The Not-So-Great Depression
In fact, talk therapy or psychotherapy has been shown to greatly improve depression symptoms. A Canadian study in the 2004 Archives of General Psychiatry found that patients who recover from depression with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—a type of talk therapy that aims to change one’s negative thought patterns—show an improvement that’s similar to taking an antidepressant.
“Medications can help to accelerate recovery, but talk therapy helps to promote changes in behavior, like getting patients out of bed and doing activities they enjoy,” says Luciani. Also, therapists can teach patients how to use self-talk to diffuse negative thought patterns, like “I’m a loser” or “I’ll never get better.”
In addition to talk therapy, your doctor will discuss antidepressant medication with you. These drugs aim to improve your neurons’ ability to function, thus improving your depression symptoms. Popular antidepressants include Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro and Prozac. Be warned: Finding the right medication may take time. Every person responds differently to these medications (some don’t work, some bring on nasty side effects), so the first 30 days may be a time of experimentation and patience.
Hilary James* from Seattle, tried three different antidepressant medications before finding the right one for her. “I was prescribed Paxil and Effexor by my doctor, but both medications made me very tired,” she explains. “Finally, after taking Zoloft for a few weeks, I noticed I was feeling better and not experiencing the same fatigue that I did with the other medications.”
There are also a number of holistic options available to treat depression. Kathleen Albertson, an acupuncturist and holistic nutritionist from Irvine, CA, treats depression patients using acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
“If your body is not nourished physically and emotionally, this imbalance can cause many patterns of illness, including brain fog, insomnia, anxiety and depression.” Albertson claims that her techniques help 80% of her depressed patients.
Nutrition and diet can also play an important role in dealing with depression. Recent research at Ohio State University has shown that increasing your intake of omega-3 fatty acids—found in salmon and walnuts—may affect your brain just like antidepressants and may improve your symptoms.
Posted: 12/16/07
Probably the one single thing that is most consistently helpful to my depression is movement/exercise. Even so, I don't follow that advice as often as I should and I still have depression, but after many years I've learned that it's almost like magic; rarely do I get a bout of depression that doesnt respond to even the briefest walk. I guess if I'm deep enough in depression, it only takes a little walk to bump things up. When I walk regularly, it's like a Force Field against depression; I never get down. When i let things get in the way of the daily walks, I get depressed again. I think if I win the lottery I'll hire a personal trainer to make me get out and walk every single day and see if I can go depression-free for a whole year or something.
Deepak Chopra says that 90% of our thoughts daily are negative. I discovered that volunteering will take away quite a lot of that negetive thought. I volunteer for the Animal Welfare and during this holiday season, I took away at least 20% of my negative thoughts.
(Somehow I hit the wrong button, so now I'll finish my comment.)
The meditation really helped calm my anxieties & thoughts.
I am so thankful that I was guided through this painful time, with the easiest experience it could have been. I kept telling myself that "this too will pass" & it has.
Occasionally I will have a day or two when I feel "down", but on the whole, I continue to climb toward the sun.
Hope this helps somebody else.
Take care of yourself!
In Nov.'06 I went into a deep depression. My best friend was moving to an independent living senior facility & needed help packing boxes, moving furniture & possessions. It was the coldest, wettest, rainest winter in years, & then a wind storm uprooted trees blew off roofs, and I lost electricity (for 10 days). Because I had promised to help my friend move, I HAD to help. She lost power only 2 days, so she had heat. It took all my energy to get up, get over to help her. We finished the move Jan. 15. That hard work, tho' it was difficult under the circumstances, managed to MAKE me come out of the depression. To this day, I don't know what caused it but since then I've been told that hard labor was the best thing I could have done. It was during that time when I did daily meditation.
I've been depressed forever and have dealt with it through medicine. The last few years have brought so many changes and "crisis" to my life that I spiraled into deep anxiety. I'm having a tough time just getting through the days, doing what needs to be done (go to work, care for my son), let alone caring for myself. The scariest part is feeling so alone, I literally have no friends or family here, and like Mollie says, 40 minutes a week in counseling doesnt help much. The days I feel strongest is when I do talk to my one friend (she lives 800 miles away and is currently going through her own crisis, and how long can you bother someone with your ongoing problems anyway without becoming a burden?) If I at least knew I was on the right path - I'm not sure the medicine I'm taking is helping, I dont have that network of help... and I'm not sure I'll even have a job at the rate I'm going. I'm so flustered I can't remember how I got here this morning...or what I should be doing...its like reading a page 20 times and it doesnt stick. I am trying to be my own advocate, but when you need help, even that seems hopeless.