The Many Causes of Anxiety & Depression

by Marjorie Tietjen

Depression and anxiety are often normal reactions to certain life circumstances that we go through. However, infection, food allergies, chemicals and mold in the food and environment, hypoglycemia, and thyroid conditions can also cause these uncomfortable states of mind. More emphasis needs to be placed on identifying these primal causes rather than simply adding more chemicals to already overburdened bodies. The opinion of a growing number of people is that antidepressants and other brain altering drugs are being vastly over-prescribed.

Antidepressants do help people, especially in acute or life threatening situations, but everyone reacts differently to these drugs. People need to be warned of the possible adverse side effects. These side effects can be very serious, often causing the very symptoms they are supposed to alleviate. Many times when the underlying condition is ignored, and only covered up, the diseased situation continues to simmer and progress, undetected, beneath the surface.

The public should be aware and demand that these basic causes be addressed. We need to be our own researchers and begin to take more responsibility for our health care. The medical system is big business and is set up to make a profit. Pharmaceutical companies prefer that you receive only symptomatic treatments rather than treatments which will cure the disease. Drugs often cause additional symptoms, which require more drugs to cover up the effects of the original drug. This doesn't make sense but we have been conditioned to think of this process as inevitable and normal.

Depression often runs in families, but why is this so? Is it simply due to genetics or are microbes sometimes being passed down through the placenta during pregnancy? A genetic tendency towards depression may require a microbe to bring the full condition into being.

The same may be true concerning other diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons. Perhaps certain microbes are passed to family members due to the close living conditions. Infection can incite depression or anxiety directly by causing encephalopathy (inflammation of the brain). Microbes can also target certain glands in the body, such as the adrenals and the thyroid. These glands produce hormones, which help the brain function smoothly. When there is an excess or deficiency of these hormones, depression, anxiety and other psychological disturbances do occur.

Because I am not a doctor, I am only going to focus on the three conditions, which have affected me, and therefore, I am more familiar with them and able to share what I have experienced and researched.

Encephalopathy, severe hypoglycemia and hypothyroidism are the abnormalities I have had to deal with. These can all cause depression and anxiety. Most of the symptoms of these conditions descended upon me, in full force, with the onset of the Lyme disease. However, I did not discover that Lyme disease was the actual culprit until 8 years later.

I had been labeled with the wastebasket diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and therefore was left untreated for the basic problem. Due to this misdiagnosis, I am very familiar with the issue of only treating the symptoms and not the cause.

Encephalopathy of the brain can have several causes. In my case it was the Lyme infection. Some of the symptoms of encephalopathy include depression, impaired visual perception, intolerance to bright light, anxiety or panic attacks, loss of memory and cognitive function, personality changes, lack of concentration, muscle weakness, seizures, muscle jerking, and more.

Obviously when a person has several, or many of these symptoms, the cause needs to be determined. Do not stay with a doctor who refuses to investigate, tells you are just depressed, hands you a prescription for antidepressants and sends you on your way. If, after a thorough investigation, a cause cannot be found, do not give up on the infection connection. Testing for Lyme disease and other co-infections is very inaccurate. These microbes can hide in the body by cloaking themselves in your body's tissues and by changing into forms that the current testing cannot detect. Many times an adequate trial of antibiotics is needed to see how the patient responds.

There is no test that can rule out Lyme disease.

Hypoglycemia, along with diabetes, is becoming rampant in our refined carbohydrate saturated society. A carbohydrate laden diet is a very large contributor to these conditions, but I have also personally experienced that infection can target the glands responsible for blood sugar control, which in turn can cause depression or anxiety. In my case the Lyme disease greatly amplified my already mild tendency towards hypoglycemia.

I would like to share with you a couple of quotes from a book that I highly recommend Prozac, Panacea or Pandora by Ann Blake Tracy.

