Depression is one of the most common mental health conditions. Many people have experienced what it means to have these symptoms, which dramatically affect quality of life and relationships with others. For this reason, it is completely common that when you go through this, you have the feeling that you will not be able to get out of there, that from now on everything will be like that and nothing will change.
Life looks like a dead end tunnel, it feels like a black cloud above you always. Moreover, on certain occasions the person who goes through depression forgets what it is to feel happy, he looks back and cannot remember how it was before, he has the feeling that sadness has always accompanied him. And actually this is a depression-induced perception, not real by itself.
The reality is that depression is treatable. Most people who start treatment succeed. Very few mental health conditions have as favorable a response rate as depression. It is true that sometimes it is difficult, but with good guidance and follow-up, the person is able to get ahead, get to know himself or herself better and start a new life story, with a more benign thought about himself.
Some methods for treating depression are:
- General recommendations: these are basic ways that help the person feel like me. This is the information you find on the Internet, in your usual search engine when you research how to improve depression. They are elementary and superficial strategies that help something, but they correspond to a low percentage of the strategies that are used, and include socializing more, going out to a park, eating better, exercising, practicing hobbies, thinking better of themselves, reading a good book, etc. Management of self-concept and self-esteem: Most people with depression present distorted concepts of themselves, with a high damage to their self-esteem, which worsens sadness and hopelessness. One of the most effective and basic ways to manage depression is by working on self-concept, which improves self-esteem. Modification of negative paradigms about people, the future and the world: distortions in concepts are not limited to themselves, the person with depression also develops very negative ideas about people, the world and the future, and part of the Treatment is that the person can see this with different eyes. Work on the mission, purpose and meaning of life: It is one of the most injured areas in depression. Many have the idea that they are useless, that they do not have a role in the world, that they only hinder, that they have bad luck, and that nothing they do is valuable. For this reason, in the treatment of depression, the transcendental aspects of the person are worked on, so that they see their life as valuable and meaningful. Modification of behaviors and coping strategiesMany of the people with depression handle external and internal stressful events with a series of defenses that generate pain, or with behaviors that only lead to more suffering, and that do not help at all to relief. In the treatment for depression, we work so that the person learns new ways to cope with these events. It is true that treatment does not solve problems, but it helps the person to strengthen internally to be able to solve them. Approach and elaboration of internal conflicts: when the therapeutic process is deeper, the internal conflicts of the person are explored, those basic causes that generated depression, and that remain as marks on the psyche, generating certain harmful behaviors and paradigms that favor depression. Working on this makes the person better known, and can solve many unfinished things. Pharmacological treatment: in some very selected cases, when the level of suffering is too high, a pharmacological treatment is necessary, which not only helps the person feel better, but also generates neurophysiological changes that strengthen certain key brain circuits, with so that there is less probability of relapses and sequelae due to depression.
Of course, there are many more methods to improve depression, and there are several areas of approach depending on the case and the need of each individual, but these strategies are the most used when dealing with depression. As you can see, depression can be treated, there are several ways to deal with it, and you can get out of that state with a serious commitment to your health and well-being.
If you are interested in learning effective strategies to strengthen your self-esteem, I invite you to follow the blog "How to Improve Self-Esteem", by clicking here.
If you liked the article, please "like" it and share it. Let us know your comments at the bottom of the article, and give us your opinion.
If you want to know more about strategies that you can do yourself to get out of depression, or if you want to work on yourself in a more personalized way through face-to-face psychotherapeutic consultations or via Skype, click here.
Guillermo Mendoza Velez
Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist www.SaludMentalyEmocional.com
