Depression + Zone Therapy

It's the mileage,  Raz.

By far the number one cause of death among my extended friends and acquaintance group. Nothing else comes close. 

> we're mostly damaged goods yet we've found a way to survive and thrive without takin ourselves or each other out.

I'm reminded of something I heard once about dolphins saving people who were drowning by pushing them to the shore. We never hear from the people who the dolphins pushed farther out to sea.

As good a forum as this is, the Zone is not a panacea.  We've lost members of our community to suicide.  If you're struggling with depression, talk to a professional.

Agree dave.

Zoners struggling with suicidal feelings should probably steer clear of the zone for a while, and do the work.

This place is really more of a padded room than anything else.

Neal Casal (November 2, 1968 – August 26, 2019) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and photographer. First rising to prominence as lead guitar with Rickey Medlocke's Blackfoot from 1988 to 1993, he is also known as a member of Ryan Adams' backing band the Cardinals from 2005 until 2009, with whom he recorded three studio albums. He played in several groups, including the Chris Robinson Brotherhood.

> we're mostly damaged goods yet we've found a way to survive and thrive without takin ourselves or each other out.

got me thinking of all the zoners over the years who've died from suicide and drug overdoses, not to mention tragic deaths.  the premis of this thread is 

I think the premise of this thread is well-meaning, but I don't think it's as simple as is made out to be here.

My personal experience with depression, both my own and with others I've known is that it's a very murky, insidious thing, often hard to recognize, pinpoint or admit to, and is usually very difficult to talk about.

I've known a couple of people who have done the deed, and there was not much indication from either that they were even close to that mindset, and it seems that is often the case, where friends & family are shocked after it happens. I'm not an expert on the subject, but I think one of the symptoms of depression is that it causes the sufferer to hide it; from others and even themselves, not wanting to talk about it, not knowing how to talk about it, being embarrassed about it, not even being aware that they are "depressed".

People always say, "Why didn't they say anything? Why didn't they tell me? Why didn't they reach out if they were depressed?" Well, maybe they didn't because they were suffering from depression.

I've always remembered a line from the movie Ordinary People, where the kid who tried to off himself was asked why he did it, and he said something to the effect of feeling like he was alone in a dark hole, the hole always getting deeper with no way out, until he BECAME the hole, and there wasn't anything else.

Heavy stuff, and something I think most of us who could never imagine doing the deed could never really understand. A consistent reaction by those close to a victim is anger, but I've personally always felt that since I've never been to the place the victim was at I have no idea what that place is like, so I try to have some empathy & forgiveness for them.

>>>Depression so bad that you end it was a rare occurrence when I was young<<<

Again, I'm no expert on the subject, but I'm betting that it happened more often in the past than we may know. Both the people I knew did it when I & they were young. The internet and the constant barrage of instant global information is a pretty recent thing. I think we may just hear about it more often now.

Anyway, nice thought Ras.

Keep passing the open windows folks.

Some good news --- some Zoner-favored concious-altering substances are proving helpful in some cases. Some local resources:

The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research is leading the way in exploring innovative treatments using psilocybin. The molecular structure of psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in 'magic mushrooms,' allows it to penetrate the central nervous system and the scientific and medical experts are just beginning to understand its effects on the brain and mind and its potential as therapeutics for mental illnesses.

Backed by $17 million of funding, researchers build on previous work and expand research on psychedelics for illness and wellness: (1) to develop new treatments for a wider variety of psychiatric and behavioral disorders with the aspiration of treatments tailored to the specific needs of individual patients and (2) to expand research in healthy volunteers with the ultimate aspiration of opening new ways to support human thriving.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/research/psychedelics-researc...

INSIDE A PSILOCYBIN PLAYLIST

Researchers rely on this carefully selected classical and contemporary music playlist to enhance the psychedelic experience for their patients during psilocybin studies

https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/11/11/psychedelic-psilocybin-playlist/

Johns Hopkins Opens New Center for Psychedelic Research

Since childhood, Rachael Petersen had lived with an unexplainable sense of grief that no drug or talk therapy could entirely ease. So in 2017 she volunteered for a small clinical trial at Johns Hopkins University that was testing psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, for chronic depression.

“I was so depressed,” Ms. Petersen, 29, said recently. “I felt that the world had abandoned me, that I’d lost the right to exist on this planet. Really, it was like my thoughts were so stuck, I felt isolated.”

The prospect of tripping for hours on a heavy dose of psychedelics was scary, she said, but the reality was profoundly different: “I experienced this kind of unity, of resonant love, the sense that I’m not alone anymore, that there was this thing holding me that was bigger than my grief. I felt welcomed back to the world.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/science/psychedelic-drugs-hopkins-dep...

COMPASS Pathways

COMPASS Pathways plc (Nasdaq: CMPS) (“COMPASS”), a mental health care company dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health, is establishing its first Centre of Excellence in collaboration with The Sheppard Pratt Institute for Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. 

The Centre of Excellence will model the “clinic of the future”, showcasing the best thinking in science, therapy, technology, and design. 

The Centre of Excellence will be built on the Sheppard Pratt Towson campus and will include at least four state-of-the-art psychedelic therapy rooms, as well as facilities for research and training. In addition to a capital investment to support the design and building work, COMPASS will fund research studies into psilocybin therapy and other therapies, led by Dr. Aaronson.  

https://www.sheppardpratt.org/news-views/story/compass-pathways-establis...

Be The Kind in someone else's day. It could mean all the difference in the world.