Living With Depression

Living With Depression

If anyone finds that they have a significant number of the symptoms I wrote about my advice from one who has been there is to get help. As debilitating as the disease of depression can be, it is treatable in most cases. You do not need to continue suffering on your own. My experience is that few if any actually beat this illness solely on their own efforts. Some form of assistance is usually needed and this is nothing to feel bad about. I have read and heard some say that suffering is good for the soul, but I for the life of me cannot see what it is good for. There probably is only one exception. After you have suffered you can relate to what others are going through. All the same the idea is to stop the suffering. If you have all or most of the symptoms listed in my previous post you should make an appointment with your family doctor. He or she will be able to advise you if you tell them about your symptoms.

Medication can be very helpful when it comes to treating depression. Pharmaceutical companies are always coming out with new medications for depression. The truth is that all medications don't work for every person. Unfortunately, it is often a process of trial and error to find out what works best for you. There is such a thing as refractory depression or hard to treat depression. If one has this type of depression it requires a lot of patience and persistence on their part. With the aid of their doctor they may need to try out a variety of medications until they find what works best. In some cases of refractory depression a combination of different medications may be required. As with all medications there are side effects. How they will affect one is depends upon the individual but the newer generation medications seem to have less troublesome side effects.

Medications are usually not the total answer to treating depression. Psychotherapy is often helpful especially in combination with medication. I will be talking more about psychotherapy in future posts.