effects. And for many people, quitting seems difficult, even impossible: sometimes you have to gradually reduce the doses over months or even years in order not to cause withdrawal symptoms. Unfortunately, in mental health, prescribing pills is easier than quitting them, because the person rarely receives effective help for this.
At the same time, no one can promise that chemical substances can solve life’s problems like
- lack of human relationships,
- the loss of a loved family member, or
- the financial crisis.
And they also cannot replace basic physical needs, such as
- proper nutrition,
- restful sleep and
- physical exercise – and the lack of these can well-known cause mental symptoms.
However, they are mostly not discussed during a psychiatric examination. Several recent studies have shown that intensive, regular exercise improves depression symptoms just as effectively as prescribed pills do, and exercise does not cause serious side effects or withdrawal symptoms.
So, before we put up with some mysterious illness that can’t be detected by medical tests and start taking pills for it, it’s definitely worth considering whether everything listed above is in order. Sometimes even the simplest things can make surprisingly good changes.
Citizens Committee for Human Rights Foundation
The article was published in Patika Magazin. Look for it every month in pharmacies!
February 2024
Source: www.patikamagazin.hu
