How Can Sleeping Better Help You Treat Depression
Well, 90% of depressed people struggle with sleep. As you may have noticed, some people with depression sleep too much and others dont get enough sleep. Also, sleeping poorly can increase the risk of severe depression and mild depression. For instance, have you noticed that poor sleep can make you tired and lower your mood? It can also be difficult to concentrate after a bad nights sleep. Those are symptoms of depression. The good news is that changes in one will affect the other. Sleeping better will help you concentrate and regulate emotions. Best of all, this way of treating depression is comfortable, for free and you dont need pills to do it.
How Do Antidepressants Work
The nerve cells in our brain use various chemicals to pass on signals. Even though not all details are known, experts believe that is caused by an imbalance of certain chemical messengers like serotonin, which means that signals can’t be passed along the nerves properly. Antidepressants aim to increase the availability of these chemicals. The various drugs do that in different ways.
Are The Signs Of Untreated Depression In Men Different From Those In Women
Men who have untreated clinical depression may exhibit more anger, frustration, and violent behavior than women. In addition, men with untreated depression may take dangerous risks such as reckless driving and having unsafe sex. Men are not aware that physical symptoms, such as headaches, digestive disorders and chronic pain, can be symptoms of depression.
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Can Depression Be Prevented
You can help prevent depression by getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet and practicing regular self-care activities such as exercise, meditation and yoga.
If youve had depression before, you may be more likely to experience it again. If you have depression symptoms, get help. Care can help you feel better sooner.
Diet As Depression Treatment
Our first medication-free depression treatment is about changing your diet.
In 2017, Esther Vermeulen and her colleagues found that people who eat a lot of red meat, added sugars, high-fat dairy products, fried foods and creamy sauces experience more depressive symptoms and depressed moods than others. 4969 people participated in the HELIUS study. This means that sugar and fat equals low mood. It also means that a meal at our nearest fast food restaurant is not as cheap and convenient as it seems. We eventually pay for it with our mental health.
You get the point. Its a good idea to stay away from too much fat and sugar when depressed. But what foods will act as a depression treatment?
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Can Depression Go Away Once And For All
If you are determined to try therapy and change your lifestyle to pull yourself out of the dark place, you sure want to know if it’s worth the price. Can depression be cured forever? Sadly, there will never be a definite answer to such a question.
Some forms of the disorder, for example, postpartum depression, are likely to decrease over time. While treatment is essential for successfully reducing symptoms, the most prolonged period women experience postpartum depression is around 3 years. However, other forms of depression, such as clinical depression or bipolar depression, can last for decades, or a lifetime, if untreated.
Treatment success depends on the severity of your symptoms, how long you have been living with depression, and your genetics. Severe depression may never be cured permanently, but can depression be treated? It can, much like diabetes, be treated but not cured.
What is the difference between curing and treating something? When a person is cured of a disease, it is essentially gone for good. However, the human mind is an extremely complex mechanism, and no one can guarantee whether the treatment outcomes will last for a month, a year, or a decade.
Major depression disorder typically lasts several months. If untreated, it can become chronic and persist for far longer. Thats why it’s so important to seek help as soon as you start noticing symptoms.
Avoiding The Return Of Depression
To prevent a depression relapse, continue to follow your doctors advice. Go to therapy sessions, talk with family members, take prescribed medication, and avoid alcohol and drugs, Belkin says.
Its also important to keep busy with productive activities and be around other people, strategies that have worked well for Collins. I have continued the sport of fencing, which I first started at age 23,” Collins says. “Making friends and getting exercise are great for mental health. And last year I decided to audition for roles in a community theater production and got cast as Jimmy Tomorrow in Eugene ONeills The Iceman Cometh.
Renew your commitment to positive lifestyle habits get restorative sleep, engage in meditation or other stress-reducing techniques, and eat a diet that includes all colors of the rainbow, says Gazda, who notes that relapsing more than three times may mean maintenance therapy for life is a must.
Most important in the prevention of depression relapse is to stay aware of its very real possibility, not as a source of anxiety but as a proactive step for well-being. If you sense depression symptoms returning, get help immediately.
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Listen To Upbeat Music
There’s no doubt that music can have an impact on how you feel, so choosing the right music when you’re feeling down might be an effective way of lifting your mood.
Research has found people who are depressed may have a tendency to choose music that intensifies rumination, sadness, and emotion-focused coping. So while you might be tempted to turn to somber tearjerkers when you’re feeling down, consider listening to more upbeat songs to boost your mood and inspire positive feelings.
