Last night Marie Osmond spoke in the grand ballroom of the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City about her post partum depression. I was impressed with her honesty and authenticity as she shared the incredible depths of the depression she went through following the birth of one of her children. As with so many women now, she had very little time in the hospital to recuperate. But on top of it all, her producers were demanding that she back in slim, tip top shape in just a few weeks to return to her entertainment job. This seemed to produce just the opposite effect of what they had wanted. Instead of motivating her, it drove her deeper into depression.
She shared how she left her children with someone and then just drove to get away from it all. Her mother eventually tracked her down. After that point, she finally was able to start receiving help. Her primary care doctor told her it was only "baby blues," which for her discounted her experience and only made her more depressed. But she was eventually able to find a doctor who listened to her and helped her. Her doctor chose a variety of treatments including nutrition, acupuncture, and antidepressants.
When there was an opportunity for questions, I asked her what coping skills she had taken away from her treatment--what worked for her. Here's what she said:
1. Her doctor telling her that she is not crazy. Most depressed patients are not psychotic. But depression and anxiety can make a person feel "crazy."
2. Her doctor really listening to her.
3. Her doctor telling her that they would work through it together and that she would get better. I liked this statement by her doctor. Although I think it every time I meet with a new patient--that we will work through this together, I probably don't say it enough.
3. Developing better nutrition. Here's something else which I probably don't do enough of. The evidence is not clear that nutrition helps depression. But it is my personal belief that there is a downward spiral of depression leading to poor nutrition, which leads to more depression. And I also believe that oftentimes as people recover, an improved sense of well being leads them to take time for better meals, which leads to an overall improved sense of well being, and so on.
4. Reading books on positive emotion. She found a way of combining exercise and reading such books by downloading them to her iphone and listening to them as she walked. She joked about her initial reaction when the doctor her told her to exercise--exercise at that point in her life was just being able to get herself up and walk down the hall! But this combination of walking and listening to positive books makes a lot of sense to me. Walking is not an impossible exercise for depressed persons, although they may need to start slowly and build up. And listening to something positive and uplifting at the same time provides motivation to walk and something positive to feed the mind.
After her talk, I was struck by how she had been at the ultimate low point in life, when nothing, not even her own life seemed to matter anymore. Now, she and her brother have been voted as having the top Vegas show. The myth of the Phoenix bird rising from the ashes came to mind. Now she is not only a star, she has done much to reach out and help others. For example, she is co-founder of the Children's Miracle Network and an outspoken advocate for depressed people getting the help they need. How many of us, I wondered, go through a time of rising from the ashes? How many of us go through a period of feeling that things cannot get any better and feel devoid of hope? If ever there was a story of someone recovering from an absolute low point and finding that life had more in store for them, this was it.
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