What is it?
Depression is the term used to describe feelings of low mood lasting more than 2 weeks that has an impact on your daily activities.
What does it feel like?
If you have depression, you may not be able to complete tasks you normally would, such as work, socialising, doing chores or personal hygiene. Or, you may function almost normally but have little interest or pleasure in doing things, and a general sense of pointlessness. There will usually be feelings of sadness, numbness, guilt or hopelessness, with physical symptoms like a lack of energy, aches and sometimes a difference in your sleeping and eating habits. Common thoughts for people experiencing symptoms of depression may be about taking their life or harming themselves, not being good enough, letting people down and/or thinking “what’s the point?”.
Potential therapy options
There are many treatment options for depression and often the recommended treatment takes account of many factors including the main symptoms that you may be experiencing, how intense they are, how often you’ve experienced these symptoms, which treatments you’ve tried before and how many times you’ve experienced depression in your lifetime.
In the first instance, a treatment option based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is usually recommended. This could be as part of our Stress and Mood Management Course, SilverCloud computerised CBT, work with a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP), a CBT therapist or maybe a form of counselling. For some people, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy has proven to be very effective in helping to manage recurrent depression. During your assessment, we will discuss with you what is likely to be the most helpful form of treatment, taking into consideration the factors listed above, your preferences and the evidence about effective treatment.
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