The road to recovery
Psychotherapy or pharmaceutical remedies.
Depression is a complex condition and the road to recovery just as the symptoms and causes will vary among different people. Hence, there are no ‘magic’ pills, as a pharmaceutical cure has not yet been discovered. While some anti-depressant medication are easily available from your doctor and can help to alleviate some of the symptoms, what you have to be aware of, is that they cannot help you to overcome depression on a long term basis. In fact, some of their significant side effects can increase the distress that you are already experiencing.
Psychotherapy has long being recognised to be the single most effective way to treat depression. What you learn in therapy gives you skills and insight to prevent depression from coming back. While focusing on development of self-awareness and development of emotional skills, some types of therapy can teach you practical techniques on how to reframe negative thinking, while others can delve deeper below the surface of the symptoms and can also help you work through the root causes of your depression. Therapy is effective in helping you understand why you feel in a certain way, what your triggers are for depression, and what you can do to stay healthy.