What are the symptoms of depression?
How do I know if I, or someone important to me, is depressed? Depression symptoms are overstudied by psychology and psychiatry.
They need to be showing up in your life, or your loved one’s life, for at least the last two weeks. So, it’s not because there was a day when the person was sadder, with less desire to get involved, that you can already talk about depression.
The main symptoms of depression are:
- Thoughts of guilt or worthlessness
- Persistent feeling of disconnection from life
- Irritability
- extreme tiredness
- Difficulty concentrating
- slow thinking
- Changes in your sleep pattern (you start to sleep more than you used to or have difficulty sleeping, feel like you are not getting quality sleep)
- Increase in your hunger or loss of hunger altogether.
Also, it is common for weight gain without much explanation or weight loss due to this change, and even thoughts of death or something like: Who knows, perhaps it would be best if I committed suicide. I didn’t exist.
Depression, in fact, is not simply being sad and not wanting to engage in anything for a certain period of time. Also, it is one of the psychological disorders that most leads to suicide. So, not taking care of depression can be lethal.
Alright, now that you already know how to identify what the main symptoms of depression are, you may be wondering: “What types of therapy are there for depression?”
Know the types of therapy for depression
There are several types of therapies for depression, but some of them have scientific evidence that they work, such as controlled studies, following who had therapy, who had others or who did nothing. In today’s text we will only talk about depression therapies in London that we are using to help people with depression.
Online Therapy
A great current advantage of therapies for depression is that you can do it online, wherever you are, in Brazil or abroad. You can hire a psychologist, even if it’s not easy in your city or if you don’t have someone in the line you’re looking for.
Research demonstrate that internet counselling is equally beneficial as in-person therapy. You are still in front of a person who is talking to you, you are seeing him and he is seeing you and your micro-expressions, you are listening to the tone of voice, etc.
This greatly facilitates access to therapy for those who live in a small town or who have not found a local psychologist that makes sense for them. So you have lots and lots of therapists at your disposal to help you out of this.
psychotherapy for depression
Like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy . It helps you to change the way you face reality and deal with automatic thoughts, while changing your behaviors and the way you act in life.
This is the most studied type of therapy with the most evidence that it actually works.
medical therapy
That is, taking psychiatric medication, accompanied by your psychiatrist and talking to your psychologist, facing your treatment in a systemic way. Because, oftentimes, when a depression develops, at an early stage, it pays to correct chemical imbalances that may be keeping you trapped in the cycle of depression.
Unfortunately, depression has a particularity, it is a vicious cycle. You, all of a sudden, are very sad, with all these symptoms that we’ve already talked about, and you start thinking like this: “Go to work today? I don’t feel like it, I’m very sad, I won’t be able to” or “See my friends? No, I’m not in the mood.”
You start to run away from life and hide more and more. Since you are not getting in touch with the things that were important to you, you are not happy either. This leaves you with less energy and less willingness to face things again.
Alternative therapies for depression
We recommend that you seek professional support, because all help is welcome when we are fighting a disorder that causes so much pain. So, you must get all the help you can.
But if you can’t, you can use some of these life-reshaping tactics to get you through depression. This is what we, here at City Psychological Services, call alternative therapies for depression, but which are not really alternative and which you can, with peace of mind, combine with your psychotherapy .
- Make sure you’ve had a good checkup
That is, you saw that your physical health is 100%. If you have an illness in your body, and you are not getting treatment, you may mistake certain effects of the illness for depression. Even untreated anemia or diabetes can have effects such as: less willingness to engage in life, more tiredness, more difficulties, etc. So it’s worth dealing with all of that.
Do physical exercises
Physical exercise has shown, in all our psychology research, a huge and super beneficial effect. Not only for depression, but also for you to lead a happier life. Here, the golden tip is: any exercise is better than no exercise. Getting up from a chair, sitting down in a chair, walking around the house, taking a walk in the street, doing a little dancing or doing some more vigorous exercise are all beneficial. You don’t have to start with an hour of gym a day. If you do five minutes or three minutes of exercise, in a constant way, and gradually increase that amount, you are already exercising.
Consolidate your sleep
Thus, ensuring that you are sleeping with quality and the number of hours needed to be in the mood. Chronic lack of sleep can be confused with depression. Imagine, if you sleep a lot less than you should, every day of the week, of course you will be more irritable and you will feel more disconnected from the things that are in your life. Perhaps, it also alters your appetite, causing you to eat more or eat less. It is very worthwhile to control sleep.
Engage in finding friends
Quality social relationships are essential to prevent depression, but also to get us out of it. So make an appointment to see family members who are important to you, to see friends or to call that important person you haven’t spoken to in a long time.
All of these help you keep depression at bay or get out of a depressive episode. All of these tactics add up to a wonderful treatment for depression.
How long does treatment for depression last?
Much will depend on the individual. Some people respond very quickly and, in a matter of two months of changing habits, therapy and drug monitoring, they are already so far from an initial depressive state.
However, there will be other people for whom the treatment will take six months or more. Sometimes, a more persistent or refractory depression will require more creativity from the therapist to build techniques for depression and from the doctor to adjust the medication.
What I can tell you is that depression is one of the most treatable psychological disorders out there. We have many techniques and many possibilities to help you get out. So, be sure to seek help thinking that it won’t work for you. Nowadays, we can treat all types of depression.
What are the benefits of the treatment?
Depression treatment has a very interesting particularity. Most of the disorders that we have, such as the flu or an infection, undergo treatment and then your life returns to the previous state.
Treating depression has benefits that are very different. If you treat depression correctly, combining therapy, medication – if applicable – changing habits and several other factors, you will not only be getting rid of depression, but you will also be building a much better life.
A life where you are more connected with the people around you, a life where you take better care of your physical health and, consequently, your mental health. Yet, a life in which you developed the skills and self-awareness necessary to feel like the captain of your ship again.
Being treated for depression is not just being treated for depression. It’s an upgrade in your well-being, by building the foundations of a life that is much more like the one you dreamed of.
Want to know which therapy is ideal for your case?
If you are interested in doing therapy online or in person from anywhere on the planet with us here at City Psychological Services, it will be a privilege to welcome you for an initial conversation. Click here on our website, set up an initial conversation and see if our therapy makes sense for you.
Thanks so much for reading this far, we hope it helps. Click on the link to watch the video on the subject: Therapy for depression: what are the types and benefits of treatment?