Electroconvulsive Therapy Electric Shock Treatment
If you have severe depression and other treatments, like medication, haven’t worked, ECT might be recommended for you.
When receiving ECT, you will be given an anaesthetic and medication that relaxes your muscles to begin with. Electrodes will be placed on your head that give an electrical “shock” to your brain.
ECT is given over a series of sessions, normally twice a week for three to six weeks.
ECT can cause side effects including nausea, headaches, aches in the muscles and memory problems.
Most people find that ECT is good for relieving severe depression, but the beneficial effects tend to wear off when several months have passed.
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Create The Right Environment For Recovery
When we go through depression, its easy to let even basic things like housework fall by the wayside. The result is that our environment becomes messy, dirty, chaotic and that only makes our state of mind even worse.
So we continue to ignore the housework and thus the vicious cycle continues.
But look:
You can break that cycle, and doing so will help create the ideal environment for recovering from depression.
You dont even have to do it all in one go.
Focus on one thing at a time, even if its only one corner of one room. Do what you feel you have the energy for and before you know it, youll have a clean, tidy, clutter-free space thats far more conducive to overcoming your depression.
Whats more, the sense of accomplishment you get from tidying up can do wonders for your self-esteem and provide a powerful boost to your mood.
Vitamins And Supplements For Depression
The jury is still out on how well herbal remedies, vitamins, or supplements work in treating depression. While many supplements are widely available over the counter, in many cases their efficacy has not been scientifically proven. If your depression symptoms are in part due to nutritional deficiency, you may benefit from vitamin supplements, but this should be on the advice of your healthcare professional.
If you decide to try natural and herbal supplements, remember that they can have side effects and drug or food interactions. For example, St. Johns Worta promising herb used for treatment of mild to moderate depressioncan interfere with prescription drugs such as blood thinners, birth control pills, and prescription antidepressants. Make sure your doctor or therapist knows what you are taking.
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How Effectively Do Antidepressants Relieve The Symptoms
There are a lot of different medications for treating . But it’s difficult to predict how well a particular medication will help an individual. So doctors often first suggest taking a drug that they consider to be effective and relatively well tolerated. If it doesn’t help as much as expected, it’s possible to switch to a different medication. Sometimes a number of different drugs have to be tried before you find one that works.
Studies show that the benefit generally depends on the severity of the : The more severe the depression, the greater the benefits will be. In other words, antidepressants are effective against chronic, moderate and severe depression. They don’t help in mild depression.
The various antidepressants have been compared in many studies. Overall, the commonly used tricyclic antidepressants were found to be equally effective. Studies involving adults with moderate or severe have shown the following:
- Without antidepressants: About 20 to 40 out of 100 people who took a placebo noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.
- With antidepressants: About 40 to 60 out of 100 people who took an antidepressant noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.
In other words, antidepressants improved symptoms in about an extra 20 out of 100 people.
Antidepressants can also relieve long-term symptoms of chronic depressive disorder and chronic , and help make them go away completely.
What Foods Help Ease Depression
While no specific diet has been proven to relieve depression, a healthy diet can help you feel your best physically and mentally. Certain foods may be linked to brain health and support for memory, alertness, and mood. Examples include foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids , antioxidants , and nutrients like choline . Always talk with your doctor before making any major diet changes.
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Seeing A Doctor About Depression
Big changes in your life, like bereavement, losing a job, or even having a baby, can cause symptoms of depression. You’re also more likely to experience depression if you have a family history of depression. However, it’s also possible to become depressed without there being an obvious reason.
You can learn more about depression causes here.
Meditate To Protect Yourself From Depression
Sometimes meditation can replace medication
Another invaluable tool that will help you treat depression without medication, is regular meditation exercises. Regular meditation practice can help you out of a depressive episode and prevent you from falling back into one a second time.
One study reveals that63.6% of the subjects say regular meditation was helpful in moving out of mental health crises and negative thinking.
Meditation is a mind-body health practice that has multiple benefits beyond improving your mental well-being.
Think of meditation as maintenance for your mood. It can help you handle emotions better, spot signs of depression earlier and stop your symptoms from worsening.
Meditation essentially involves three simple steps:
This is great exercise for your brain and it will help you treat depression without medication.
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What Are The Side Effects Of Antidepressant Medications
The provider prescribing your medicine will discuss its potential side effects with you. He or she will try to prescribe drug with the least number of side effects for your health condition. Sometimes, more than one medicine may be tried before the desired benefits are achieved.
You will be monitored closely so that your provider can detect the development of harmful side effects and make the necessary changes.
