The word Melancholia originated from the Greek “melas” meaning “black” and “khole” meaning “bile”. In Urdu, it is called “Maalekholia”. It is a type of disorder that chiefly affects the mental process in the human body and may be marked by multiple symptoms including, but not limited to, feelings of sadness, anxiety, and emptiness. It is often accompanied by dysfunction of other systems in the body, such as the digestive and the nervous system.
A very important point to be made here is that the Herbal approach to treating Melancholic Depression differs vastly from non Unani medicine. The very meaning of the word Melancholia refers to imbalances of one of the fundamental humors in the body, the Bile, which must be the focus of any attempt to diagnose and treat this disorder.
People operating in high stress environments and people who are sensitive by nature are often seen suffering from this ailment. Chronic cases are often hard to treat.
Symptoms
Melancholia symptoms may include feeling sad, anxious, empty, pessimistic, hopeless, guilty, worthless, and helpless. In some cases, it may also include feelings of doom and gloom; and even suicide. Other symptoms may include sleep and appetite disorders, weight fluctuations, loss of concentration, weak memory, restlessness, irritability, fatigue, headache, stomachache, dizziness, palpitations, inability to make decisions, indifferent attitude, lack of interest, social isolation, and etc.
Causes
As mentioned earlier, the root cause of Melancholia, as the name suggests, is the bile imbalance. The reasons behind this imbalance could be hereditary or non hereditary. Generally, emotional shock, physical shock, excessive consumption of certain meats/vegetables/and seafood, anemia, complications of hemorrhoids, frequent blood donation, menstrual intercourse, sexual promiscuity, use of certain non Unani medications, addiction to alcohol and drugs are some of the reasons behind this imbalance. In case of women specifically, abortions; multiple pregnancies; miscarriages; use contraceptive medicines, devices, and procedures; irregular periods; hormonal imbalances; and etc., act as triggers for this imbalance.
Management and Treatment
My (Hakeem Syed Muhammad Rehan Alam’s) family has been successfully treating all kinds of Depression disorders for more than 88 years. It is one of our family’s signature treatments and our expertise in this field is well known. We have a proprietary way of approaching diagnosis and treatment. Patient history, pulse analysis, and Qaroora (urine inspection) help the Tabib narrow down the root cause (such as trauma, infection, heredity, and relevant humor imbalances). Whenever necessary, we do make use of modern lab tests in arriving at and confirming diagnosis and in monitoring of treatment progress. Our treatment plan is very simple. Patient is immediately put on a strict dietary plan coupled with generally up to 12-36 week Unani drug regimen consisting of various processed and unprocessed herbs etc.
Note
Over the years, we have been treating melancholia patients with a very high success rate proving yet again that Herbal treatment of Melancholia is definitely very effective. A point to be noted here is that altering dietary habits does go a long way in managing this ailment.
