Diagnosing and Treating Depression

Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems (("Depression (major depression)"). For an individual to be diagnosed with depression they must first meet 5 of the 9 criteria as stated in the DSM-V. After being diagnosed the individual most likely will begin to explore treatment options that can range anywhere from medication to psychotherapy. There are three different types of therapies: cognitive-behavioral therapy which examines the way behaviors and the way you think about them factor into your depression. Also, interpersonal therapy which happens to be focused on the relationships with the people around and how they affect you emotionally, physically, and psychologically. Lastly, there is problem- solving therapy which involves honing in on the specific problems and a therapist is there to help the individual in understanding how everything should

Depression is a mood affective disorder. It could lead to impaired cognitive function and affects the person’s thoughts, behaviour, sleeping habit, and appetite. Counselling, psychotherapy, and antidepressant medication can be given to treat depression (Avenevoli, 2015).

If your primary care doctor prescribed antidepressants and your depression symptoms continue despite treatment, ask your doctor if he or she can recommend a medical doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating mental health conditions (psychiatrist).

Numerous depression treatments are available. Medications and psychological counseling (psychotherapy) are very effective for most people. In some cases, a primary care doctor can prescribe medications to relieve depression symptoms. However, many people need to see a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating mental health conditions (psychiatrist). Many people with depression also benefit from seeing a psychologist or

There are many different types of depressions and thus their forms of treatment will also vary. Depression that is resulted from biological origins such as melancholic and psychotic depression are more likely to need types of physical treatments such as antidepressants. Depression associated with psychological factors are termed non-melancholic depression can be treated with both types of psychological and physical treatments.

Subsequently, as there are several forms of depressive disorder there are also several forms of treatment. The most common forms of treatment are psychotherapy and medication. Psychotherapy is a type of talk therapy. Psychotherapy can be used to look into someone’s relationships in life and search for a meaning the person may have missed. It can also attempt to give someone a new perspective or way of looking at things, and try to change their current behavior into a more appropriate behavior. There are two main types of psychotherapy cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy. Interpersonal therapy helps people work through situations or relationships that may be causing them depression. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps

Sometimes psychotherapy alone may be the best treatment for a person, depending on the illness and its severity. Other times, psychotherapy is combined with medications. Therapists work with an individual or families to devise an appropriate treatment plan. (Psychotherapies, n.d.)

= There are many forms of treatment for psychological disorders. One of the main ones happens to be therapy. There are multiple forms of therapies, the top two being individual and group therapy. In my defense, group therapy is the best one. Group therapy allows for individuals to share experiences that allows other individuals to relate and learn from one another because they share the same disorder. Group therapy also allows one to receive feedback that is not bias from family and therapist whose job it is to help you based of books and learning they have encountered over the years. However, individual therapy can hold some perks to it. Individual therapy can offer full attention to one patient in the one on one between the client and therapist.

Psychotherapy can help people cure depression by talking about their feelings, and try to find the good, even in a bad situation. Jill S. Zimmerman Rutledge, from New Moon Girls magazine says, “ A person who is clinically depressed will feel a lot better when they find a professional who can help figure out a way to cope with the depressed feelings.” If the patient talks to someone, they can gain perspective about the difficult situation - (New Moon Girls issue March-April 2015). Psychotherapy can teach the patient how to distract themselves, or what they can do to get you out of the low mood. Jill Rutledge says, “Distraction can be an important coping skill for depressed feelings. To clarify, talk therapy can help with depression to get the feelings out in the open, but, for fear that therapy doesn’t work by itself, mixing talktherapy and drug therapy may help cure depression

Depression is typically treated with the help of professional counseling. It can also be treated by prescribed medicine from a psychiatrist. People that have depression can also be treated as an outpatient or in some cases they can hospitalized.

Depression is a serious mental illness that can be treated. Knowing the type of depression is important. A person may find the treatment that best suits them with the trial and error process. The severity of the depression means a more intensive treatment. Most people choose to take antidepressants rather than actually getting help with their problem. They shouldn’t rely on the medication alone; if they do it can bring unwanted side effects. All of the depression treatments take time, and sometimes it might feel overwhelming or frustratingly slow. That is normal. Recovery usually has its ups and downs.

2. Then we have psychotherapy or counseling, where you talk with a psychologist or psychiatrist about your problems. Usually you meet on an outpatient basis every week, however severe depression sometimes causes hospitalization where you have counseling sessions daily and also group peer sessions. My depression affected my daily task at work so I was mandated by my employer to attend counseling or I could choose to be fired. It’s difficult at first to open up about things but it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I felt a relief that someone understood my thought process and could give me suggestions and skills to use every day to help cope with the depression.

Psychotherapy therapy focuses on the personal and interpersonal issues underlying depression. It explores an individual's life to bring to light possible contributing causes of the present depression. During treatment, the therapist helps the patient to become aware of his or her thinking patterns and how they came to be. There are several different subtypes of psychotherapy, but all have the common goal of helping the individual develop healthy problem solving and coping skills. Two of the most widely used treatment methods are cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy (Hammen 141).

According to the literature on this topic, both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy have the potential to ease somebodies symptoms of depression. It seems that depending on how severe, or what type of depression the patient has there are different

Depression comes in an extremely wide range of forms, some of which are: psychological (major) depression, clinical depression, and manic-depression (bipolar disorder). Each form of depression acts in it's own way and has it's own symptoms and treatments. Every type of depression, if left untreated, could lead to an attempted suicide or death.