Have you noticed how when someone does something good It tends to make them feel good?
so what do we learn from That?
doing good makes us feel good.
yet sadly many people do bad things in order to make themselves feel good after...and what they did may have made someone feel unhappy...yet if everyone did good things everyone would feel happy right?
well, only to a certain extent...if our over indulgence with food has caused us to feel unhappy Then even if everything else we did in our lives was good, we would feel incomplete.
I think I understand why I felt unhappy very early in my life.
first was my parents were not happy people...my dad was a drinker and my mum struggled with obesity and low self esteem and frustration because when I was born most of her hair fell out and I grew up feeling like I was to blame and she often recalled with resentment how losing her hair when I was born made her Feel.
so I developed a guilt complex.
I was also very shy and so found life overwhelming outside and within my family unit.
There was always fighting and tension and anger in my family as I was growing up...we lived in fear of our dad who was very bad tempered and violent...regularly beating me and my mum and sisters and brothers.
He was a drinker and drug user too which may have played a part in his bad moods.
as I grew up my shyness and low self esteem made it difficult for me to progress and so I left school without any qualifications and rarely stayed long in a job.
Now at the age of 44, I still suffer from depression and low self esteem and anxiety and am still shy.
I often wonder if my childhood had been different, and my parents had been more warm towards their children, whether Than would have made me a happier person?
I forgive my parents because They really struggled to raise us during the 60s and 70s..there were many times we went hungry because my parents did not have enough money to feed us...yet they both worked hard although they were not highly educated, they still did what they could and still struggled to make ends meet.
and to make matters worse, when I started to misbehave by skipping school and getting into trouble with bad friends, that caused my parents no end of distress...they really wanted me to succeed in life and I failed...I went through drink and drug problems...put on alot of weight in later years...made several suicide attempts by taking overdoses but now I'm clean and trying to rebuild my life.
its not easy cause I'm still shy and still have bad nerves and prone to discouragement and depression but I want to rise up and make good of my life while I'm still able.

Have you considered using flower essences for emotional healing? They can really help you through transitional periods.

Here's one combination that may be of interest:

http://www.fesflowers.com/illumine.htm

Other single remedies for depression and revitalization are: California Wild Rose, Mustard, St. John's Wort, Gentian.

The fes site has some good sales every few months so you can keep an eye on the site to save some money.

I think a lot of us are women in midlife years who are recovering and trying to make a fresh start, we have so much to offer! You're not alone, you really can change your life for the better!

I think the main way I got on top of my depression was by dealing with the chronic inflammation.
I think improving omega 3 intake is crucial for everyone with depression but correcting vitamin D and magnesium deficiency is also extremely important.
Stephan has recently blogged on the omega 3 story

If you have time to spend to learn about the role of omega 3 in more detail the links in this article lead to some useful video presentations.

If you want to go straight to the science you can find it here
Suicide Attempt and n-3 Fatty Acid Levels in Red Blood Cells: A Case Control Study in China

Although it takes a long time to totally change omega 3 <>omega 6 ratio (possibly up to 5yrs for people with very high omega 6 levels) it's much quicker to change plasma levels, even just a fortnights high omega 3 intake will shorten hospital stay if your due for surgery, but a couple of months higher omega 3 and less (or better none) omega 6 will see a difference in mood control and pain levels but it's only when you've changed to underlying omega 3<>6 ratio that you will really get control of the mood disorder so even if you don't see an improvement in 3months it's still worth pursuing.

Thanks Hutch,
Thats given me food for thought.

Taking Vitamin D (I'm taking 10,000 units a day because my level was checked and was only 30) was the most amazing thing.

About 2 months in I started to feel GOOD. Really, really, good.

I'm convinced such nutritional steps can do wonders for our minds, as well as our bodies. Do look into it.

But also see if you can get some form of cognitive behavioral therapy, which can also do wonders. You are probably in the habit of being depressed. You need to learn new thoughts.

WereBear,
thanks for the tip about vitamin D...in fact it has just reminded me to take my daily vitamins of zinc and some other vitamin b6 in fact.
I brought a pack of omega 6 the other day, which I hope will go someway to help beef up my system...btw thanks also for the suggestion for my depression...I am waiting for an invite to a cbt class which I hope will benefit me.
well I wish you well.
warm regards
Trevor

While I agree we need to change thought patterns that perpetuate the condition and inevitably promote depression by keeping inflammatory cortisol levels high it is important to use all mechanism's possible to correct those micronutrient deficiencies that lead to low anti inflammatory status.

When we know almost everyone doesn't currently get the RDA for magnesium, vitamin d3 or omega 3 any strategy to deal with inflammation that doesn't correct inflammatory status is doomed to failure.