@cs3000 Bro my friend from school just got on a ssri I will try to tell him one more time to not take it but oh well he is already very depressed I dnt blame him for having no other option.

@ilnyarienàfaire Do you have other health conditions? What is your TSH? Do you get sunlight/vit D? Do you lead a virtuous, meaningful life? Have you tried CBT/ do you have defense mechanisms for dealing with negative thoughts?

@ilnyarienàfaire On dreams, I think Kilgore is right. I typically have a lot of dreams and feel unrested from them. I almost always oversleep because I am so fatigued from my dreams that I feel too groggy to get up and just go back into the dreams, if that makes sense?

I've noticed that when I do sleep and don't have dreams (or at least don't conciously process I've had them) I feel A LOT more rested when I wake up and waking is a lot easier. I wish I could give advice as to how to dream less but this is my current biggest problem for myself also.

@RePeat said in Vanquishing reflux and depression:

I wonder if there are natural sources of l. Reuteri.

I've since learned that L. Reuteri must be present in some way in raw milk and saucisson (dried sausage that we have in France) but more importantly it is present in sourdough, what would be a very common source for most people at least here in Europe.
I bought into a lot of peaty habits but it never felt right to completely exclude cereals from the diet-- I still consume bread regularly, mostly whole bread fermented with natural sourdough. This could help!

On the topic of depression, there seems to be another of these "simple trick" that's easy to try and might help: chewing gum. I indeed found out that chewing gum was notably associated with mood uplifting and relieving symptoms of depression, and also with ADHD.

At 2 weeks, the score of state anxiety was significantly lower in the intervention group than the control group. The intervention participants’ scores of depression-dejection, fatigue and confusion in POMS were better than the control group scores. Mental fatigue were also relieved after the intervention. At 4 weeks, there were no significant differences between both groups.

--- PMID: 21866229

Logistic regression analyses showed that the effects of chewing gum on stress and health remained significant when [...] confounding factors were controlled for. These results suggest that chewing gum may be a simple way of preventing stress and the negative health outcomes that are often associated with it.

--- https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.1272

The most beneficial effect of chewing gum was observed on the gastrointestinal symptoms, e.g. loss of appetite, and flatulence among others. These results indicate that chewing gum may not be directly effective on depressed mood; however, it may reduce the symptoms originating from depression.

--- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2013.02.002

According to the preliminary results in the present study, intervention of gum chewing for patients with depression may be of some roles in maintaining their mental health.

--- https://doi.org/10.2974/kmj.63.13

Other results are less optimistic but still significant:

Perceived stress decreased as a function of the amount of gum chewed. The chewing gum condition was also associated with a decrease in not getting enough academic work done. There were no significant effects of chewing gum on mental health outcomes.

--- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2012.02.054

Rate of chewing and subjective force of chewing did not alter mood but had some limited effects on attention. Chewing gum during the workday was associated with higher productivity and fewer cognitive problems, raised cortisol levels in the morning, and did not affect heart rate. The results emphasise that chewing gum can attenuate reductions in alertness, suggesting that chewing gum enhances worker performance.

--- https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/654806

You might just try it out!