A non medical but scientifically validated approach to depression...

TLC Elements


Ok so couple of links...so one is a ted talk on depression and how we keep medicating people to deal with the lifestyle changes that have emerged since our hunter gatherer days. Basically it promotes exercise as better than Zoloft but also supplementation with omega 3s and doesn't get into the rest of the content listed on the website link. Apparently this is all really effective and for people who don't want one more pill it might be a viable approach that makes you healthier as an additional benefit.

And yes I know it's not psychosis per se but depression is really prevalent in people with psychosis and I know very few of us regularly visit the depression board.

Oh, it's Ilardi! I didn't know he had a TED talk. My son's pdoc recommended his book and his lifestyle changes.

Yeah I was pretty impressed with it although he didn't have time to go through all the data ...he skips like ten slides at the end....

His book is around here somewhere. My son has adopted some of the lifestyle changes like exercising and not ruminating

Awesome....thanks

I wish he'd do them all. I can't remember offhand what they all are. Let's see. He stopped taking the fish oil. He doesn't actively try to get sunlight, but since he goes out every day, and he's running or walking outside for exercise some days, he probably gets a fair amount of sunlight.

I think one is social contact. He tries for that, but most of his contact with others is with me - over the phone. He does actively work at keeping contact with me, though. He says it's very helpful to not get isolated.

The sixth lifestyle change is escaping me at the moment.

Sleep ........

I couldn't lay my hands on his book, but I found a thread I started here at one point, and I listed the elements in an early post: http://forums.psychcentral.com/depre...hange-tlc.html

1. Fish oil/omega 3's.
2. Not ruminating.
3. Exercise.
4. Light.
5. Social contact.
6. Sleep.

I'm amused that sleep is the one I forgot, because that's the one that interests me the most in many ways, and the one I'm always harping on.

Anyway, yes, my son feels sleep is important. He tells me it's extremely helpful to go to sleep and get up at the same time and to get a full night of quality sleep. It's the reason he intends to stay on a small dose of his AP. It helps him sleep.

So, my son has implemented most of Ilardi's program whether he knows it or not. He actually got mad at me a couple of weeks ago, because I implied he was exercising because the pdoc told him to. He says it was his idea alone. I just know he started running at the same time he was putting the rest of the program in place, so I assumed ...

Ah, we posted at the same time.