Depression Learning

Depression Treatment

After you have been diagnosed with depression, you and your doctor will discuss options for depression treatment. The way your depression will be treated will depend on the type and severity of depression that you have. Many people are treated with depression drugs, known as antidepressants. However, some people may have the type of depression that needs a combination of depression drugs and counseling from a psychotherapist. There is a small percentage of people who will require electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), because antidepressants and psychotherapy alone isn’t enough to alleviate depression.

Your depression won’t go away immediately, because it takes time for depression treatment to be effective. It is possible that your doctor will have to try different depression drugs to treat your clinical depression, because some medications are more effective than other. If your doctor refers you to a psychiatrist, it is because a psychiatrist may be more helpful. A psychiatrist is skilled in helping people reach inside themselves to express what is at the root of the depression. Sometimes it is anger turned in on oneself that is the primary cause of depression. Sometimes people with depression take antidepressants, see a psychiatrist and see a counselor.

Antidepressants help to put the brain chemicals, norepinephrine and serotonin back into normal balance. The stresses of everyday life and your reactions to those stresses can cause an imbalance in the brain chemistry. Brain chemistry and depression are interrelated to both the reaction to stress and other stimuli in the environment. It is believed that reactions to stimuli can change one’s brain chemistry, and changes in brain chemistry can affect one’s reaction to the stimuli. Therefore, antidepressant medications are beneficial to keeping brain chemistry normal by “recycling” the brain chemicals through the thought pathways of the brain.

Seeing a therapist on a regular basis can help you to talk about your thoughts, and to learn new coping skills for stressful situations. The actual act of speaking out what is stressing you out is helpful to reduce your reaction to stress. For many people, giving a voice to their feelings is enough to reduce or alleviate depression symptoms. Many people journal their thoughts and feelings. The act of writing down their feelings is very therapeutic for reducing depression symptoms.

Your doctor and/ or psychiatrist may employ more than one method of treatment for your depression symptoms. Treating depression can be a trial and error experience. When one medication or treatment doesn’t work, the doctor will try another one. You may go through two or three different kinds of antidepressants until you find one that is helpful. You might try more than one therapist until you find one who is helpful.

It is important to discuss different depression treatment options with your doctor. What about alcohol and depression? If you take drugs for depression, it is important to speak with your doctor about alcohol use. Alcohol can exacerbate depression; your doctor may ask you to limit alcohol use, or to stop drinking alcohol altogether. It is also important to ask your doctor about the side effects of antidepressants. Some antidepressants cause drowsiness in the first few days until your body becomes accustomed to the medication. Your pharmacist may advise you not to drive or operate machinery if you become drowsy.

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