Practically Overcoming Depression

Overcoming depression seems like a daunting task, especially to the depressed individual himself/herself. Fortunately, there are many effective ways to overcome depression – we as individuals can control our thoughts and feelings much more than we let on. Habitual thoughts and feelings may be changed with enough work and effort.
The first thing to do would be to check any medicines that you are on. Ask your doctor if any of the medicines you take may be causing your depression. Surprisingly, a lot of medicines out there can do this, including many seemingly-harmless tranquilizers or sleeping pills, hypertension medicines, hormonal medications (such as oral contraceptives), some anti-inflammatory or anti-infection drugs, some medicines for ulcer… the list goes on. In some cases, simply discontinuing use of an offending medication may be all that’s needed to get rid of your depression.
Besides this, overcoming depression through other means is extremely easy. Upon hearing this, depressed individuals may be quick to counter, “you don’t know what I’m going through.” True, but hear me out – some people like being labeled, and it’s a fact that most of us put labels on other people in an attempt to make our lives a little less complicated. Depressed individuals often label themselves as “Depressed” just so they can say, “I’m depressed, so I’ll be this way for the next few weeks or months. I’ll get out of this only when I say I’m no longer depressed.”
I know, it sounds rash, but I’m not pointing fingers at anyone here. If you’re depressed, I’d just like you to know that I’ve been to where you are – deeper even, perhaps – and I’ve realized that it’s easy to get out of depression, or at least to start the process of getting out.
These days, as more depressed individuals get treated, another trend is growing – patients are beginning to receive medications only, without any complementing psychotherapy. This is due to the fact that most of the professionals who treat depression are primary care physicians, who write prescription after prescription for antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft. These same physicians do not tend to recommend psychotherapy as an alternative or complementary treatment.
This has resulted in a spike in the proportion of depressed individuals prescribed with medication. Back in 1987, only 45% were given antidepressant medication – ten years later, that figure nearly doubled to 80%. In that same period, the percentage of individuals receiving psychotherapy declined form 71% to 60%.
I’m not saying that antidepressants aren’t effective – truth be told, most of them are – but like most drugs, they aren’t cure-all. Most physicians fail to realize that addressing the patient’s lifestyle habits plays an equal role in overcoming mental illnesses.
Depression is no exception. Patients who rely solely on medication may miss out on the benefits that psychotherapy can provide, such as knowing how to live a better life. Psychotherapy, when expertly provided, may be just as effective as medication, and impart longer-term benefits to the individual. A 2003 study found that psychotherapy was more effective than medication in treating patients who suffered from early childhood trauma.
In the end, a combination of antidepressant medication and psychotherapy seems to be more effective than either treatment alone, as noted by Dr. Mayberg. Individuals who are very apathetic or disengaged may have to be treated with an antidepressant before they can benefit from psychotherapy.

About the Author

Tim Clark writes health related articles, the majority of which can be found on his website on bi polar disorder , where he has a large listing of bipolar articles. For more on overcoming depression follow the link.

Rating: Not yet rated

--Choose-- 0 1 2 3 4 5

by: regist Total views: 14 Word Count: 617 Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 Time: 12:25 AM 0 comments