While depression is mostly caused by an overload of stress, there are also genetic pointers towards it. If you have depression in your family, you may be pre-disposed towards depression with enough stress. You cannot change your genetic factors, but you can definitely lower your stress. Since stress is additive and if "abnormal" stress is present, the person may not be able to handle "normal" or everyday stress of just living and become depressed.

Remember that all stress is "additive". This means that every "trauma" you have experienced in your life, from the "birth trauma" up to today (that car that swerved and almost hit you. or something similar), all are contributing to your individual stress. Generally speaking, we humans are equipped to handle such "everyday" stress. However, there is an "individual" limit, and when that limit is reached, depression results for many of those individuals.

The two largest forms of stress that cause most depressions are actually somewhat "hidden" from most persons. These are stress caused by allergy/sensitivity and mineral toxicity (mostly mercury today). Both are generally unknown to the afflicted person. In the many cases of depression I solved in my former orthomolecular practice, unsuspected allergy stress was about 75% and mercury or other toxic minerals was about 20%, with a few cases in different categories. (Today arsenic from pesticides is becoming more of a problem and lead is much less).

Another form of stress is nutritional deficiency. Stress requires more vitamins and amino acids than "normal", so these nutritional shortages may cause Leaky Gut Syndrome, where the gut "leaks" more into the body than it should. This can cause bacteria to pass and the brain develops an allergy to some food. Adding more allergy stress - a sort of downward spiral into further depression. This can be a part of the overall problem and should not be overlooked.

There are dozens of symptoms that may be a part of individual depression. Anxiety or insomnia are both forms of depression. A very common early symptom is insomnia. A common practice lately seems to be to "name" most depression as "bi-polar" simply because that diagnosis makes it easy for medical insurance to pay the doctor. True "bi-polar" is when the patient goes from a "high" manic state into a deep depressed state, and this is relatively rare.

Solving Stress Factors

First and simplest - lower the allergy stress. Neurofeedback(NFB) and my Neuroliminal Training (NT) do this by basically raising the SMR brain wave in amplitude (strength). This "somehow" seems to cure allergies over time. It may take months or even years, but eventually it works. It took over 3 years for me to lose every known allergy I had including peanuts, soy, wheat, and ragweed. The newest versions of NT seem to be much faster.

This is the reason for Neurofeedback's excellent record of success over many years. However, for NFB success, it takes dozens or hundreds of half hour sessions, and that costs thousands of dollars, where NT does the same thing for the cost of the NT CD which can be used for years. Compare NFB for just ADD/ADHD. 60 sessions in a clinic costs an average over $5000. NT costs $147, and does the same thing in about the same time. (Isn't that a "no-brainer"?)

Next, in this ever increasing pollution world of ours, you are probably loaded with levels of toxic minerals, and other chemicals much higher than the average levels found a generation ago. The mercury levels of all of us have doubled or tripled in the last 30 years. It's now in the air, soil, and sea. That old standby - tuna fish - is loaded with mercury today compared to your mother's day. The curve of increasing mercury in the body of most people matches the curve of the growth of autism as an "epidemic". That's 1 in 10,000 births 40-50 years ago to 1 in under a 100 today. That mercury in the mother is in the baby at birth, and that tiny liver is already overloaded to the point where when a vaccine is added with a preservative (mercury or aluminum), the liver cannot take it out, and brain damage is done - autism is the result.

In practice 20 years ago, I found mercury was only 20-25% of the cause of depression. That level was from amalgams of mercury in teeth, and other sources (living near a power plant that used coal as fuel is a major one). Taking out those amalgams and replacing with plastic was a solution then. I suspect that today, these increased levels of mercury are much higher, and may be more of a major cause than it was then.

Surprisingly, getting rid of these mineral toxins is relatively simple as well. Big Pharma doesn't want anyone to know this, as they are making money out of "sickness", but simply raising your intake level of ascorbic acid vitamin C takes out these toxins. In virtually all other animals on this planet, vitamin C is manufactured AS NEEDED from glucose in the blood. All primates (Us and the apes) lost this ability 65 million years ago. We can "exist" on as little as 75 mg per day, but that is just enough to prevent deficiency. I found years ago that a 150 pound ape in a zoo has an "RDA" of 4000 mg a day (4 grams). I've been taking 2 grams at breakfast, and 2 grams at dinner, and taking my megavitamin and other minerals at noon (The C takes out all minerals, including toxic ones, then you need to replace the nutritional ones - yes, it's a "klunky" way, but the only way we know to date.)

I've been taking that 4 grams a day for a couple of years, and my toxic minerals (Including mercury) are "unmeasurable" with arsenic only barely showing up at all. (I buy fruits and veggies from a Hispanic fruit stand, and most such produce comes from Central and south America where pesticides are commonly used. So, who cares? Not me!)

So, start taking that basic ascorbic acid vitamin C, and in a year or less, you will not be affected by the mercury in your teeth or in vaccines or in your environment. One caution. Calcium and sodium Ascorbate types of "neutral" pH vitamin C cannot take out mineral toxins, as they are already an ascorbate form. Only the acidic form can do this.

There are two more therapies covering nutrition and digestion that also lower stress. A year or so ago, I wrote an article "Integrated 4 Part Therapy for Autism" that covered the above plus nutrition and digestive issues. I have since realized that anyone with any mental problem can benefit from following these 4 therapies. They all lower stress in different ways, and when you lower stress, you solve the particular mental problem(s). The article can be downloaded free from http://drbate.com/Ref/ articles.html

Author's Bio: 

Phil Bate PhD - Orthomolecular Psychologist (30+ years)
Inventor of inexpensive Neuroliminal Therapy
NT Solves ADD-Autism, Depression, and much more
http://drbate.com - drbate@bellsouth.net