“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

Proverbs 4:23 NLT

8.  DEPRESSION

From a reader--

"My depression started about the same time as the fibro pain, in 1983 when I was 30 years old.  One day I sat down in the floor in my apartment and couldn't make myself get up.  Back then, no one was talking about depression like we do now, and I didn't have a clue what was wrong.  I was working three jobs -- church music director / organist, piano teacher, secretary -- and accompanying a fabulous community chorus "on the side!"  I loved my life!  But BAM!  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  I slogged my way through life for a few months, and then one day the depression was gone, out of the blue, just as quickly as it came.

Maybe six months later, wham, it hit again and lasted longer this time.  I still didn't know what was wrong!  Then it, too, lifted.  I had a few good months, and then it hit again.  This time it didn't subside.  Thank God I had a psychiatrist in my choir, and one night after rehearsal he pulled me aside and said, "You are depressed and need medication.  Call my office and make an appointment as soon as possible."

That was the beginning of a long process of trying different meds until we found something that worked.  I tried all the usuals, starting with Prozac, and for a long time it seemed nothing would help.  After a couple of years, we hit on Wellbutrin, which worked for years and years, then one day stopped helping.  Now I take Celexa and have been stable on it for many years.  I only have to take 10 mg these days.  

I learned a lesson along the way, too: don't stop taking my antidepressant when I feel fine and think I'm cured!  I tried that a couple of times and both times got so depressed that I didn't even realize I WAS depressed!  A friend had to tell me!  Duh :-)  I will stay on an antidepressant for the rest of my life, and I thank God for it!"

FROM DOM:  Stress (even good stress) can really mess with our biochemistry.  There's an old saying that work can't kill you, but it really can!  Nearly all of us with FMS/CFIDS have been Type A, hard-working, conscientious folks that were suddenly felled like this dear reader.  My fibro struck literally overnight in June 1982 www.fms-help.com/fibro.htm.

9.  DEPRESSION, LITHIUM OROTATE & SYNTHROID

From a reader--

"Both my daughter and I have experienced much with depression and thyroid, so I thought I would give a bit of advice about these three topics. Lithium orotate has worked well for what I would call mood swings and irritability. It has not taken care of depression, however. We add it to the anti-depressants we take. Daughter has been on Dr. Cheney’s protocol, and he does not like fish oil—says it oxidizes too fast in the body and adds to the toxic problems we have. He also says use idebenone instead off CoQ10 for the same reason. He recommends using high quality olive oil, hemp oil, and other omega 3’s instead of fish oil. Dr. Oz recommends algae oil instead of fish oil. One of the things discovered in the first gene study of those with CFS was a major gene that is different in CFS sufferers that has to do with the serotonin pathway. The SSRI’s keep the serotonin from being depleted so quickly. But SSRI’s do not produce serotonin in our bodies nor do they correct the pathway problem. Serotonin is produced in the digestive tract, too, so if bowel is not functional, probably not much serotonin being produced. Our specialist recommends 5HTP if you are not on an antidepressant for helping with serotonin, sleep, mood, etc. If I were starting again today to find relief from depression, I would try the least harmful things first—5HTP, or St. John’s Wort, or  SAMe, B vitamins, fish oil and keep adding on until I got relief. But if you are desperate, go straight to a good psychiatrist. I think one saved my daughter’s life, and I would never rule out drugs to help those who need help quickly. Sometimes finding the right drug is not a quick process, but it’s better to start earlier than later, I think. Our psychiatrist says they don’t know any more about depression than they did when he started practice 35 years ago, but they keep developing new drugs which help some people. My psych says there are many chemicals in the brain and basically we have antidepressants that affect about 3 of them. It’s much more complex than we can imagine.

No one knows how to figure out which drug will help which people, so there is a protocol that can be followed for trying out drugs. You should start with drugs that give the least problems in getting off of them. I would advise do not get on Paxil. There are many others which do the same thing as Paxil. Get a good psychiatrist who knows the drugs well to figure out what is needed and if you can, start with the older drugs that are in generic—not with the newest, more complex and expensive drugs.

Also, many CFS sufferers and those with autism have problems with methylation, a detoxification pathway. BTW, SAMe will not work for someone who has this problem. There are now depression protocols which add special activated forms of B vitamins to the antidepressant regimen. These are prescription B vitamins, which may be covered by insurance. You can also buy these activated forms in supplement form but they may cause an unbearable detox response, so be careful and try small amounts at first. When I first was depressed, I upped regular doses of B vitamin, especially B6 and got some relief, but not complete. My doctor said don’t just up dosage of one or two B’s; increase them alI  It helped me through for several years before I tried an SSNI, which worked for me.

In addition, my psych says some do not get relief until the thyroid is functional and Vit D levels are healthy. This has been my experience, also. When I try to lower my thyroid med, the first sign I am too low is depression. Daughter has not been able to get her Vit D level healthy, and when she took lots of Vit D supplement for one month, it made her thyroid go crazy even though she did not make a change in thyroid meds.

In addition, thyroid medication may not help anyone if their adrenal gland is not functioning well. The reader may also have too much anti-thyroid being produced.  You have to ask for this test and usually is not covered by insurance, but well worth looking at. Daughter’s thyroid tested out normal for years even though she had low thyroid symptoms. She finally had anti-thyroid tested and it was super high, keeping the thyroid from getting into the cells. Then she was on compounded T-3, the active form of thyroid, for several years until her heart rate was too high, indicating too much thyroid. She changed to Armour and is doing pretty well on that. All along was taking either adrenal drops prescribed by specialists or on licorice extract and Vit C. Licorice extract is also anti-viral but does raise blood pressure so not for everyone. The meds for adrenal glands are very tricky, so I think it may be best to stick to supplements but it is difficult to figure out what supplement is best for adrenal support. Our specialist recommended the Nutramedix brand of adrenal drops.

If this were easy to figure out, we’d be well by now—or at least more functional. There are some studies that show those with CFS that have done the best did very few interventions with drugs. I think the more you add on, the more other things are affected—even with supplements—as we saw with Vit D. I’d say pick the symptoms that cause the most distress and deal with that as best you can, including using drugs for depression. Our psych said, you may have CFS/FM but you don’t need to be depressed, too. Said he couldn’t fix the CFS but he would do all he could to help with the depression, and I know this has kept my daughter from suicide."

10.  TINY AMOUNTS OF FLUORIDE CAN CHANGE YOUR THYROID FUNCTION

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/13/fluoride-and-thyroid-dysfunction.aspx?e_cid=20110813_DNL_art_1

FROM DOM:  This was interesting to me because every time I have used fluoride from the dentist's office (a gel you put on your teeth) or a fluoride rinse, I have gotten sick - feeling fluish and ill for a week and usually with a sore throat.  I don't use any of those things - even when strongly pressured by dental hygenists.  I thought this was due to my weird health situation with FMS/CFIDS, but interestingly, my chiropractor - a vigorous, healthy man in his late 40''s - told me that he too gets sick after fluoride treatments!  I recently had a thyroid test and am now on Synthroid for hypothyroidism - first time in my life my thyroid tested so low (below bottomed out).  I have felt better on Synthroid - I don't have such terrible energy crashes anymore.

11.  "FORGIVING GOD"