Wanna make friends with you.

Hi,
I am suffering from depression in China. Although we have different nationality, depression is really
an international disease. If it had not been it, I would be a junior in college. To be further educated in US was once
my dream and I can not pursuit it now. In china, the propoganda about depression is insufficient obviously. How about in your
country? What's your attitude toward such patients?
Thanks!

Post Edited (asyouknow) : 1/17/2008 7:13:00 PM (GMT-7)

Hi there and Welcome to HealingWell,

In Western culture, Depression is officially termed an "affective disorder" which is a posh phrase for a disorder which lowers a persons mood. We have many different treatments including drugs, therapy and alternative medicine (such as Acupuncture. Something I am sure you are familiar with). I am aware that in Asia (Not just China, but also Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Phillipines etc...) has a very different approach to mental illnesses in general and part of it (although not all) are the religious teachings of Buddism, Sihkism(sp) etc... This does not mean to say that you are not entitled to the same treatment as we are in the UK, US etc... We would love to hear more from you. I am not aware of any other members from China and it is great to have a different perspective on such things.

Darren 

Thank you!
I will bring you the news from the other side of our planet!

asyouknow
Hello and welcome to  Healing Well.  I too will be looking for more information from you.

Again a warm welcome. 

Hi,
Regarding the complimentary therapies, I am not very familiar with the corresponding Chinese phrase, but I do believe some approaches are indeed helpful. Take the traditional Chinese medicine for example. Sleeping problems can be eased by certain substance taken from Suanzaoren which is the core of jujube. And it gets rid of cough, cold and other common symptoms very effectively. The greatest advantage is that the same effect can be obtained with much less side effects. I also tried acupuncture to solve my headache. After I turned into cactus for several days, my pain remained.
My conclusion is that only when you find a professional person to practise such work and only when your problem fits such means, they will work.

Hi djdaz,
When I was a small child, my brain wave showed that I was epileptic though rare clinical menifesations appeared on me. Only minor headache bothered me at that time. Then I started to take traditional Chinese herbs which you boil every day. Little by little my brain wave became normal and my head trouble faded off. If you can find a trustworthy traditional Chinese doctor, I suggest you to take his prescription. I have no idea if traditional Chinese medicine is alternative and it also use drugs, but comparing with composed chamicals, the herbs have more notable effects on epilepsy. And I boldly tell you that other alternative therapies can not take the place of drugs completely if they take any effects.

Hi i'm from the middle east, welcome to the forums. Over here they still treat depression as a luxury treatable desease, the goverment support is zero, all insurance companies around here don't cover depression unless for special circumstance. the companies I worked for don't approve paying or insuring for deppresion, and don't cover it in their medical plan. all they did was ask me to resign, since I could not come work anymore.

but if you have the money you can treat your self here, there is good doctors around. I'm personally struggling to pay for the medicine alone here, some of those are pretty expensive like abilify.