“Fight or Flight” Or Depression

When dinosaurs roamed the earth, our “fight or flight” response to stress came in handy. Today, the benefits of are questionable.

So what happens when our “fight or flight” response is triggered but starting an altercation or running for the hills aren’t real options?

Studies indicate that stress hormones buildup over time and can lead to disorders of our autonomic nervous system such as high blood pressure and disorders of our hormonal and immune systems like chronic fatigue and depression.

Exercise can lower stress hormone buildup so the chances of modern day “fight or flight” causing disorders such as high blood pressure, chronic fatigue syndrome, and depression is significantly reduced. Just what you wanted to hear, another great reason to exercise.

Antidepressants Give New Life

The brain of a person with depression is withered.

Studies have shown that parts of the brain’s anatomy involved in planning and emotion are smaller than normal. Some cells are “weakened, disorganized and disconnected.”*.

The more bouts of depression a person suffers the more the brain is compromised. The “black dog” is thought to be a progressive disease.

Now comes a Boston Sunday Globe article Life of the Mind How Prozac Sent Science in the Wrong Direction revealing that the most popular family of antidepressants in the world, Prozac and its kin, don’t work the way we thought they did.

Their ability to increase brain serotonin was thought to do the trick. However what Prozac and others actually do is allow our brain cells (neurons) to grow and get healthy. This is great news; but with a catch.

In the article, Eero Castren, a neuroscientist at the University of Helsinki draws a comparison to steroids and bodybuilding . “If you just sit on your couch, then steroids aren’t going to be very effective. Antidepressants are the same way: If you want the drug to work, you have to work for the drug.”

There are lots of things you can do. We’ll be covering the type of work you can do in future posts.

* from Dr Peter Kramer’s book Against Depression.