Struggling with depression? Using healing elements that mimic the lifestyle of your earliest predecessors may help fight the feelings and symptoms associated with depression. Dubbed cave woman (or man) therapy, University of Kansas clinical psychology professor Stephen Ilardi, PhD, says consuming omega-3 fatty acids, being active and engaged, getting regular sunshine exposure, spending more time in groups of people and getting plenty of sleep are all associated with decreasing depression.
"As a species, humans were never designed for the pace of modern life," says Ilardi. "We're designed for a different time—a time when people were physically active, when they were outside in the sun for most of the day, when they had extensive social connections and enjoyed continual face time with their friends and loved ones, when they experienced very little social isolation, when they had a much different diet, when they got considerably more sleep and when they had much less in the way of a relentless, demanding, stress-filled existence."
Can our industrialized lifestyle be the culprit behind a burgeoning depression epidemic, which continues to worsen despite decades of sharp increases in pharmaceutical consumption?
"A century ago, according to the best epidemiological evidence we have, the lifetime rate of depressive illness in the U.S. was about 1%," says Ilardi. "The rate now stands at 23%. So we've had roughly a 20-fold increase over the course of a century. Since World War II there's been roughly a 10-fold increase. And a recent study found the rate of depression has more than doubled in just the past decade."
American Amish people, for example, have depression rates far lower than the broader American population. For Dr. Illardi, the battle against depression is personal: "I've seen three of my own family members battle this illness, and I don't think anyone can encounter depression up close without gaining a greater sense of compassion for those who are suffering in its grip," he says. "It's something that hits very close to home for me and probably for many others. Virtually everyone knows someone with this affliction."
About the Author: Carolyn Davis Cockey, MLS, is editor of Health4Women.org and Healthy Mom & Baby magazine. She writes the Woman 2 Woman column for Health4Women.org and serves as the director of publications for AWHONN in Washington, DC. She lives in Sarasota, FL.
