Have you ever felt down and out? You didn’t want to get up off the couch. Or maybe you wanted to just stay in bed and sleep all day. This happens to all of us from time to time, but when it happens more often than not and starts to affect our daily lives, this may be something more. You may be suffering from depression.
What is depression? Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:
- Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
- Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
- Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
- Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
- Loss of energy or increased fatigue
- Increase in purposeless physical activity
- Feeling worthless or guilty
- Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
- Thoughts of death or suicide (What is depression?)
If you think this is you, you have options. There are two approaches to combat depression the biomedical approach and the biopsychosocial approach.
Biopsychosocial approach includes two kinds of psychotherapy called cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy. Biomedical approach is the use of medications such as antidepressants to treat depression. There is some evidence that combining psychotherapy and medications may be more effective than either treatment alone. Keep in mind, people who are suicidal may need to be treated in a hospital.(How do I choose between medication and therapy?)
In the end it all comes down to what works for you. The first step is acknowledging you may have depression and then contacting your doctor and/or psychologist to get help.
In a crisis?
Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor (Text home to 741741 free, 24/7 crisis counseling 2022)
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). How do I choose between medication and therapy? American Psychological Association. Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/medication-or-therapy
Text home to 741741 free, 24/7 crisis counseling. Crisis Text Line. (2022, August 2). Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://www.crisistextline.org/
Thank you for your post!
I’m happy to see you emphasize that everyone can feel down at times but that it is the degree and how often you feel it that can be a dividing line for the disorder of Depression.
I found that there were other biomedical elements and underlying causes of depression involved such as hormones or issues within the brain itself such as trauma or synaptic issues. How you would treat someone with Perinatal Depression I imagine would be different than how you would treat someone with depression stemming from immense traumas of a different nature or menstrual issues as with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (Cleveland Clinic, n.d.). These biological factors would have great importance in understanding and properly diagnosing and helping patients and would work in tandem with the biopsychological components of therapy (Gruman, 2007).
The vastness of symptoms, as you’ve shared, are so important for people to see so clearly displayed and I very much appreciate your sharing resources and a crisis hotline for potential readers. It is also extremely helpful that you shared two major forms of psychotherapy that people can look into and discuss with their mental health providers. The more exposure and normalization we can bring to these health issues the better off we will be as a society as hopefully more people will seek help, or at the very least, open up and talk to their friends a family. The health insurance issues and lack of mental health care access in this country (U.S.) and across the globe are a whole other can of worms though!
Resources:
Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Depression: Types, symptoms, causes & treatment. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9290-depressionLinks to an external site.
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.
Great post! It might be hard to identify when one is chronically feeling low if depression has gradually developed over a period of time, so I appreciate how you provided clear symptoms for readers to assess themselves. Providing resources for people who may feel they are in a crisis is so helpful!
I completely agree with your assessment of the biomedical approach to depression but would like to add one thing for the benefit of the reader. While cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy are effective methods of treating depression (especially in children), there are also other therapies available for adults and older adults if either of the previously mentioned therapies do not work out. Weir (2019) reports that behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, mindfulness-based therapy, psychodynamic therapies, group CBT and supportive therapies are also options for the treatment of depression.
References
Weir, K. (2019). APA offers new guidance for treating depression. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/09/ce-corner-depression#:~:text=Recommendations%20for%20adults%20and%20older%20adults&text=For%20the%20initial%20treatment%20of%20depression%20in%20adults%2C%20the%20guideline,norepinephrine%20reuptake%20inhibitors%20(SNRIs).