Non-medication Treatments for Depression
Section 34: Talking treatments for Depression.
Section 34A: Body,Mind, Spirit
Section 35: Does psychotherapy help?
Section 36: How dose psychotherapy work? “Kaleidoscope”.
Section 37: Herbal treatments for Depression.
Section 37A: Treating depression by problem solving therapy
SECTION 34
TALKING treatments for depression.
Only two particular types of talking therapy (psychotherapy) have been convincingly shown to be effective in the treatment of depression. While the world is full of many well meaning and intensely applied therapies, scientific research so far has only shown the following two therapies to be more effective than the simple passage of time, with or without general emotional support.
This is the best known of the talking therapies shown to be effective in depressive illness, particularly in depressive illness which is mild or moderate in severity. The theory behind cognitive therapy is that depression is caused by the individual reading negatives into every aspect of their interactions with the world. The patient becomes convinced that everything is, was and always will be negative, and takes the worst possible interpretation, to a magnified extent, out of simple daily problems.
Therapy in Cognitive Therapy consists of relentlessly focusing the patient’s logic onto the events of daily life. The patient is asked to keep a rating scale of their mood on a daily basis, often a number of times per day, so they can see they are not continuously in the total depths of depression. They are asked to rate various events in their day, to show that in fact they do get some positives out of these events. They are asked particularly to examine their own thinking processes when they react negatively to a situation, to detect and correct inappropriate magnification of negatives.
Cognitive Therapy has repeatedly been shown to be effective in a range of conditions, including depressive illness. However, it does require considerable emotional and intellectual effort by patients, and requires many hours of therapy usually. However, some people believe this effort and time is better than taking antidepressant medication. It has been shown that antidepressant medication is better than Cognitive Therapy in severe depression, as severely depressed patients find it impossible to put in the intellectual effort required when they are in fact paralysed intellectually by their illness. It has also been shown that the combination of antidepressant medication and cognitive therapy is better than either treatment used on its own.
There are many books and self-help manuals written on Cognitive Therapy for Depression.
This therapy is a relatively recent development in the treatment of depressive illness. It operates on the fact that many episodes of depressive illness are related to difficulties between people, especially between partners, and many episodes of depression are also related to changes in peoples’ lives. Therapy based on this theory focuses particularly on an in-depth discussion and analysis of what goes on in conversations and interactions between people. Often, it is found that there are significant misunderstandings between people, or there are large areas of emotional misunderstanding or a sense of emotional neglect by one’s partner. Ideally, clarification of the implications and of the true emotional responses, hopes and thoughts of the parties involved all lead to increased emotional harmony, and resolution of the depressive illness.
Important Disclaimer: This site is medical information only, and is not to be taken as diagnosis, advice or treatment, which can only be decided by your own doctor.
Section 34A:
Mind, Body, Spirit
Helpful tips in managing your Depression
Remember Depression is an illness, which affects your BODY, MIND, and SPIRIT {SOUL}
If some of these little hints don`t suit you, please skip them and try and find some that do suit you.
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BODY
The first little tips are designed to help heal the body.
When we were little we were soothed by the people who cared for us.
In depression it is very difficult to be soothed by others
We can try and soothe ourself.
WE use all our five senses.
Taste eat some of your favourite food, chocolate, ice cream etc. take a little bit. Let it melt in your mouth; imagine you are tasting it for the first time. Savour this experience.
Smell some aromatic oil, which has fond memories for you. Don`t use ones, which are associated with painful memories.
Touch Stoke something soft, the cat, dog, favourite jumper. If this sounds daft remember touch is our earliest and most important sense. Have a hug if you can.
Hearing Listen to some soothing music. Be careful not to play something which makes you feel worse, remember music feeds directly into the emotional part of the brain.
Vision. Look at something really pleasing. Pictures of nature. Or it could be your favourite comedy DVD.
