Depression.

Everyone knows what it is, and many experience it, but lots of us are very reluctant to admit that we struggle with it.

Indeed, it took years for me to finally acknowledge that the symptoms I was experiencing were “depression.” I didn’t like the sound of that label. I thought that humorously referring to myself as “emotional,” or “sensitive” was far more appealing, not to mention sociably acceptable. However, recurrent bouts of serious self-condemnation, feeling sad for insignificant reasons, failing to ever see the positives in a situation and jumping to all the negatives led me to believe that I was, indeed, depressed.
Where to turn from here? I had been a Christian for over a decade, and was about to graduate from Bible College, and was married to the most caring, loving man I had ever met. What did I have to be sad about?

What kind of sympathy would I have from others, whom I had led to believe that everything was just fine thank you very much?

First, I turned to my husband. He was faithful to pray for and with me, and, being a much more positive personality than I, point me to all the many blessings I had, and was quick to remind me to be thankful for them. Over the years I learned much about gratitude from my husband (and still have much to learn.) This did help. However, it seemed I couldn’t exactly apply what I knew. I knew that a thankful heart would greatly help my disposition. Yet, knowing this seemed to make me more depressed because I just couldn’t be thankful! Why?!

Then, I turned to godly counsel. I was greatly encouraged with this meeting, and helped even further. After reading some excellent material on the subject, I had more to add to my armory of defense against depression. I learned even more about the love of God, and how to trust Him to heal my spiritual depression. Yet no matter how much I prayed, read, and sought counsel, it seemed I still couldn’t “shake” my depression. There were several times I considered going on mind-altering prescriptions in order to solve my despair. I recall dozens upon dozens of nights where I spent considerable time begging God in prayer to lift my burden. And, although I would many times come away very encouraged, it would last only a season until my next struggle.

What was the missing link?!

Enter Weston A. Price. Who? Some dentist no one has heard of since the 1930’s, who founded a world of research regarding nutrition. (I’ll leave it to Whole-Life Co-Op to further detail his principles and findings.) I began to implement some of his principles, such as substituting processed, store-bought foods with properly prepared, home-cooked meals, with an emphasis on grass-fed animal products (eggs, cheese, milk, meats, organs) and replacing my daily Coke with Kombucha. All of these changes took a while, but eventually I was finally eating close to 100% Weston A. Price-style. A world of benefits therein ensued, but one that took me completely by surprise was…happiness!

What? That’s right – it took me a long time to even realize that I hadn’t had a depression-struggle intense night in months. All this in the midst of postpartum hormones raging wild after the birth of my son – the most major life-transition I had faced, and yet, I was not depressed. (Yes, overwhelmed, scared, all of the normal new mother tensions, but never despairing as before.)

Hallelujah! Do I firmly believe that the above mentioned techniques were helpful in my battle against depression? Absolutely. But, they could never quite solve the missing link. Nutrition was my missing link. My brain needed more of something that I was not giving it. And thankfully, I was able to find that missing link in the nutrients from real food, rather than from a prescription. I could write pages upon pages of other benefits, but suffice it to say that this one was certainly unexpected but welcome!

Allison