It’s the old good news/bad news scenario. The bad news is that depression is probably never truly curable; however, the good news is that it is definitely treatable, and people suffering from chronic depressive disorders can live full, happy and productive lives despite their illness. But the journey begins with you. You have to want treatment and make the decision to seek it out, and this is often the stumbling block resulting in many cases of depression going undiagnosed and untreated, despite the great advances medical science has made in this area in recent years.
The approach to treating depression has to be a multi-pronged one. Sometimes it involves a combination of things:
- drugs,
- therapies
- and family involvement.
Sometimes medication is all that is needed. Sometimes there are physical disease processes contributing to the depressive episodes that also have to be diagnosed and treated. So the treatment regimen selected for one person’s depression can very well be entirely different from what the next is taking. It all depends on just how severe the depression is, and how long the patient has been battling it without the benefit of medical intervention.
Especially for the more severe forms of depression, such as bipolar disorders and chronic depression syndromes, often family members must be brought into the treatment program. Usually these forms of depression will be treated with a combination of modalities, including intensive counseling and therapy sessions. Some of these will take the form of family therapy, since family members too are severely affected by the patient’s depressive behavior patterns. Children may have repressed anger over the fact that their dad can often not play ball with them, or a neighbor has to run them to dance class because mom just can’t bring herself to get dressed and start the car. Getting the family involved in therapy sessions treats an illness that affects everyone, not just the patient.
Alternative Treatments
There are also a variety of what would be considered “alternative” treatments for depression, including:
- natural herbs
- vitamin therapies
These are designed to get the body’s metabolic make-up back into sync. These treatments can be amazingly effective especially when treating some of the less severe forms of depression.
Depression is a difficult disease to diagnose and to treat. That’s why communication with your physician is of particular importance in this case. Family members too should be consulting with the doctor, because often they may observe things that you yourself just don’t see, and therefore won’t bring up with him. Only by having the most reliable information can your doctor provide you with the best possible treatment program available.
Medication
Various medicines can be prescribed for treating depression. These will include anti-depressant medications to relieve the primary symptoms of the condition. It is only after getting those symptoms under control that other therapies can be initiated with the purpose of getting to the root cause of the depression, such as intensive counseling or psychotherapies.
In some cases, doctors may also provide anti-anxiety or antipsychotic medications as well. Sometimes electroconvulsive or light therapy programs will also be prescribed as a treatment option. Again, this will depend upon the severity of the depressive disorder.
Lifestyle
Physical exercise therapies have also been found to be extremely successful in treating various forms of mild depressive disorders. Exercise programs designed and supervised by a physical therapist, yoga, meditation, lifestyle modifications and other such methods have also had some success, as has diet modification.
Your doctor, in consultation with you and your family, can help you find just the right mix of therapies to relieve your depressive disorder. You only have to communicate openly with him to make this happen.