Tracy states, "Mental health is so closely tied to blood sugar balances that this is an area that very definitely should not be overlooked. Just how often is hypoglycemia being mislabeled "depression" and treated as a psychiatric malady rather than a blood sugar problem which could be rectified by a good diet rather than a pill? It is absolutely amazing to see how many patients have already been diagnosed as hypoglycemic before their doctors put them on Prozac. Rather than educate the patient, they hand them a pill which only blocks out their symptoms, while it magnifies the original problem and leads many into diabetes."

Although I feel what Tracy tells us here is true, I don't specifically blame the doctors themselves. It is the medical education system that is to blame. Most doctors readily admit it is the drug companies that sponsor most of the education which the doctors receive concerning pharmaceutical drugs that are to be prescribed..

Another important quote from Tracy's book states, "Hypoglycemia is a potential side effect of Prozac and many other drugs. There is a multitude of evidence from patient reports that Prozac is affecting the blood sugar balance and chemically inducing hypoglycemic reactions. According to patient reports it can produce hypoglycemia in a patient who had no apparent blood sugar problems to begin with and diabetes in a patient who previously had hypoglycemia. Ex-patients report that it produced mood swings, confusions, blackouts, even deeper depression, hyperactivity, anxiety, exhaustion, compulsions for sugary foods, alcohol and stimulants, etc. Every one of these symptoms can be directly linked to blood sugar problems. All are known hypoglycemic reactions."

To sum this up, depression, anxiety and other psychiatric symptoms can be caused by hypoglycemia. Poor diet is a main instigator of hypoglycemia, infection can worsen or cause this condition and the drugs used to treat depression can cause hypoglycemia. So, what's the answer? A good start would be to eat a hypoglycemic diet (low in refined carbohydrates).

Treat infections, and if at all possible, stay away from antidepressants and certain other drugs that lower the blood sugar. There are many informative books available with good advice on how to naturally control hypoglycemia.

Hypothyroidism is another medically accepted cause of depression. However, one can be afflicted with this malady and have a difficult time acquiring an accurate diagnosis. The current testing or interpretations of the testing are missing a large segment of the population that could benefit from thyroid supplementation or other natural measures to support normal thyroid functioning. A patient can register in the low normal range yet still require additional thyroid hormone to function normally.

I had problems with shortness of breath, having to lie down every 20 minutes, inability to squat without becoming faint, the sensation that the heart was not getting enough oxygen, extreme coldness, dry skin, etc. but yet I registered low normal on the testing.

Disregarding the apparent normal test, my doctor used clinical judgment, considering my symptoms, which were indicative of hypothyroidism, and prescribed thyroid hormone. Aside from the treatment for Lyme disease, my biggest improvement came from supporting my thyroid gland. Most of the symptoms listed above are now negligible due to the supplementation of thyroid hormone. I had suffered needlessly from hypothyroidism for about 13 years.

Doctors need to stand up against the system, not rely so heavily on testing results and begin using their own clinical judgment.

Hypothyroidism can have different causes. Being afflicted with a low functioning thyroid can negatively affect your immune system...so, hypothetically a patient could more easily acquire infection. Another question we must ask is, can infection, such as Lyme, directly target the thyroid gland, and as a result cause hypo or hyperthyroidism? This brings a classic question to mind. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

A good website for more information on thyroid issues is http://thyroid.about.com

Last night the T.V was on as I was finishing up this article. The breaking news headlines on ABC resounded in my ears...."Explosion of teen suicide...could it be due to under-concern over the use of antidepressants?” The authorities claim that there has been an 18% increase in teen suicide from the year before. They stated that the warning labels required on the drug information label, might be keeping children from the very drugs they need the most.

It is claimed that these warnings, concerning the very real side effects of antidepressants, have caused a 20% drop in their use and increased suicide is the result. I wonder what controlling influence was actually behind this disturbing report? Do we really believe it is natural for this many people in our society to need antidepressants? What is wrong with this picture?

In conclusion, I think our need is to always ask, "What is the cause?".... Not how can we simply cover up the symptoms.