Now the worst E-word for the depressed person- Exercise what can I say? You`re lying on the couch feeling terrible. The last thing you want to do is go for a walk. Remember we are trying to heal the body so try and go for a little stroll. The average intelligent dog lies with his nose flat on the floor looking glum untill‘walkie’ time. Know what I mean? Our physiology is not that different so------ PLEASE TRY>
MIND
This is often a tricky part of ourselves to heal
The mind starts doing its own thing. Running on bad, negative, pessimistic fuel.
Ok so what do we do to heal the mind?
Imagine you are making a film of your life. You are the editor. The producers have told you the movie is expected to make billions. Your favourite star is to play the adult you. Your task is to edit out all the bad crap scenes and leave the good ones to show you as a fabulous person.
SPEND SOME TIME EACH MORNING AND AFTERNOON DOING TTHIS LITTLE TASK.
Think of 5 good things about yourself. If you can do 5 try 10 if 10 try 20 and so on.
Think of the worst person in the world. If they are 100% bad how do you compare? I bet you`ve given yourself too high a %age. Come on, remember we`re into healing here and not punishment.
Imagine you are in a massive hall. In this place are all the people who have ever been depressed. Some of the people come and talk to you; they are people who you can relate to. They are explaining you will get better just as they have done. You don`t feel so alone. You remember what they say to you and think it over later. You are really surprised to see some very famous faces there from all walks of life. Wow, some of the nicest people have had depression.
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SPIRIT
The spirit is often really broken by the depression. It is important to spend time thinking about your spirit. It is the earliest part of a human being. It comes into existence before the body and mind are formed.
Spend ten or fifteen minutes thinking about the spiritual part of you and how can your spirit be strengthened. This might be by reading some uplifting words.
One of the poems that can be helpful is Desiderata one line is very important: -
You are a child of the universe you have a right to be here.
Another poem is The Weaver which can be found on the net via google.
If reading is not your thing try to spend a few minutes with your eyes shut and in a relaxed position if you can manage it.
Gently concentrate and imagine a halo of pure white light nurturing your spirit.
Try these exercises as often as you can.
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The Medication, therapy and these little tools should soon find you firing on all cylinders again.
SECTION 35
As indicated elsewhere, for the actual treatment of depressive illness, research to date has only been able to prove the value of Cognitive Therapy, and of Interpersonal Therapy .
However, depression is the result of stress overwhelming an individual’s personal resilience or personal strength. If there are unresolved distressing emotional issues from a person’s current life, from their current relationships, or from events in their past which continue to distress them, they will always be excessively vulnerable to emotional suffering and to depressive illness. In these situations, although not yet proven by research, it would seem inescapably logical to have a reasonable amount of psychotherapy, designed to try to unravel these issues, and put them to rest mentally.
Important Disclaimer: This site is medical information only, and is not to be taken as diagnosis, advice or treatment, which can only be decided by your own doctor.
SECTION 36
How does psychotherapy work?: This is an issue which has in many ways defied research for very many years. However, let me give some simple pointers.
The human brain is very good at resolving many problems, but it operates in many ways like a sophisticated computer. The human brain can only work through problems and issues if the information is presented in a way it understands. In effect, the human brain needs words to process the issues it is asked to deal with. Very many people, distressed by events that have happened or are happening to them, do not put actual words to how they feel emotionally. However, when seeing a therapist, people are obliged to put words to their emotions, and in many cases this particularly clarifies the issues involved, often for the first time. While the combination of putting words to how you feel, and having a concerned and understanding expert listener, would seem to be the best approach for such issues, some people find that writing down their thoughts on paper forces them to put words to their feelings and conflicts, with beneficial results.
Having psychotherapy is like being given an extra computer program. You learn to see things from a different perspective, and you learn a more constructive way of dealing with events and interactions with other people. However, the crucial issue for the future is whether you will count to three mentally (so to speak) in such situations, and use your new program to deal with these new events and situations, or whether you will instead react instinctively without thinking, when you will almost certainly automatically use your old and less appropriate ways of responding.
