We see a lot of clients at Thrive Counseling that experience depression. Here are the surprising ways therapy can help with depression.
Defining what depression is, and what it isn’t
One of the most common questions I get from counseling clients is “Am I really depressed?” It’s a fair question. There is a big difference between clinical depression and a bout of sadness, boredom, grief or simply feeling “stuck” in your life. One of the first things we do in therapy for depression is a thorough assessment of your symptoms to see if you really are depressed and if so, what type of depression you might have.
It’s very difficult to figure out if you’re depressed on your own. We often need a trained professional to get an accurate diagnosis and then to get the treatment we need to feel better.
A true clinical depression differs from a phase of simply feeling sad in a few ways:
- It’s persistent. A true episode of depression will last for at least two weeks. Usually, my counseling clients tell me that they have been feeling this way for much longer-months or even years.
- It’s a range of emotions, not just feeling sad. A true depression is a mix of emotions like sadness, numbness and hopelessness. There’s other signs and symptoms of depression that are ‘sneaky.’
- There are physical symptoms of depression as well, not just emotional symptoms. Physical symptoms can include low energy, weight gain or loss, appetite changes and sleep changes. A good therapist can help identify how depression might be showing up in your body.
Getting a good diagnosis for depression is incredibly valuable. A therapist can work with you to identify if you have depression, what kind of depression you might have, differentiate it from many other mental health concern, and link feelings of depression to a recurring pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
Maybe it’s not depression after all, and that’s good to know.
When you’re wondering if you’re depressed, it’s good to know that there are some other conditions (or simply life circumstances) that can look like depression. An evaluation by a therapist or counselor can help you determine if you have clinical depression or if it’s something else altogether. Here are some other things that may look like depression:
-Physical illness
-Grief
-recent big life transition, like changing a job or moving to a new area
-hormonal changes, such as menopause or pregnancy
-Bipolar Disorder (Bipolar Disorder does come with depressive episodes)
-Withdrawal from drugs or alcohol
Personalized Treatment for Depression is best
research shows that depression shows up for everyone in individual ways. This means that your depression looks different from someone else’s. Likewise, it’s best practice to get individualized treatment for your depression.
Working with a therapist, they will create and individualized treatment plan just for you. As a therapist, I can tell you that everyone is different. What works for one person might not work for another. It’s up to me to get to know you, and create a plan that will work for you and (more importantly) will work in your life.
For example, coping tools are incredibly important to treat and prevent depression. But some coping tools might not work for you, or might just not fit into your life. For some, exercise is an important coping tool. For others, it’s a chore that makes them feel even more depressed. When I work with clients around their thinking patterns, some gravitate towards a mindfulness-based approach that allows them to not engage with depressed thoughts. Others like a more structure approach where they track their thoughts and gauge how true they might be. For still others, working with the emotions around depression rather than their thoughts work best.
The takeaway is, counseling for depression will deliver a completely personalized solution. Rather than trying to bootstrap an approach to depression, you have a professional with a wealth of knowledge to tailor a plan just for you.
Don’t just treat depression, prevent it from happening again
Therapist or counseling for depression doesn’t just get you out of a depression, it actually prevents future episodes of depression. Through counseling, you develop a deep self-knowledge about your own moods, thoughts, and habits. Our clients finish counseling with a detailed idea of how depression shows up for them, their ‘risk factors’ and how to know if they are slipping into depression. A good therapist or counselor will also create a plan for how you can fend off a depressive episode if you see one coming your way.
Common ways to prevent depression are:
-Having healthy eating and sleeping patterns
-Staying connected to supportive friends and family
-Consistently practicing coping tools that you learned in therapy
-Accurately gauging your own mood
-Asking for help from trusted friends and family when you feel overwhelmed
For our clients, I know they often say that one of the most helpful things they have is that established relationship with a therapist that they can call anytime. At Thrive Counseling, our motto is ‘once a client, always a client.’ Meaning you can call us anytime and we will make time for you. It’s normal for clients that are done with weekly counseling to call and schedule a ‘drop-in’ session to just touch base, or work through a particularly difficult situation. We are always here for you. Having a counselor that knows you, knows your background and what you have been through, and knows how to help you is incredibly valuable.
Ultimately, it’s the relationship that makes the difference
Research shows us over and over that in counseling it’s the relationship that heals. We call this a Therapeutic Alliance. It’s a fancy way of describing a relationship like no other. A relationship with a therapist is safe, strong, trusting, and open. They show up only for you. You therapist doesn’t take sides, and is an objective helper for you.
Imagine seeing someone who that gets it, and gets you. It’s really common for therapists to become therapists because of their own experience healing from a mental health issue. We get it, we really do. We know how hard it is.
Imagine having someone that’s only focused on you. We take notes from our sessions and plan the next session. We review worksheets you might fill out. We think about our clients outside of session, thinking how we can better help you to have more good days.
Now imagine this caring, thoughtful person is also a highly-trained expert. The average therapist has 6 years of schooling and 2-3 years of internships to prepare themselves to help you. Therapists also know science-based strategies to help you.
Don’t go it alone. If you feel depressed, contact us and let’s get you feeling better.