WATER – The Magic Elixir Against Mood Disorders
Feelings of depression & anxiety are common in LITERALLY EVERYBODY, I don’t care who you are or whether you insist that you’ve NEVER felt down or anxious, you’re lying or in denial (probably because your ego won’t allow you to admit that sometimes you feel sh*t, sorry, not sorry).
The fact of the matter is that we all feel like Sh*t & we ALL OVER-think & we ALL feel down or depressed at different times throughout life. While we are having the human experience, we have to come to terms with the fact that yes, this human body of ours comes with uncomfortable emotions & needs proper maintenance in order for it to work in tip-top condition. We also accept that yes, sometimes we fail miserably at caring for this temperamental body of ours & what tends to happen when we do that is that we experience an increase of those uncomfortable emotions such as depression & anxiety. True story.
Most people like to think that anxiety & depression just HAPPEN to us as some glitch in our biochemical matrix, but the reality is that you’re creating within your body the perfect environment to welcome anxiety & depression, one mouthful at a time.
Anxiety & depression can come from situational factors such as toxic relationships with family or toxic partnerships, feeling trapped in a job that you hate or whatever toxic situation you find yourself in, HOWEVER… (this is where things get interesting)… how you respond to those outer situational circumstances can vary greatly depending upon how well you look after your body & the substances you choose to consume on a daily basis.
How so, Dee?
WELL firstly… if we are to consider these situational circumstances as forming your immediate environment & if we can accept that your immediate environment plays a big role in how you feel day to day (your emotions, reactions etc), then I want you to go a step further & consider that your human body is a microcosm of your greater (situational) environment. It’s your even more ‘immediate’ environment & THIS immediate environment of yours you are solely responsible for creating & maintaining.
How you choose to maintain this ‘environment’ of yours can greatly impact your emotions, your reactions & whether you’re able to project into this world as a physically & emotionally healthy AND successful person. You are literally creating yourself & your world, one choice at a time.
How so, Dee?
WELL… think about it this way.
- What sort of person would you be if you chose to over-drink alcohol every single day?
- What about if you chose to use drugs as a coping mechanism?
- What about if you knew you were lactose intolerant & chose to consume milk daily?
- What about suffered from insomnia yet chose to drink 10 cups of coffee (a stimulant) daily?
These are more obvious examples to help you get your head around the idea.
How about a more subtle example that you are likely unaware of…
What about if you didn’t like the taste of water so you chose not to consume it all. Instead, you might have a glass of Coke, 3 coffees, cordial, or any other sugary drink available?
Do you have any idea how this affects your immediate environment (your body) & what affect this might have on your greater environment in terms of your emotions & reactions?
Nope?
What will happen is that you will create a depressed & anxious environment for yourself. You will deplete your environment (your body) of the ability to create or maintain serotonin levels & before you even know how or why, you are projecting into the world a human with unstable emotions, a human whose reactions are reactive & volatile whose life choices are made from an impulsive & volatile standpoint. You are projecting into the world as a human who is depressed, anxious, volatile, unstable, reactive, unreliable which only can bring about unsuccessful transactions & interactions with others to your greater environment.
That’s a bit extreme, Dee.
It’s not actually when you consider that there is a direct relationship between depression and dehydration.
In fact, depression is one of the symptoms of dehydration.
85% of your brain tissues are made up of water. If you don’t drink enough pure water you will feel it in your mood first, as even as little 2% dehydration leads to degraded mood, poor concentration & headache.
Proper hydration is essential to serotonin production, low or reduced serotonin levels is one of the main reasons for depression & anxiety to exist in the first place. Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter which plays an important role in determining your mood & your mood plays the main role in determining your actions, reactions & choices in life. Tryptophan is an amino acid converted to serotonin. Your body needs to have sufficient water to transmit tryptophan across your brain. When you are dehydrated, the amount of tryptophan in your brain is limited, which in turn affects the serotonin level. Along with affecting tryptophan levels, dehydration also has a negative impact on the level of amino acids in your body. Depletion of essential amino acid levels will make you feel dejected, anxious, irritable, and inadequate.
If you are of the assumption that drinking coffee, alcohol or any sugar drink counts as fluid intake & therefore will prevent dehydration occurring, you are unfortunately dead wrong. Alcohol, coffee & sugary drinks increase the amount of fluid that is removed from the body (via urine, as they are diuretics meaning they make you pee more). And there you are peeing like horse, topping up your fluids with Coke & 7Up & wondering why you’re in a sh*t mood all the time & your life is one big mess all the time.
Boom, it’s because you’re chronically dehydrated & depressed, my friend. All because you don’t like the flavour of water (like an 8year old).
It’s time to man-up & have your 2-2.5 litres of water a day. You’ll feel amazing & you can thank me for it later.
It literally is the elixir of life.
Dee
xx
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