The Noonday Demon

Just finished reading a book called The Noonday Demon written by Andrew Solomon and learnt a lot from it about depression. Sharing a few things here.

* Many depressed people have substantially reduced sleep altogether, and insomnia during depression is a predictor of suicidality.

* Twice as many women as men seem to suffer depression but men are four times as likely to commit suicide as women.

* Depression affects as much as 80% of the Inuit peoples in Greenland. Aside from the harsh climate (the sun goes away for three months every year), the Inuit have a taboo against complaining.

* Exercise and diet play an important role in the progress of affective illness.

- Exercise produces endorphins. They make you feel better if you're feeling awful. Exercise allays anxiety, too, and this helps to contain irrational fear.

- You are what you eat; you feel what you are. Many people develop depressive symptoms as part of adrenal exhaustion, a consequence of excessive indulgence in sugars and carbohydrates. If your blood sugar level fluctuates because of quick fixes from sweets and junk food, this will cause sleep problems. Coffee sucks energy and stimulates anxiety responses. Alcohol, of course, takes a substantial toll on the body.

* The earliest written reference to marijuana is in a Chinese text on herbal remedies of the 15th century BC, but the stuff did not become common in the West until Napoleon's army brought it back from Egypt.