All medications not just antidepressants can cause side effects. Keep in mind that your provider prescribes the medication only if its expected benefits outweigh the risk of side effects.
Side effects, if they occur, are usually mild. Some side effects decrease after you have taken the drug for a while. However, if side effects dont go away, they will once the drug is stopped. Be sure to discuss your concerns with your provider before taking any medicine.
Classes of antidepressant medications and common side effects
Currently there are six different classes of medications approved to treat depression. These are:
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors .
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Tms Therapy For Depression
If youre suffering from major depression that has been resistant to therapy, medication, and self-help, then TMS therapy may be an option. Transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy is a noninvasive treatment that directs recurring magnetic energy pulses at the regions of the brain that are involved in mood. These magnetic pulses pass painlessly through the skull and stimulate brain cells which can improve communication between different parts of the brain and ease depression symptoms.
While TMS may be able to improve treatment-resistant depression, that doesnt mean its a cure for depression or that your symptoms wont return. However, it could provide sufficient improvements in your energy and drive to enable you to begin talk therapy or make the lifestyle changessuch as improving your diet, exercising, and building your support networkthat can help preserve your depression recovery in the long term.
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How Can You Help Someone Else
- Offer emotional support, understanding, patience and encouragement.
- Listen without judging the person.
- Never dismiss the individuals feelings or undermine what they are going through.
- If references to suicide or self-harm are made, reach out to a mental health professional immediately.
- Ensure the person is not left alone as far as possible.
- Urge the person to seek professional support. Remind them that with time and professional help depression can be overcome.
Why Treatment Is Important
While many medications, such as antibiotics, cure the illnesses they are designed to treat, antidepressants do not cure depression. Their effect is only temporary. This is because antidepressants work by changing the brain’s chemistry, but only for as long as the person is taking them. They do not address the underlying causes of depression.
The National Institute of Mental Health shares that depression has a number of potential, and oftentimes complex, causes. Some may be genetic or biological and others may be environmental or psychological.
No matter the cause, untreated depression can be extremely debilitating to an individual, interfering with every part of life. In addition, severe depression can potentially lead to suicide if it does not receive immediate attention.
Depression has also been linked to a variety of physical health issues, including heart disease, obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other chronic disorders. In the case of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, depression may accelerate the progression of the disease.
Having depression can even make it more difficult to treat other medical illnesses because the lack of motivation and energy associated with depression makes it more difficult for patients to comply with their treatment regimens.
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The Number One Tool For Better Sleep
Whatever your sleep pattern looks like, there are some excellent tools to help you improve it. As a natural consequence, your depressive symptoms will decrease. Sleeping is one of the best medication-free depression treatments we have, and the tools are the same, regardless if youre sleeping too much or too little. There is a number one tool for improved sleep, recommended by Dr. Matthew Walker :
- Wake up at the same time every day and establish a bedtime
So, the best thing to do to improve your sleep is to decide to wake up at the same time every day and to go to bed at the same time every night, even during weekends. Use 90 minutes to unwind before bedtime and set an alarm for when your unwinding-time begins. Theres no use going to bed when you dont feel tired. Also, if you find yourself lying awake unable to sleep, get out of bed after 20 minutes and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy again. Then, return to bed. If you lie awake in bed for too long, your brain will start to associate the bed with wakefulness.
If you dont like this sleep tool, or think its too challenging to start with, check out these strategies for improving sleep and reducing depressive symptoms:
If you need more information about these sleep tools before starting making changes, . It includes a complete sleep module with both theory and homework for beginners.
What Antidepressants Are Available
There are various medications for the treatment of . They can be split up into different groups. This article is mainly about the most commonly used antidepressants:
- Tricyclic antidepressants
- Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors
- Selective serotonin noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitors
Tricyclic antidepressants have been on the market the longest. They are considered to be first-generation antidepressants. SSRIs and SNRIs are second-generation antidepressants.
The following are prescribed less often:
- Adrenergic alpha-2 receptor antagonists
- Selective noradrenaline/dopamine re-uptake inhibitors
- Melatonin receptor agonists and serotonin 5-HT2C receptor antagonists
There are also medications that don’t belong to any group, as well as herbal products such as St. John’s wort.
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Other Options For Depression Treatment Without Drugs
For those seeking a more natural approach to the condition, learning positive coping skills is a must. The following techniques below are supported by medication prescribers and scientific research as methods that help depression. These skills are commonly recommended as essential parts of treatment, even for those using antidepressant medications.
Please note, these are suggestions, and if youre already using antidepressant medication, you shouldnt stop abruptly without your doctors approval.