Cycling between hot and cold also works wonders. Turn the shower to scalding, then back to freezing with more emphasis on the freezing cycle. Blood rushes to the surface of the skin with heat, and rushes deep inside with coolness - so to speak; more like capillaries dilating and contracting. This expansion-contraction is very important.
IME depression is a state of numbness to the world, numbness to all sensory input. If it is not quite biological in origin, I can see heat therapy still working. A depressed person needs a jolt to wake them up and stir them to life. The problem is that the jolt must hit home and must hit hard, which by the nature of depression is a magnificent task. The visceral feeling of heat torching the body is a good jolt though! Getting the organs flowing, switched on and eliminating waste is essential whether the problem is biological or not primarily.
When it's super hot and I'm saturated with water both inside and outside there is a feeling of the body working at maximum capacity in organ flow. Contrast that to a cold dead dark winter where the body just stagnates. I am of the understanding that stagnant body flows are generally responsible for most of the deletrious effects of modern day life and this is what causes ageing to wear the body much faster than the body needs.
I think it would take a little extra time. With these kinds of therapies, also with stretching/exercise, there appear to be zones of change. From low intensity to moderate or likewise with duration, there is generally an acute change in living but long-lasting effects are quickly overwhelmed by stagnation. When you are stretching, say your chest, the first 30s stretching will do good and release the muscles and make you breathe better for a little while. But to truly gleam benefits you have to stretch past the Pain Zone™. A two minute stretch at a time has much better effects, much more lasting effects that will make genuine long-term change occur. Likewise with hot/cold showers - if you jump into the shower and wipe yourself down, the outside of your skin feels clean. But if you stay there long enough to get your fingers wrinkly and wet, there is a huge difference. Now the shower feels like it has not only cleansed every square inch outside your body, but the magic starts working inside the body and you feel like you are being scrubbed from the inside out! But to do this you have to pretty much remain in the Pain Zone™ and endure discomfort. The measure of the discomfort you endure is the measure of the reward you endure.
The time required to feel first benefits is always generally less than the time needed for maximal benefit. You need to sit there, and let the practice work its magic on your system whether that practice is stretching, meditation, exercise or heat therapy. In meditation this is exceptionally pronounced. If you sit down in meditation for 20 minutes, yes you may calm your mind. But soon as you get up it will be back to the same old bizz, just a little quieter. But if you sit down and meditate, and breathe so you progressively become more and more relaxed, taking exceptional care to totally appreciate the sinking, the relaxing, to direct your mental energy exclusively towards this and this alone, then you may soon find that even if you had intended to sit for 5-20 mins, you had actually been there for hours. The hours pass by yet nothing has moved. And when you get up from a meditation like that, you will often experience heightened visual acuity and geometric phenomena, a state of 'deafening silence' which presents a calm and peaceful demeanour for the rest of the day or even week. The difference between this and 20 mins scripted practice is incredible. 20mins
just works... but truly, dissolving with the flow - that works miracles and wonders, truly divine.
IME depression is also a tendency to shy away from sensory extremes. A person seeks to do nothing, not to really move or in any way aggravate the internal mental torture. But this is what amplifies it. This is why going for a HIIT sprint can abate the melancholy for a little bit, as the jolt in heart rate & strenousness exerts a strong BDNF releasing flow which results in neurogenesis perhaps to adapt to this novel stress. My own depression was like a total desensitisation to the world but it arose from one core principle. My body did not KNOW what real stress was. Yes, owing your life savings in debt, or having a partner leaving you are major stressors. It's hard to get these things off your chest. You know what's even harder to get off your chest? 400lbs.
Cortisol sensitivity training, the watchword of the day
Edited by BLimitless, 18 May 2013 - 01:14 PM.
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