Fighting Clinical Depression? How to Get the Help You Need
Clinical depression affects millions of people each year and they often turn to a professional for help. Some signs of clinical depression include angry outbursts, sadness, emptiness, and frustration. If you have clinical depression, usually the symptoms are noticeable in relationships, schools, and social activities. It can affect the day-to-day life of everyone around you due to your depression. Here are some ways to get help when fighting clinical depression.
Talk With Your Doctor
Speaking to your doctor when you have clinical depression should be first on your priority list. Your doctor will complete a full medical workup and identify if there are any underlying medical conditions that may be probing your symptoms such as thyroid disease, high blood pressure, sleep problems, or diabetes. Long-term clinical depression is more often than not a physical problem with your body’s ability to regulate your mood through lack of serotonin or dopamine.
Once you are able to identify where the deficiency is, your doctor can help you treat the underlying condition or else find medication that can help replace missing hormones or chemicals in the body. A doctor may suggest antidepressants, but you should be aware of antidepressant withdrawal symptoms before considering them.
Speak with a Counselor
Mental health counselors can assist individuals experiencing emotional difficulties, mental health concerns, and life changes. The therapist can help you improve your mental health condition by giving ways to reduce your symptoms. While a therapist typically won’t be the one to prescribe medication, they can help you coordinate with a psychiatrist and give you supporting tools to help manage your depression such as training in cognitive behavioral therapy. This helps you recognize, address, and cope with your depression in healthy ways to prevent your depression from becoming a mental rut that you can’t escape even after effective medical treatment.
Reaching Out For Help
When feeling depressed, it’s easy to seclude ourselves from others. Reaching out to others is important to help you get more motivated. Although you may not want to talk about how you feel, being around someone can help bring them into a better mood. Grabbing a cup of coffee, tea or going out for a bit to eat can make you feel better. Keeping on hand emergency numbers, including a suicide hotline, can also be an important way to make sure you have access to help when you need it. Suicide rates have drastically increased over the past decade, making it more important than ever to make sure you have access to help when you’re at risk of falling into crisis.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is an alternative non-invasive treatment option for depression that is FDA approved. The treatment is geared for individuals who have not benefited from medication treatment for depression. With this treatment, electromagnetic pulses, just like those used in an MRI, are used to stimulate areas of the brain that cause depression. TMS therapy can last up to twelve months and seeks to help retrain your brain to regulate your mood effectively.
Clinical depression can certainly interfere with your life and the life of the entire family. With many options available, each person is different and may require a different option depending on the severity of their depression and the underlying cause. While there is still a stigma against seeking medication or medical treatment for mental health, it is essential that you care for your mental health the way you would a broken bone. Depression has physical ramifications on your health and can lead to suicidal thoughts and tendencies if you do not get the help you need.