How to Deal with Depression

Learn how to deal with depression and transform your life into a healthier, more fulfilling experience. The human brain is still a mystery to doctors and psychologists, but startling discoveries and probing insights have led to a whole branch of medicine that allows trained physicians to treat people with clinical depression. Somewhere around 1/10th of the American population suffers from depression of one sort or the other: some 30 million people.

Depression is a hard to pin down, though. Here's some basic questions depressive people and doctors still struggle with.

Examining Depression in Ourselves

How to Deal with Depression"Depression" is a word like "love", because it's a generic word we use to describe all kinds of mental states. For instance, love can mean "erotic love", "familial love" or "selfless love". It would be better to have a separate word for each, so people didn't get mistaken and confused about their different, conflicting emotions. Depression is a similarly confusing term.

For instance, someone is said to be depressed when they have a nasty or sudden breakup, when they move across the country and away from friends, or when they lose a loved one to death. Someone is said to be depressed when they feel sad, for no apparent reason, perhaps if they isolate themselves and have too much inward thought or reflection. If someone doesn't get enough serotonin to their brain, they tend to have symptoms of lethargy, sadness or feelings of suicide.

Some substances we take, like alcohol or marijuana, are called "depressants" or "downers", because they subdue our moods, instead of lifting them, like uppers would. Some drugs, like ecstasy, raise our serotonin levels, giving us a sense of euphoria, only to have an inevitable crash come.

What Is Depression?

The question is, are all the examples above connected, or do they represent wildly different causes and symptoms. Each might be said to cause depression, but is it all one state?

The best that can said is, in each instant, there is a part of us that causes us to feel sad, to feel numb, to be lethargic and to have dark thoughts. Some represent true depression, while others represent a fleeting moment or state. People of all sorts might suffer "depression", but our conditions might be completely different.

The truth is, psychological scars can cause patterns of thoughts that lead to depressing thoughts. Separation or isolation can cause us to feel depressed, while our body chemistry might be the culprit. In fact, body chemicals and brain chemistry often plays a hidden role in our depression, which is a main reason people suffering depression need professional help.

If the very chemistry of your body is what's causing these sad thoughts and dark moments, or keeping you from taking the actions needed to have a fulfilling life, you need outside help to break this cycle. With that in mind, here's how to deal with depression in its many forms.

Listen to Doctor's Advice - Research a good physician, then establish a bond of trust with you doctor. When dealing with depression, a person needs outside input, because depression is, in many ways, an invisible and mysterious opponent. You can't self-diagnose particularly well, so you need a trained physician to treat you.

I'm not suggesting you blindly follow a doctor or let them medicate you for no good reason. Over-medicating is a big problem in America and prescribing a pill for your depression may not get the job done. At the same time, a lot of people suffering from unexplained depression, lethargy and sadness tend to have a chemical imbalance in their brain - an imbalance that can be repaired with medicine.

Listen to your doctor and try to understand the reasons for your depression. Make sense of your melancholy feelings and learn what the root problem is through a thorough study of your neurology and your psychological background. Once you have listened and understand, you're then ready to solve the problem through counseling, therapy or medicine.

Most cases need some combination of those three. Even if chemical depression was the root cause, by the time we see a psychiatrist or medical professional, our depression has caused relationships to break down and other sorts of psychological scarring, so we probably need to talk to a counselor or therapist, too.

Take Your Medicine - If your doctor prescribes medicine for chemical depression, take your medicine and take it regularly. When you start to feel better, don't stop taking the medicine. Depression is often caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, so medicine regulates those chemicals and creates a balance.

But when you take your medicine and start to feel better, that doesn't mean the imbalance won't return, when you stop taking the meds. Make this a part of your daily routine where you take them at a certain time, according to your doctor's prescription. Set an alarm on your wristwatch or your cellphone to remind you when it's time to take your anti-depressants.

Get Help from the Family - Bring your circle of friends and family into the secret. Many people want to hide their struggles with depression, because they don't want people thinking differently about them or they don't feel comfortable talking about their problems. But revealing to your loved ones that you have a condition might explain a lot of unanswered questions they have about your past actions and habits, while also establishing a bond of trust and communication.

Friends and family are able to give emotional support, so you aren't isolated. Also, you'll have redundancies in place, so you can remember to take your medicines.

Finally, having others watching out for you lets someone look from the outside and see changes in your behavior patterns, to see warning signs. Many medications have side effects, so your family members and close friends can help spot side effects and reactions, sometimes even before you do.

Keep a Journal - Keeping a daily journal or diary lets you record your progress, as well as any setbacks that might occur. This doesn't have to be elaborate; just jot down any changes in your mental patterns or your physical health. Take this with you the next time you talk to your doctor, to jog your memory and fill in details the doctor wouldn't otherwise have.

Doctors need information to diagnose you properly, so provide as much info as possible, by writing a journal of your battle with depression.

Dealing with Depression

Dealing with depression can be a temporary issue or a lifelong problem. Some people get on medicine and, as long as they take their meds, they are perfectly fine. For others, medicine offers little real help, except to hide the real problems lying below. A person might require long sessions with a psychologist or therapist, who can work through long-standing resentments and anger issues stemming from the past - often our childhood.

Sometimes, a little bit of time or acclimation is all that's required to end our depressive states. People are going to be sad, angst-ridden and lethargic at times, but that doesn't naturally mean we are suffering depression. Sometimes, a little time, a better job or a few new people in our lives is all we need to end the sadness.

When dealing with thoughts of depression, you need to read a lot about depression and talk to someone who has studied depression as a profession. Learn how long your depressive state and sadness has lasted, to determine how serious your condition is - if serious at all. Once you start to learn the root cause of your sadness, you can begin learning how to deal with depression in your life.

Whatever your condition, remember this: there is always hope.