Help in Dealing With Depression

In my experience you can only truly help someone in dealing with depression if you suffered from depression yourself. I have gone for psychotherapy myself, but because the psychologist didn't have any experience from depression himself, he only made my situation worse. Much worse. In fact I often think the person who did the most damage in my life was that psychologist. A psychiatrist can give you a pill that can make you feel better, but if they haven't been through depression themselves, they can't really understand you either. But at least they can help you in dealing with depression, which they did for me.

Depression is hell. There is no doubt about it. And here I am not talking about depression for this or that reason. For instance when you had a love disappointment, lost your job, lost all your money, or whatever the case may be, you can still feel depressed. But this is not what I am referring to here. Everyone is influenced differently by life events, and these things can be hard enough in itself. But what I am referring to here is major depression. It is depression for no specific reason. It's the feeling that your existence is a crisis. You feel utterly lost and without hope, and you often feel suicidal.

I would know because I was suicidal for years. I was lost for years. I was without hope for years. But the good news is I found hope. Somehow I found my way out of the dark abyss that is depression. And if I could do it, anyone can, because I was as lost as a human being can get. I even had a nervous breakdown at one point, which is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, ever. Even talking about my history in dealing with depression is hard, because you don't want to be reminded of some of those things. But I feel it is important so that others can be helped. My mother has bipolar disorder,while my father also suffered from depression, which meant that depression was in my genes.

This fact, coupled with an abusive and loveless childhood, was what caused severe depression in me. Both those things, the genetic predisposition and the harsh childhood, are on its own enough to make a person depressed, but combine the two and you have a lethal combination. It took me years to overcome. Sometimes I think it's a miracle that I'm still alive, and want to make the best of that miracle. I want to help people understand that no matter how dark things can get, there is always a way out. The human spirit is immensely strong, and it will pull you through anything. More than anything, it is this strength of the human spirit that got me through depression.

Before you look for help in dealing with depression, you have to first know if you have depression. If you have some of these symptoms of depression, it doesn't necessarily mean you are depressed. We all have some of these feelings at times, but if you have most of the symptoms of depression most of the time, you are probably depressed.

• A feeling of helplessness or hopelessness. Bleak outlook on life, nothing can help you.
• Loss of interest in daily activities. You don't feel like doing anything.
• Appetite or weight changes. You eat either too much or too little.
• Sleep changes. You sleep either too much or too little.
• Irritability and restlessness. Your tolerance level is low, you feel on the edge.
• Loss of energy. Everything feels like a huge effort. You always feel tired.
• Self hate. You are very self critical, and feel worthless.
• Concentration problems. You have trouble focusing, remembering, or making decisions.
• Aches and pains. Headaches, stomach pain, back pain, aching muscles.

Source: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_signs_types_diagnosis_treatment.htm

There is no quick fix for major depression, or what is also referred to as chronic depression. Among other things depression is caused by a lack of a certain neurotransmitter in your brain, called serotonin. This is a 'happy' hormone. When you feel very happy or ecstatic, your brain is being flooded with serotonin. The good news is that this hormone can be increased in your brain through taking medication. But of course it doesn't make you feel better overnight. It has to take effect first and medication alone will never make you happy. For me medication was just a means through which I could actually start functioning normally again and work at the things that was eating away at my soul.

For me therapy did not work in dealing with depression, but that doesn't mean it can't. I think the combination of medication and therapy is ideal for dealing with depression, given that you find the right therapist. This is because there are two aspects to depression, the physical and the emotional aspect. Just as there were two reasons for my depression(the genetic predisposition and the abusive childhood), there are two solutions(medication and therapy). You can't have one without the other. That happened to me. I had therapy without medication, and it only made things worse. If I had the medication at the same time, it could have saved me many years of hell. Still, I believe everything happens foe a reason.

And maybe that reason is so i can tell you not to make the same mistake. Lets say you take only medication without going for therapy. Again it won't necessarily work, because the medication becomes just a way to suppress the deeper issues that you have. So really you need both these things. I guess you can still do it without therapy, because in a way that's what I did, but you need some form of support or help. You need a way to deal with these issues that caused you to become depressed in the first place. There are a lot of books these days that can help you with these things as well. I did a lot of reading of authors like Deepak Chopra, Neale Donald Walsch and Eckhart Tolle to help me find meaning in live.

It is said that there is a spiritual solution to every problem, and I believe spirituality is the cure for depression. I've also got into the law of attraction, which taught me that whatever I think about and feel, I draw into my reality. So if you need help in dealing with depression, this is very important information as well. You draw into your reality whatever you think about and feel, so it's very important to focus on happy and positive things when you are dealing with depressing. This can be much easier said than done when you have major depression, and pretty much impossible without medication.

But medication will help you to have more positive thoughts as well, and that way you can start to create positive momentum. And you don't have to use medication forever. In the end everyone takes a different path in overcoming depression. Here I am just trying to give you some basic guidelines and share my own experiences with you in the hope that it will inspire you. The important thing is that depression can be cured. I have heard people say that it can't be cured blah blah blah, which is utter rubbish. Anything can be cured. I know because I was at a point in my life where I knew I could never recover, yet I did.

As deep and dark as depression is, I believe everything has meaning. If I didn't go through all of this I may never have asked the bigger questions like: Who am I? Where did I come from? What am I doing here? And I may never have found as many answers as I did. No one enjoys suffering, but it gives depth and maturity to a person which is irreplaceable by any wordly treasure.

There are basically three forms of depression, and as a whole they are called clinical depression. It will help you to know exactly which form of depression you have when dealing with depression. Here are the three different forms of depression:

1. Dysthymia - This is a less intense form of depression but it is chronic and keeps you from functioning at your optimal level.
2. Major depression - This is the form I have been talking about throughout this article. It interferes with your life to the extent that you can't function properly.
3. Bipolar disorder - This form of depression is the hardest to cure and is also called manic depression. People with bi polar disorder have manic episodes where they become exceedingly happy or sad and display irrational behaviour if they don't use medication.

Source: http://uhs.berkeley.edu/lookforthesigns/clinicaldepression.shtml