Hi pyckyjan56,

As a nutritional psychologist I look upon depression is a slightly different way from the usual it's all in the mind approach.

When we are depressed and don't know exactly why we should be depressed - in other words we cannot talk ourselves out of it - it is usually the case that our body is ill and fails to produce the right, neurotransmitters to make us feel happy and content.

For the body to produce the feel good transmitters such as serotonin, it will require a vast array of nutritional forerunners such as tryptophan and Co-enzymes, vitamins and minerals. It not only need this vast variety of nutritional forerunners, it also needs Biological Energy called (ATP) derived mainly from carbohydrates in food.

See:
Depression and Insulin Resistance

Thus people with Insulin Resistance as in diabetes and hypoglycemia (a forerunner of diabetes) are often found to suffer from mood disorders including depression and anxiety attacks.

I feel that there is an over-emphasis on the "psychological" aspects of depression at the expense of biological aspects, which is partly responsible for the failure rate in treatment for depression.

Most psychiatrists look at the biological aspects, but not being trained in nutritional biochemistry tend to rely on DRUGS ONLY, which can offer merely palliative treatment for mood disorders.

For an alternative explanation please read:

Depression is a Nutritional Disorder

Conquering Anxiety, Depression and Fatigue Without Drugs - The Role of Hypoglycemia byProfessor J H Levitt