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Hi Chuck, I hear you and like what you say. I could wallow in my exhaustion, grief, remorse, loneliness, etc., and be on a downward slope or I can and do have my little cry and then get busy and see if someone needs a friend or some work should be done, or maybe it's time to take care of myself (which I had neglected) Those things are helping me heal. But I think some are too far "down" to be able to do it alone. I learned at a very early age that the only thing I have control over is myselfand I am a surviver. Thanks so much for the sites you posted and all your posts. You are a deep thinker. Cheers, Audrey in Pa. ----- Original Message ----- From: Charles E Murray <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2000 5:30 PM Subject: Re: depression > I have watched a blister grow on the skin of a hypnotised subject touched > by a finger tip, but told it was a lighted cigarette. > > I have watched a brother with terminal liver and colon cancer, given a > two month prognosis by oncologists at the U of A (after surgery and > other medical efforts for two years failed to halt the spread), decline > chemo, adopt a macrobiotic food diet and the practice of meditation, then > be pronounced cancer free 13 months later. > > Twenty years ago medical science denied any connection between diet and > cancer. Today this has changed, but scientists still resist the > possibility that diet can be curative. Few physicians would deny that, > at times, medical science finds intself playing "catch up," with > disciplines not restricted by the "scientific method" of research. > Witness the slow acknowledgement of the efficacy of accupuncture as one > example. > > Studies have demonstrated that certain attitudes correlate with good and > bad prognoses in many illnesses. > > My dad, troubled most of his life by migranes, learned biofeedback and > today has absolute control of migrane cycles, stopping them at the outset > with mental imagery. > > Is it possible that, given the incredible power of our mind, we can > affect the physiology of our bodies, including the brain's chemical > balance, by the patterns of our thinking? > > Sinead and I believe diet and "positive" thinking patterns can be > therapeutic because that has been our experience. > > Some folks in 12 Step programs apply the rationale that if someone quit > drinking (using, etc.) without a 12 step program they must not have been > a real alcoholic (addict, etc.) in the first place. With this simple > logic they dismiss all input and declare irrelevant all experience from > such people under the conclusion that such folks are "not one of us.": > > Are some of us using this same kind of logic to dismiss the experience of > those who say diet and positive thinking were effective in their > depression, i.e, "They were not suffering from true CD." > > Wouldn't it be interesting if someday we determine that negative thinking > patterns change brain chemistry, and that, with rescue and transitional > help from anti depressant meds, diligent training in positive thought > patterns proves to be the best method of keeping brain chemistry healthy? > > > In the meantime, I'll keep taking my St. John's Wort and Requip for > whatever they have contributed to my coming "out of the darkness and into > the light." (Title of the book- written by a psychiatrist - that > boosted me down the path to peace of mind). And if I go back to a darker > place I will use all the resources I can find, medical and spiritual, to > come back out again. > > Chuck