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aspects of mental stress

1 Depression is not a special hell reserved for a few. It is both a mental and physical affliction, different from the temporary sorrows that constantly visit us because of the circumstances of life. 2 People hurt themselves by refusing to seek treatment for depression. Sharing one’s deepest pains and concerns with friends, or advisors or councillors, is often necessary. 3 If a person is suffering from emotional distress, that may be caused by long-term chemical imbalances, or by a neurological disorder. Depression can be a psychopathology, not a psychosis. Depressed people are not crazy. In fact, depression is a natural and appropriate response. 4 Improper diet, inadequate rest, or inadequate exercise are serious contributing factors to depression. There are other environmental factors that are responsible for a mental stress. Long-term unresolved stress is a serious factor in the depression of children.

Depression has found a new enemy in fish. Scientists at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, have discovered that omega-3 fatty acids and uridine, a natural substance available in oily fish foods such as salmon and tuna, can work as antidepressants.

In a study, published in the February issue of Biological Psychiatry, a group of rats was placed in a tank of water, where they started swimming. Probably realising that swimming was an us-eless energy-burner, they began to float. Given an antidepressant drug, however, they started swimming again. The researchers concluded that rats? reluctance to swim was a sign of depression.

Later, the rats were put on combined doses of omega-3 fatty acids and uridine (an important element in mother?s milk) instead of medicines. It showed the same result as three different antidepressants in encouraging the rats to start swimming again.

William Carlezon, director of McLean?s Behavioural Genetics Laboratory, says, ?With the added fish diet, the fatigued rats got more fuel to continue swimming?. According to him, the drugs and the dietary components used in the study probably acted on the energy-producing chemicals in the brain cells. Carlezon adds, ?So people eating more fish have a lower rate of depressive illnesses.? McLean researchers have also found major alterations in the genes for mitochondria in people with bipolar disorder, a condition that includes cycles of depression.