My Ongoing Battle with Depression

The good news is that I am no longer in active addiction. I’ve been sober for twelve years. The bad news is that I traded my active addiction for the depression that followed. To be sure, it’s the far better of the two ailments, but no picnic all the same.

Since I quit drinking, my depression has taken its place front and center in my life. Now sober and clearheaded, I’ve begun to monitor my depression much more closely. I never really understood it before, and I still don’t in many ways, but I can at least more easily recognize it now when it wraps me up and then take positive measures to control it.

My depression works like this: I wake up in the morning and have this feeling of just general unhappiness. This happens as surely as day follows night. I feel lethargic, low energy, and unmotivated to perform even the most routine tasks like taking a shower, getting dressed, or starting my day. The best way to describe it is that this overwhelming sense of dread envelopes me.

It’s certainly not a condition ideal for starting a new business, as I am with Exact Nature, but I’ve learned to manage it pretty well. Launching any new business is full of challenges and surprises but facing this with depression makes it that much harder. Each day I have to face my depression and get myself turned around before I can be productive, motivated, and optimistic again. It’s an obstacle to be overcome.

Fortunately, I have found a healthy way to cope and it’s CBD. It not only helps me from a therapeutic standpoint, but the cause itself motivates me to help others. Exact Nature’s specially formulated products provide a positive, healthy way for me and other sufferers to have a fighting chance against depression and the other issues we face in sobriety.

For ten years after I quit drinking, I relied on pharmaceutical medicines to help control my depression, and they worked…until they didn’t. Through the years I was prescribed X and it worked for a while. Then when it invariably stopped working, I tried prescription Y. Again and again for years I went through this laborious trial and error process. This was time consuming and frustrating with no guarantee the new medicine would work. So, more than two years ago now, I stopped taking prescription medicine altogether for my depression and have relied solely on CBD to control it. And it has worked remarkably well, at least as well as the prescription meds.

This is not to say that when I take CBD my depression magically disappears. It’s not like that. The CBD does work every day, but on the days when I am experiencing higher-than-normal levels of stress for whatever reason, it may not eliminate it entirely, but it always helps even me out. The prescription meds didn’t work any better or more consistently than the CBD. And because CBD is all-natural, I would much rather use this.

Exact Nature’s singular mission is to provide addicts in recovery with healthy, natural, CBD products that help with the range of issues we face in recovery. This includes depression and anxiety, but also helping curb addictive cravings and getting better sleep.

Currently 14 percent of the adult population in the U.S. use CBD regularly and the reason most often cited for using it is for depression and anxiety. CBD’s promise as a treatment for both depression and anxiety have led many who live with these disorders to become interested in this natural approach. CBD’s effectiveness is linked to its ability to act on the brain’s receptors for serotonin and dopamine, which are neurotransmitters that regulate mood and addiction-related behaviors.

It’s thought that CBD binds to receptors—these neurotransmitters—in the brain and throughout the body to help balance the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which in turn steadies important bodily functions from sleep, to mood, to appetite, to memory and pain sensation.

A balanced ECS helps our body maintain homeostasis, or equilibrium, in response to physical, mental, and environmental changes and stressors. Our bodies naturally produce endocannabinoids to support this system, but like with any nutrient, they can become deficient and require extra support. CBD helps block the breakdown of our endocannabinoids, thereby allowing our bodies to draw on more of what it’s already naturally producing.

It could be alarming that the actual use of CBD is outpacing the research, if not for what we do know about CBD: that it’s all-natural, safe and non-addictive. CBD and the other all-natural ingredients in our products have been used in some cultures for hundreds of years, including for depression, anxiety and the range of conditions we face in recovery.

If you are suffering from depression and anxiety, try Exact Nature’s Serenity products. Serenity combines exceptional quality CBD and naturally occurring essential compounds and nutrients to act as a natural antidepressant to help you maintain a stable, positive mood. Our proprietary formula helps increase the availability of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine in the brain to help maintain positivity.

Please, join me and the many others who have found relief using CBD. Wishing all the best for you in recovery.