BlueGin
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- Jul 10, 2004
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(CNN) -- When Cesar Castillo's cancer returned for the second time, he fell apart.
"I had to go through a rigorous chemo and radiation therapy and a stem cell transplant," he said. "I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't relax. I was really anxious and depressed. All I kept thinking was: 'Here I am, not even 30, being poisoned and fighting for my life.'"
Diagnosed with severe depression, Castillo was put on Paxil.
"The medicine turned me into a totally different (person)," he remembers, "and yet I still couldn't relax."
Are we over-diagnosing mental illness?
A year later, with the help of a yoga class for cancer survivors at his gym, Castillo was feeling like his old self again. By then he had given up on the medication.
So, when a work crisis triggered a second bout of depression and panic attacks, he had no intention of trying meds again.
"I went back to what had worked for me the first time. I upped the Bikram yoga and I channeled my energy into getting stronger and more relaxed again," he said. "Yoga became my saving grace."
Castillo's success with yoga would not surprise Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Doraiswamy is one of three authors of a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Using downward dogs to treat depression - CNN.com
"I had to go through a rigorous chemo and radiation therapy and a stem cell transplant," he said. "I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't relax. I was really anxious and depressed. All I kept thinking was: 'Here I am, not even 30, being poisoned and fighting for my life.'"
Diagnosed with severe depression, Castillo was put on Paxil.
"The medicine turned me into a totally different (person)," he remembers, "and yet I still couldn't relax."
Are we over-diagnosing mental illness?
A year later, with the help of a yoga class for cancer survivors at his gym, Castillo was feeling like his old self again. By then he had given up on the medication.
So, when a work crisis triggered a second bout of depression and panic attacks, he had no intention of trying meds again.
"I went back to what had worked for me the first time. I upped the Bikram yoga and I channeled my energy into getting stronger and more relaxed again," he said. "Yoga became my saving grace."
Castillo's success with yoga would not surprise Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Doraiswamy is one of three authors of a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Using downward dogs to treat depression - CNN.com