A Journey Through Depression

It was really very hard just to get up from bed and to face the day. I just wanted to stay hidden under the covers and stay out of sight. I really didn’t feel much like eating and my weight loss was getting noticeable.

Nothing was fun anymore, I was tired all the time and I couldn’t sleep well at night. But I knew I had to keep going, for the sake of my job, kids and family. But the feeling of helplessness and the emptiness of knowing that things couldn’t get better or change really bore down on me.

I started missing work so much that my officemates started coming around to ask about me. A close friend noticed that something wasn’t right, and she talked to me about the time that she had a bout of depression and had gotten help from her doctor .She encouraged me to contact my own doctor to get an appointment and a checkup.

My doctor then recommended that I see a specialist in treating depression. Now I am seeing this specialist on a regular basis for my “Talk Therapy”, which has taught me ways to deal with this illness in my everyday life and I am also taking medication for depression. Although everything didn’t get better overnight, I am slowly finding myself able to enjoy life again.

Psychotherapy

There are 2 main types of psychotherapy or “Talk Therapy” commonly used to treat depression. Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) and Interpersonal therapy (IPT)

CBT teaches people on how not to think or behave negatively as these types of behavior contribute a lot to their depression.

IPT on the other hand helps people in working through and understanding their troubled interpersonal relationships that may cause or worsen their depression.

For mild to moderate types of depression, psychotherapy is probably the most successful treatment option. But then for major episodes of depression or for certain types of people it may not be enough. Teens for example, a combination of psychotherapy and medication are best for treating the worst teen depression cases and helps in preventing them from recurring again.

Medication

The components of anti depression medications basically act as a balance for the chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. The types of antidepressant medications that help balance these brain chemicals are SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), SNRIs (Serotonin and Norephenephrine Reuptake Inhibitors).

The effects of these Medications vary from person to person. Sometimes several types are prescribed before the right type is discovered to be working. So when you’re prescribed to take these medications, please tell your doctors about any side effects that you may get right away.

How Do I Manage My Anger?

Anger is an emotion that is triggered when someone or something interferes with a person in a negative or hostile manner. Anger is a normal response that is experienced by both adults and children. Depending on the individual’s personality anger can be expressed from mild irritation to extreme fury. Some people become defensive and lash out. Others bottle all the hurt and negative emotions while others become abusive when they become angry. Anger is an extremely harmful emotion and if left uncontrolled can really cause a lot of damage.

But since a person cannot get rid of or even avoid people or situations that can cause anger the best way in dealing with anger is to control or manage your reaction to it. There are several ways and methods a person can choose from in trying to manage anger all of which have the main goal of reducing the physical and emotional arousal that anger causes.

Anger Management Techniques

Self Awareness is the primary key in anger management. A person should be aware when they are about to explode and being conscious of the onset of anger. Developing this awareness will always give someone time to control the emotion by either counting from one to thirty or by physically removing oneself from the argument for a time before calmly reentering the area.

Effective Communication is also a good anger management technique. Whether we admit it or not most of all misunderstandings are caused by miscommunications especially when we start assigning blame for causing the problem. A lot of arguments are also started by bringing in other issues that does not have any bearing on the current problem. So as much as possible, try to explain the way you view the matter at hand and do not allow yourself to attack the others.

Stress Management is being able to identify the pattern of your anger. Keeping track of how or why certain people, places or events trigger your anger will go a long way in identifying your pattern for anger. Careful study of this pattern will show you irritants or triggers that set you off. Once these have been identified the only thing that a person should do is avoid or not allow the triggers to affect the person.