"Anything that promotes a sense of isolation often leads to illness and suffering. Anything that promotes a sense of love and intimacy, connection and community, is healing."
Dean Ornish, Love and Survival

 

      In my book, When Going Through Hell...Don't Stop!, I emphasize that social support is an essential requirement for surviving a depressive episode. Having healthy relationships not only helps to alleviate depression, but also helps to prevent its recurrence. Isolation, on the other hand, makes one more vulnerable to mental and physical illness.
      In a groundbreaking study at Stanford University, psychiatrist David Siegel found that women with breast cancer who attended an emotional support group lived twice as long as women in a control group who received no support. In addition, cardiologist Dean Ornish has discovered that intimacy has a pronounced effect on both preventing and healing cardiac disease.
      Building a good support network takes time and the process is unique to each person. It means surrounding yourself with people who can validate what you are going though and who can unconditionally accept you. Some of the members of a support system may include:

• family and close friends.
  
• an ally such as a counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, rabbi, minister, priest, 12 step sponsor or friend in whom you can confide.
  
• group support. Here is where you can gain (and give) help and encouragement from (and to) others who are going through experiences like yours. In a support group, you learn that you are not alone in your suffering, and that there are others who truly understand your pain. To find a depression or anxiety support group in your area, call your local mental health clinic, hospital, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (800-950-NAMI) or the Depressive and Related Affective Disorder Association (410-955-4647).

      Other types of group support you may wish to seek out include a 12-step groups, women's groups, men's groups, group therapy, or any a self-help group that focuses on a challenge in your life.

      In addition to the support of human beings, we can receive from our animal friends, especially domestic pets. The unconditional love that we give to and receive from these beings can be as healing as human love. (This is why pets are increasingly brought to hospital wards and nursing homes.) A loving relationship with a cherished pet provides bonding and intimacy that can strengthen one's psychological immune system and help keep depression at bay.