Cure depression

There is a range of effective treatments and different types of health professionals that can put you on the road to recovery.

The important thing is to find the right healthcare professional for your needs.

After having made a diagnosis of depression, a health professional will explain and discuss the available and adapted solutions. The solutions chosen will depend on the type and level of intensity of the depression.

In the case of mild or moderate depression, psychotherapy (talking therapies) alone may be effective. The latter is mainly aimed at slowing the progression of the disease and preventing recurrences.

This treatment helps to change thought patterns. This also helps to improve its ability to adapt to the vagaries of life. We are thus better equipped to deal with stress and conflict. One can start psychotherapy to support one's recovery, but also to help maintain good health by identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.

There are several types of effective psychological treatments for depression.

CBT is a psychological treatment that recognizes that the way we think and act affects the way we feel. CBT is one of the most effective treatments for depression and has been shown to be helpful for a wide range of ages: adults, seniors, children, and teens.

It involves working with a therapist. This will involve identifying patterns of thought and behavior that make you more likely to become depressed or prevent you from getting better when you are depressed.

One changes one's thoughts and behavior by learning to think rationally about the everyday difficulties. Negative or unnecessary thought patterns and reactions are channeled into a more realistic, positive and committed approach to solving one's problems.

CBT works well face-to-face or remotely (e-therapy).

Behavior therapy is a component of CBT. It focuses on encouraging rewarding, pleasurable, or satisfying activities, aimed at reversing the patterns of avoidance, withdrawal, and inactivity that worsen depression. But it does not attempt to change beliefs and attitudes.

MBCT is usually delivered in a group setting and involves the practice of mindfulness meditation. We learn to focus on the present moment to achieve what we are experiencing. One trains to prevent one's mind from wandering into agonizing thoughts about the future or the past. This helps prevent depression from returning as it encourages noticing feelings of sadness and negative thought patterns early on, before they set in. This may help to treat the warning signs of depression early and effectively.

IPT is a psychological therapy that focuses on problems in personal relationships and the skills needed to deal with them. TIP is based on the idea that relationship problems can have a significant effect on a person suffering from depression and may even be one of the main causes.

IPT helps to recognize patterns in relationships that make you more vulnerable to depression. Identifying these patterns means one can focus on improving relationships, dealing with grief, and finding new ways to get along with others.

Different organizations are possible in these psychotherapies. Some people prefer to work one-on-one with a professional, while others benefit more from a group environment.

To facilitate access to care and because studies are beginning to demonstrate their effectiveness, a growing number of online programs, or e-therapies, are now available.

In addition to psychotherapy, drug treatment can be offered. They can be very useful in the treatment of moderate to severe depression and certain anxiety disorders.

Antidepressants are sometimes prescribed when other treatments have not been successful or when psychological treatments are not possible due to the severity of the disease or their inaccessibility.

These drugs, which are relatively effective, can have side effects that differ according to their mode of action (weight gain, sedative effect, constipation, etc.).

People suffering from more severe forms of depression (psychosis, bipolar disorder…) must generally be treated with a combination of drugs (antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics…).

In cases of severe depression, brain stimulation can also be offered in a hospital setting. This involves passing an electric current through electrodes placed on either side of the skull. This technique has been used for a long time. It gives good results (improvement in 70 to 90% of cases), especially in people whose depression is resistant to other treatments.

Another technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation, is increasingly being tested. In this method, stimulation of the brain area involved in depression is done using a magnetic field. This approach, in addition to improving depressive symptoms, could also be used to enhance the action of certain medications.

For seasonal depressions, linked to the lack of outside light, light therapy has demonstrated its effectiveness. It involves exposing oneself to high intensity light for several hours a day in order to artificially increase the periods of sunshine.

And to conclude, there are also the habits and actions that you can take on a daily basis. They will help you recover or stay healthy.

This mainly happens through:

Photo by Dan Meyers