Many of those people begin a course of treatment with pharmaceutical drugs such as anti-depressants, or even anti-psychotics in some cases. Given some time those drugs may seem to help alleviate some aspects of the depression. But almost no drugs come without some types of side effects and most common depression treatments are no exception. Commonly the pharmaceutical drugs used to treat depression cause the sufferer to develop a degree of dependency. If and when someone, who has been on log term drug support for coping with their depression, wants to 'quit' taking the drug it takes a period of 'weaning-off' the drug in order to avoid relapse or other problems.

Today, there are increasing numbers of people who are looking for alternative and more natural solutions to their depression problems. This website aims to include information not only about depression itself, but also to look at alternative approaches to overcoming the problem of this 'modern day psychological plague'! But FIRST and FOREMOST - let me briefly justify the 'name' and the claim that 'Depression is OK'!!

In a nutshell - every form of illness known to and experienced by man (or indeed any other living thing for that matter) is caused by some sort of trigger. That trigger may be an internal imbalance in one of the 'governing systems' of the body. This 'imbalance' may in turn be caused by an external factor to which the body is reacting. In other words - without getting too deeply into the aspects of psycho-physico-medical issues - illness of ANY kind is a sign that something is wrong!

Depression is NO EXCEPTION. Depression is one of the clearest signs that there is something wrong with our psycho-emotional system. This is not to be facetious - this is just to say that the 'route to the root' of any illness is NOT merely to treat the symptoms. Taking dugs to 'help you sleep', to 'inhibit your emotional responses', to 'calm you down' - things that many anti-depressant drugs do, does not in itself 'solve the root cause' of the depression.

Whilst medication for a period of time in order to 'help you cope' with depression cannot, in any way, be said to be a 'bad thing'. When you are in the 'darkest abyss' of your feelings - beset by an intense sense hopelessness, and worthlessness common to many sufferers - then something which halts the decline, or reduces the impact of these potentially 'dangerous' emotions must have some merit. However...it does NOT deal with the 'causes' of the depression. A period of depression itself is indicative of something being 'wrong' and as such it plays an important natural role - it could be said to relate to our 'instinctive' senses, those 'in-built' and natural inclinations we have to 'know when something is not right'.

Sadly, we seem to have lost many of our abilities to tune into our natural instincts these days. We seem to require to be 'told what to do' when it comes even to some of the simplest things in life. Due to this combination of reduced ability, and constant media messages that we do not have the 'skills/knowledge/ability' we need to discover and cope with almost anything in life, we can become a 'victim' of our depression and consequently spend many years under the cloud of hopelessness, or in the valley of despair, due to being unable to appreciate our depression for what it really is!

Depression therefore can be seen, in many cases, as a 'signal' - a sign that we NEED to CHANGE something in our lies. Our biggest challenges are (1) to identify what the thing/things is/are that is/are causing the problem and (2) Accepting this and 'doing something' to make appropriate ad effective changes - probably the hardest aspect of the whole process...and the reason why we fail to deal with depression effectively, so frequently. (Also the reason why we can end up on medication for a long time, sometimes many YEARS!)

DEPRESSION is OK therefore because it is really the results of the tremendous effort that ur psycho-emotional system is making to try and get us to realize the need to 'change our lives'. Beyond identifying, and accepting, the changes we need to make - the hurdle at which many fall is 'actually initiating change' - in other words TAKING ACTION.

This website aims to offer a range of articles, resources and useful links that might help some of you find the extra strength to identify, accept, plan and even TAKE action - needed to tackle the root cause of YOUR depression. The FIRST step on the way towards making progress is to ACCEPT that DEPRESSION is OK - and that YOU can: learn to deal with your depression; learn what it is 'trying to tell you'; and make choices that will change your life for the better. We hope you find the site useful.

The 'Depression is OK' Team