Learning how to treat depression can save you or a loved one’s life. Major depressive disorder, or simply, depression, is a mental disorder that affects over 200 million people worldwide. Depression can be diagnosed if a person experiences at least two weeks of low mood which is often accompanied by a sense of helplessness. Depression is caused by a combination of psychological, environmental, and genetic factors, and symptoms can appear or disappear without much warning.
How to Treat Depression
Depression can affect many people differently, with a myriad of symptoms that wreak havoc on both personal and professional lives. There are countless tips and methods that sufferers of depression use to get over their symptoms and live normal, happy lives. In fact, the treatments and methods outlined below are often used simultaneously to combat different forms of depression.
Lifestyle Changes
Depression is by no means a lifelong disorder. It can seemingly come out of nowhere and turn your life upside down. When you’re depressed, you usually lack the motivation to better yourself and forget to do certain things that can make you feel happy again. These small lifestyle changes can have huge effects on your overall mood:
- Sleep normal hours
- Eat healthy foods
- Reach out to friends and family
- Exercise regularly
By changing your lifestyle, it’s possible to alter the environmental factors that led to your depression in the first place.
Counseling
Before jumping straight to medication or expensive treatments, many people are first urged just to talk to someone about their feelings. Talk therapy is extremely effective in treating depression and may give you insight into the underlying causes of your symptoms. Therapy allows you to talk through the major subjects in your life that may be giving you the most problems. Therapy can help you identify your biggest issues – relationships, past traumas, work stresses, etc.
Though most people think of therapy as a one-on-one experience, group therapy can also be beneficial in treating depression. By finding and connecting with other people that have gone through similar hardships, group therapy can open your eyes to a brighter future.
Medication
Medication is a highly popular treatment of depression. However, many times, depression is more than just a chemical imbalance that can be fixed by a pill. Even still, it’s possible that medication may not fix the underlying issues that led to your depression. Always consult a doctor before taking depression medication and make sure to report any negative symptoms or side effects you may feel.
TMS
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a proven and effective antidepressant treatment that has been approved by the FDA since 2008. TMS is a noninvasive procedure that stimulates regions of the brain to treat the symptoms of depression. Similar to an MRI, a TMS procedure uses a magnetic field generator which sends pulsed magnetic fields to the part of your brain thought to control mood. This painless outpatient procedure is done in about 30-45 minutes daily over a period of 4-6 weeks. Unlike medication, which can take weeks to go into effect, the positive effects of TMS can be felt relatively quickly. By sending small pulses to your brain, doctors can “rewire” areas of your brain, potentially curing even the worst cases of depression.
Contact Us
If it seems like you’ve tried everything to treat your depression, but you can’t seem to get through it, it may be time to try TMS. TMS is a perfectly safe procedure that is covered by most insurance companies. Contact Mid City TMS today for your TMS consultation.
