You Have Options: Five Different Depression Treatments

The reason why mental health and wellness experts are adamant about defining depression as a medical issue – rather than a feeling – is that this means you can treat it. Seeing depression as an emotional problem means that it can keep you from living the life you want to, but you should not hesitate in seeking help, as there is a way out. There are plenty of treatment options if your wellbeing is affected by depression, so which will you pick to overcome the mental problem and reclaim your life?

 

1. Lifestyle changes: There are multiple steps you can take in your own life to reduce and even get rid of depression. These include:

 

• Exercise – Getting active triggers the growth of new brain cells and connections – just like antidepressants – as well as boosting your serotonin, endorphins, and other feel-good brain chemicals. The best news is even just a half-hour walk a day can make all the difference.


• Diet – To keep your energy up and minimise mood swings, try to eat small, well-balanced meals throughout the day and choose complex carbohydrates over sugary foods.


• Sleep – Sleep deprivation exacerbates irritability, moodiness, sadness, and fatigue, so make sure you get somewhere between seven and nine hours of sleep every night.


• Social support – It’s important to have strong social networks, as isolation is a key risk factor for depression. Keep in regular contact with friends and family, consider joining a class or try volunteering for a wonderful way to get social support and help others while also helping yourself.


• Stress reduction – While this is easier said than done, reducing the things in your life that cause you stress – such as unsupportive relationships or work overload – can do your mental and physical health a world of good.

 

2. Psychotherapy: As talk therapy gives you tools to treat problems from a variety of angles, it’s an extremely effective treatment for depression. Often, a blend of approaches is used to help you to move forward and prevent depression from returning. This blend includes cognitive behavioural therapy, interpersonal therapy, and psychodynamic therapy. Through these practises, you can work through the root of your depression, and understand why you feel a certain way, what your triggers are for depression, and what you can do to stay healthy.

 

3. Medication: While medication may help relieve some of the symptoms of moderate and severe depression, it doesn’t cure the underlying problem, and it’s usually not a long-term solution. There are also side effects and withdrawal concerns surrounding antidepressant medications, so learning all the facts can help you make an informed decision as to whether this is the right choice for you. Your GP can prescribe antidepressants, but it’s wise to first explore your options with other mental health professionals who specialize in depression, so ask for a referral.

 

4. Vitamins and supplements: There is little evidence that proves how well herbal remedies, vitamins, or supplements work in treating depression. However, if a nutritional deficiency is partly to blame for your depression symptoms, you may benefit from vitamin supplements. If this is an avenue you choose to pursue, only take supplements on the advice of your healthcare professional and remember that they can have side effects and drug or food interactions. Make sure your doctor or therapist knows what you are taking.

 

5. Acupuncture:  Again, we’re still waiting on absolute scientific confirmation here, but some research studies are showing positive results for acupuncture being used as a treatment for depression. The key here is to make sure that you find a licensed qualified professional.

Categories: depression, life, Lifestyle Changes, mental, Mental Health, nbsp, psychotherapy, social support, Supplements

How to Work Out Which Type of Talk Therapy is Right For You

There are different types of talking therapy, but chances are you’re more familiar with counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or psychotherapy. Some types of talking treatments are more suitable than others for particular people and situations, and so it’s important to explore your options before you opt for a less-effective therapy. It may be helpful to discuss your options with your GP, but here’s the basic run-down of each talking treatment and how they might be beneficial for you.

 

1. Counselling: As the best-known talking therapy, counselling is the most readily available at your GP surgery, with the NHS usually offering six to 12 hour-long sessions. In confidence, you talk to your counsellor about your situation and yourself, and he or she will support you and give you practical advice. This is a good complimentary wellness therapy for people who are otherwise healthy, but need help with current crises like anger, relationship problems, bereavement, redundancy, infertility and the onset of a serious illness.

 

2. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): In CBT, you change your mindset so that you can cope with difficult situations in a healthier way. With your therapist, you set goals and carry out tasks between sessions, over a period of six to 15 weeks. Again, this is more to do with your present than your past, which is why CBT can help you deal with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and some eating disorders, especially bulimia.

