Therapy for Depression

Depression isn’t just feeling sad. Unhappy events happen in our lives and cause negative feelings like anger and sadness. Often, people find ways to get past these feelings and continue on with their lives. But sometimes, the negative feelings persist and become more intense with the passage of time. Negative and unhappy feelings often severely interfere with a person’s life and health. This is known as clinical depression.

People who are diagnosed with clinical depression or a major depressive disorder often need depression treatment in order to recover. Their feelings of depression don’t simply go away but instead, get worse. Depression treatment may involve medication and therapy. It’s important to get help if you recognize severe depression in yourself or someone else. Depression can lead to complications like a substance abuse disorder.

Why Do People Get Depressed?

You might experience depression for a variety of different reasons. Sometimes it’s triggered by a life event or a mental trauma. If you have another mental health problem such as anxiety or addiction, you might be at risk for depression. For some people, there’s no easily discernable reason for their depression. The important thing to understand is that it’s more than simply feeling sad, and depression treatment is often the only way out of it.

Symptoms of Depression

Depressive disorders affect everyone differently. You may experience some of the following symptoms:

Intense and persistent sadness
Loss of interest in hobbies or activities
Feelings of anger, hopelessness, guilt and worthlessness
Loss of focus on work or on life in general
Fatigue or restlessness

Without depression treatment, this disorder can result in several very negative effects. It can result in addiction, job loss, broken relationships and illness due to a weakened immune system. The good news is that depression therapy is often very effective in helping people recover from a depressive condition. You may need depression therapy if you find yourself having some or many of the symptoms mentioned above.

Types of Depression

There are several different types of depression. Some can be triggered by specific situations or physical reasons.

Major depression is the generalized disorder that causes a person to feel depressed almost all the time.
Bipolar disorder causes two separate periods of mania and depression. They might alternate or one might be more prevalent than the other.
Seasonal affective disorder is triggered by a lack of sunlight. People with this order typically feel depressed in the fall and winter when daylight hours are less.

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is experienced at the beginning of the menstrual period.
Postpartum depression can be triggered by hormonal changes after childbirth.
Psychotic depression causes paranoia, delusions and depressive episodes.
Situational depression is caused by a tragic life event such as death or serious illness.

Regardless of which type you may be experiencing, depression treatment can help through counseling and/or medication.

Do You Need Depression Treatment?

If you’re suffering from symptoms of depression, you might wonder if you have one of the aforementioned types. Some depressive conditions resolve on their own, but many require depression treatment through medication and/or depression therapy. For many people, it may be hard to seek help. The reason is that depressive symptoms begin to feel normal after a while. You may even forget how it felt to feel normal. Another reason is that depression may make you feel apathetic as though you may never recover. It might feel pointless to get help.

As previously mentioned, it’s very normal to have periods of deep sadness. It might even be triggered by hormones or other issues. However, it’s not normal to feel intense sadness for a long period of time. Have you experienced the symptoms listed here for over a month? Do the symptoms interfere with your everyday life? If you can answer yes to these questions, then it’s likely time to seek depression treatment.