A few days ago I attended a discussion on
the bio-chemistry of depression and its cure. I particularly
wanted to attend because I had twice suffered severe
depression, and I was eager to learn if anybody else had come
across my method of recovery.
Usually, professors will be reasonably competent in public
speaking, and, if they don’t have a strong voice that carries
well, the lecture hall will be equipped with amplifiers. But
that was not the case at this meeting and lecture. The “Hall”
was one of the dining rooms in a restaurant, and the
expectation that the participants would order meals was enough
to justify their free use of space.
The speaker’s mumbling was mixed with the other noises of
waiters and eaters, and nobody seemed to be primarily
concerned with what was going on at the podium. A few asked
questions that were as inane as the professor’s answers. She
had done research on anti-depressant medication and outright
admitted “we are funded by the pharmaceutical companies”. And
when discussing treatment options, she stressed the fact that
one of the drugs used had to be carefully measured; even the
tiniest overdose could kill the patient.
I wasted no more of my time there and decided to look for a
more receptive audience, which I am sure I will find in
readers of Health Freedom News.
It is well known that the U.S.A. is the biggest consumer of
resources on this globe. No matter how much we have, we always
want more- more money, more space, more tools, more food, more
everything. When it gets to the point where we can’t consume
it all, we waste it. The government gives away surplus food to
poor people, but they, too, are glutted. I regularly find
unopened boxes and bags of figs, raisins, cranberries, dried
milk and other commodities in the dumpsters.
And is all this surfeit making us happy or healthy? On the
contrary, it appears that depression is becoming a growing
problem. Even children are killing others and themselves.
Although they appear to have everything, there still must be
something more that they need. The chemical companies think
they need drugs to act on their brains; the health food
purveyors think they may need vitamin pills to supply what’s
missing in today’s food, and so forth. More. More. Always
more.
But if “more” hasn’t worked, maybe we should try “less”,
particularly less food. Ever since I learned in my early adult
years that fasting is the means to retain, regain, and renew
life, I have practiced it on a regular basis. After my first
few successful attempts, I took nine months off from my job at
the OAS in Washington, D.C. to work and study fasting under
Dr. Gerald Benesh and Dr. James McEachen, both practitioners
of Natural Hygiene in Escondido, California. Some years after
that I completed a 50-day fast under the supervision of the
doyen of Natural Hygiene, the late Dr. Herbert Shelton of San
Antonio.
I tried not to let too many years pass between moderate fasts
of two or three weeks, whatever I could manage on my own,
without burdening others with my care. But twice I was in such
bad shape, with severe mental agony and depression, that I
prevailed on a friend to see me through. I was suicidal, but
there was still that small urgent voice inside me saying, “you
must fast “, so I obeyed. My friend thought it was just
another one of my attempts to kill myself. That fast lasted 40
days, during which I just rested, read, wrote letters, drank
only pure water as thirst indicated, and took short walks in
the sunshine.
After I had my “breakfast”, I was amazed at how different
everything looked. No longer were problems my downfall. They
were all challenges, almost like games, and the people I had
associated with before were astounded-some were even
dumbfounded and thought I had been putting on an act during
the previous months.
My second bout of severe depression occurred about eleven
years later, during all of which time I had found no
opportunity to do any “upkeep” fasting. In 1985 I had moved
from Texas to Illinois to take care of my mother, who was in
such a deteriorated condition that I had to obtain
guardianship for her. After her death, two years later, I
still could not fast because I was living with an elderly lady
whose sole joy in life was cooking meals for us. In return for
her hospitality, I had to eat with her. It was not long before
she, too, needed around-the-clock care, and it was up to me to
give it. After she died, I returned to Texas, completed a
27-day fast, and all my symptoms of depression vanished.
Now that all my family responsibilities are over, I am
determined to take care of myself as I should, and fast often
enough to prevent the onset of depression or any other
condition of ill health. Yes, I believe fasting is a cure-all.
During my 50-day fast I eliminated gall stones and tumors, all
without surgery. This is how it works: There is only one
disease-toxemia-that is, poisoning. But as the poisoning
affects different areas or organs of the body, different
symptoms surface. The doctors look up these symptoms and
discover what disease they go with, and, so, what medicine
will cure it. But the medicine is only a drug, and all drugs
are poisons. So, what they are doing is adding more poison to
an already poisoned body, and such allopathic treatments never
work, as is common knowledge now that American medicine has
become the leading cause of U.S. deaths.
On the contrary, what fasting does for a toxin- laden body is
to give it a chance to rest. With no food to digest, the
stomach changes from a digestive organ to an eliminating
organ, and the poisons are rounded up and expelled. Oh, yes,
the process is sometimes painful and must be endured. Taking a
pain-reliever would, again, be adding more poison. I endured
fifteen hours of sharp pain while a gallstone was passing.
That pain also had its purpose, to keep me as motionless as
possible while the important work was going on.
There is never any danger of accidentally starving to death
while fasting. Hunger disappears after the third day or so,
and when it returns, that’s the signal to break the fast. It
means that all bodily reserves are expended. I never got down
to those minimums during any of my fasts, but I always looked
forward to eating again. The first sip of fruit juice was a
thrill, and after a few meals, my whole being delighted in
every fragrance, sight and taste as if it were a new
experience. That alone was worth fasting and waiting for, but
considering it all happened because I had become internally
cleaner, more vigorous, and “renewed”, I think it was a
bargain.
There may be other ways to cure depression, but if any of them
work, I’m sure its because they are close to the “give nature
a chance” school of thought.
Frances Adelhardt, now in her mid-eighties, has been a life
long conservationist, practiced organic living since the
1950’s, lives on acreage and keeps fit by traveling almost
totally by bicycle. Her long life began in Illinois where
after attending Blackburn College and the University of
Illinois she became a WAVE, and a skilled photographer and
pilot amongst other adventures. Frances does not use vitamins,
supplements nor doctors care and believes the human body is a
magnificent self-cleaning and self-healing entity.