 

3. Psychotherapy: This is different to counselling and CBT in that psychotherapy involves talking more about your past to help you overcome problems you’re having in the present. There are many types of psychotherapy, but the main aim in all variations is to help you to understand yourself, your life and your relationships. As psychotherapy tends to last longer than CBT and counselling, it can be especially useful if you have long-term or recurring problems of which you don’t know the cause.

 

4. Family therapy: A therapist or a pair of therapists will meet with you all as a family, in order to understand your problems and enable you to communicate better with one another. This can be useful when one member of the family has a serious problem that’s affecting the rest of the group, such as child and adolescent behavioural problems, mental health conditions, illness and disability, domestic violence, drug and alcohol addiction, and separation, divorce and step-family issues.

 

5. Couples therapy: When your relationship wellness is at risk, be it because of a big event (like an affair) or lots of little things, couples therapy can help you work through it. You and your partner speak to a counsellor, who can help you find where you’ve gone wrong, and work on ways to change your relationship for the better. As a result of couples therapy, many people learn more about their partner’s needs and how to communicate better.

 

6. Group therapy: For group therapy, you meet up with around 11 other people and a therapist, in order to share a common problem and get support and advice from people who know exactly what you’re going through. Not only does this mean that you’ll get better advice than you would if you just talked to a friend or someone who hasn’t gone through the same things, but just knowing you’re not alone in your experiences is, in itself, beneficial to your wellbeing. Plus, you may just find that you’re a social person, and prefer being in a group to individual therapy.

Categories: behavioural therapy, cognitive behavioural, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Counselling, couples therapy, Group Therapy, nbsp, psychotherapy, talking therapy, therapy, therapy cbt

Although we are often told about the health benefits of physical activity and exercise, the importance of our mental health is sometimes forgotten. For example, those in caring professions tend to have patterns of self-sacrifice, where the needs of others are considered more of a priority than their own. But often our own needs are forgotten in these situations – in order to look after others, we must first look after ourselves. There is a variety of therapies available which can help you to lead a calmer and more focused life. One such model is Schema Therapy, which focuses on self-esteem, defectiveness and failure. This is often a debilitating aspect of many people’s personalities which can greatly affect how they deal with situations and relationships. Psychotherapy allows you to gain perspective with your problems which can be a useful way of dealing with issues you may have been battling. A recent workshop asked therapists to think about a client and a specific issue they may have discussed with them – they then asked them to imagine what their answer would be to the question “How much would you pay to make the problem go away?” The subject of the cost to a client versus the cost to those in the person’s life, such as employers or businesses is brought to light in such a situation. Following this, everyone in the workshop worked out the value of each session, by taking the client’s cost and dividing it by the number of sessions usually required to treat such a problem. For some, this was simply a multiple of their regular hourly rate – for others, it was far higher. The exercise proved that the value of psychotherapy is far greater than most psychologists place on it. The work that therapists do and the benefits they provide to many people is vast and emphasises the importance of such a practice. The cost of psychotherapy versus its value

Although we are often told about the health benefits of physical activity and exercise, the importance of our mental health is sometimes forgotten. For example, those in caring professions tend to have patterns of self-sacrifice, where the needs of others are considered more of a priority than their own. But often our own needs are forgotten in these situations – in order to look after others, we must first look after ourselves.

There is a variety of therapies available which can help you to lead a calmer and more focused life. One such model is Schema Therapy, which focuses on self-esteem, defectiveness and failure. This is often a debilitating aspect of many people’s personalities which can greatly affect how they deal with situations and relationships. Psychotherapy allows you to gain perspective with your problems which can be a useful way of dealing with issues you may have been battling.

A recent workshop asked therapists to think about a client and a specific issue they may have discussed with them – they then asked them to imagine what their answer would be to the question “How much would you pay to make the problem go away?” The subject of the cost to a client versus the cost to those in the person’s life, such as employers or businesses is brought to light in such a situation. Following this, everyone in the workshop worked out the value of each session, by taking the client’s cost and dividing it by the number of sessions usually required to treat such a problem. For some, this was simply a multiple of their regular hourly rate – for others, it was far higher.

The exercise proved that the value of psychotherapy is far greater than most psychologists place on it. The work that therapists do and the benefits they provide to many people is vast and emphasises the importance of such a practice.

The cost of psychotherapy versus its value

Categories: health, psychotherapy, value