Wow small world - you're Greek too. Yassoo! Your lentil soup recipe sounds wonderful and so does your diet. If I could eat good mediterranean vegetarian food every day, I'd be in heaven plus it's probably the best diet possible healthwise as you say.

Ironically my wife is actually Lebanese AND vegetarian. And the Lebanese have a very similar cuisine to Greek that is out of this world. Yet she doesn't like to spend much time cooking so she usually just makes quickie stuff and not often anything Mediterranean. It's hard though since she has to make one kind of food for us and another for the kids (that aren't vegetarian) every night.

I'm sorry to hear about your brother. It must be very depressing having the last link to your family gone. I have a very depressing situation too where I'm largely estranged from my mother and sister. I've had to choose between being close to them or looking out for the well being of my own wife and kids - which is very frustrating and sad.

I never really believed in psychiatrists or psychologists. Though if you have serious Depression that IS one area that psychiatry can uniquely help you with (via prescribed drugs more than anything else).

There are two natural ways that I've dealt with my own bouts of Depression when life was especially tough. The first is EFT - and it's been absolutely miraculous. You can turn the volume down on any kind of sad, fearful, phobic, or otherwise negative emotions in a couple minutes of tapping. And the results last. It's the most powerful and life altering technique I've ever learned, yet it's stupidly simple to do and its free.

If you're interested, go to emofree.com and download the instructional PDF. No need to buy any of the DVD's or anything else. You can basically turn the volume down on any emotion you'd like - and it can turn into quite the journey of discovery.

The other thing that has worked well for me in really tough times is SAM-E. No matter how despondant I've ever been feeling, SAM-E just somehow takes it all away and makes me feel normal again. You don't feel anything physically different, except that if you notice, your dark mood has lifted and you feel normal again.

But unlike antidepressants, it works the same day you take it. You don't have to start 3 weeks before it begins working and you don't need to keep taking unless you need it. And more importantly there are absolutely no side effects except that it also helps with joint inflammation. The weird thing though is that not all brands seem to work for me. Fortunately the one that does it is the "Nature Made" brand that you can find in every grocery or drug store.

Sorry for getting so carried away. Have a great day!