Depression

Depression is a state of feeling sad, blue, and losing all hope in your life for a long period of time — more than 2 weeks. Most people who suffer from depression do so silently for months or even years on end before getting help.

Depression usually doesn’t just go away on its own, at least not that I’ve ever found. For most people, it just seems to get worse when left untreated. I’ve found that a combination of meds and therapy have helped me and for others whom I’ve talked to, it seems to be one of the approaches that works best.

Depression can get better when treated, and it gets better quicker when you stop pretending like it doesn’t exist and actually go talk to someone about it. I know it’s hard, but if you want to feel better — and remember what hope feels like — I encourage you to call or text a friend today.

Antidepressants are typically prescribed to help a person with depression. Some people can take these antidepressants for as little as 4 to 6 months, while others may benefit from taking them for a year or more. A common type of psychotherapy used to successfully treat depression is called cognitive behavioral therapy. It seeks to challenge a person’s thinking and belief systems, and how those systems are connected to our feelings.

Depression Resources Online

There are a lot of great resources for depression online. Here is a list of a few of the resources I recommend:

Depression can be diagnosed at any point in an American’s life, although many people experience it early on as a child or teenager. Women seem to suffer from depression more than men, and so for many men, it may go undiagnosed for a longer period of time.

Most treatment for depression takes 6 to 12 months for it to be fully successful, although some people make continue on with treatment for years to keep a depressive episode at bay.