The processes and benefits of psychotherapy are summarised in the poem “Kaleidoscope”. Please note that this poem is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author, a patient of mine who wishes to remain anonymous, but the poem itself remains copyright.
KALEIDOSCOPE
Childhood,
Preserved in the unconscious
Embalmed with denial and withdrawal
Anointed with forgetfulness and fantasy
Replayed like an old movie
Trapped in a role no longer remembered
Finally liberated by a self-curing disease
That pushes out bits of the past
which connect with pieces of the present
to complete the picture.
Reflecting on it objectively
As though through a telescope
And when turning the lens to refocus
Watching the same bits and pieces
Fall into a new pattern
Different colours
Different light.
Important Disclaimer: This site is medical information only, and is not to be taken as diagnosis, advice or treatment, which can only be decided by your own doctor.
SECTION 37
Many herbal agents are claimed to be beneficial in a range of human conditions and illnesses, including depression. However, medical science is based on strict scientific and mathematical principles. Accordingly, any agent, herbal or otherwise, must be able to actually prove its claims. This issue is discussed in Section 10, “Proof that antidepressants work”.
No herbal agents to date have been able to show that they are as effective as prescribed antidepressant medications in the treatment of depressive ILLNESS, ESPECIALLY MODERATE OR SEVERE DEPRESSION.
Claims have been made involving a range of herbal agents, including fish oils, St John’s Wort and Valerian. While improvement in some symptoms have been reported, such as difficulty sleeping, mild anxiety or mild degrees of depression, herbal medications must at present be regarded as unproven.
Many individual cases are reported in which improvement in particular illnesses coincides with the use of a particular herbal medication. However, coincidence is not necessarily cause. If a 95 year old man who never watched TV drops dead as soon as a TV is turned on in front of him, we would not then claim that watching TV causes sudden death!
Medical science will not support the use of any substance which has not proven its effectiveness in double blind placebo controlled trials, as described in Section 10.
Important Disclaimer: This site is medical information only, and is not to be taken as diagnosis, advice or treatment, which can only be decided by your own doctor.
Section 37A
Treating Depression By Problem Solving Therapy
In recent years, problem solving therapy has been shown to be an effective contribution to the treatment of depression, along with many other useful techniques, which are described on this site.
As depression is brought about by stresses, learning techniques to deal with stresses will obviously be very useful. One such technique is problem solving therapy.
STEP ONE is to write down all the stresses that are affecting you, and presumably a major cause of your depression.
STEP TWO is to take each problem in turn, and write it on a separate sheet of paper. For each problem, write down what options you have to deal with that problem.
STEP THREE is to take each option you have written down and write down the pros and cons of that particular solution or option. Do this for all the options you have available for that problem. For example, if someone at work is treating you unfairly, one option might be to write them a polite letter, one option might be to write them an angry letter, one option might be to go and have a discussion with them, and one option might be to get a third party known to both of you to try to discuss the difficulty. Writing down the pros and cons of each way of dealing with the problem will give you some idea of how appealing each solution is, and the positive and negative consequence of trying that solution.
STEP FOUR is to choose a particular best option, and write down the steps to follow in putting that plan into action.
A major benefit of this sort of approach, and indeed one that applies to anything about which you are worrying, is that putting on paper problems and their possible solutions reduces the stress of these problems. If you find yourself tempted to worry about these issues again, ask yourself if there is something new that you have not written down, and write it down. If there is nothing new, then you can tell yourself that there is no point distressing yourself going over the same thoughts and worries repeatedly, as you are only going to come to the same answer as is already written on your papers. Of course, if you are significantly depressed, it will unfortunately be very difficult for you to think your way through problems, so asking someone close to you or your therapist or doctor to help with the above process may be very useful.
Important Disclaimer: This site is medical information only, and is not to be taken as diagnosis, advice or treatment, which can only be decided by your own doctor.