Time to Talk to Somebody?

Life may seem a bit harder these days. You feel down and discouraged, and you feel like you're not functioning very well. Talking to your family and friends isn't enough. Maybe it's time to see a therapist.

If you do, you won't be alone. Millions of Americans look for professional counseling each year. For some people with mild depression, talk therapy is all they need. For others with more serious cases, talk therapy can help bolster the effects of medication to make their treatment more successful.

Seeing a therapist - even for just a few months - can help you on the road to wellness by helping you deal better with your depression. People who are not depressed take better care of themselves and their families than those who are. You owe it to yourself and your family to do all you can to feel better.

Therapy can help. In therapy, you can:

• Express emotions without being judged.
• Pinpoint problems in your life contributing to your depression and understand how to change your situation or cope with these problems.
• Stop blaming yourself. Depressed people often feel guilty about things they think they could have done better. A therapist will help you to understand no one is perfect and that self-blame and guilt don't make your life healthier.
• Identify negative or distorted thinking that makes you feel bad about yourself and worsens your depression. Someone who is depressed may say, "I can never do anything right." A therapist can counter that, showing you that you can do plenty of things right.
• Learn how to better interact with the people in your life. Talking can help restore or strengthen friendships, a necessary part of your recovery.
• Regain a sense of control over your life.
• Reduce the chances of recurrence of depression later in life - or at least recognize the signs and reduce the intensity.
• Get the support of an objective person who is trained in helping you. Having support helps you to stick with your medications and therapy.

Therapy isn't just for depression. It can also help you with anxiety disorders, eating disorders, bipolar illness and other mental health conditions. Often depression goes hand in hand with other mental health problems.

Common types of available therapies:

• Psychodynamic therapy helps you better understand yourself. It's based on the idea that forgotten experiences and feelings influence how you feel and function in the present. This therapy involves uncovering these feelings and learning how to deal with them. This may include looking at childhood experiences that have made you anxious or plagued you with low self-esteem as an adult. It also examines how you interact with others, helps you understand your needs in your relationships and teaches you how to improve your communication skills. This therapy is time-consuming and may take years.
• Interpersonal therapy attempts to help you understand interpersonal themes in your life. Common themes include conflict between you and others in your life, unresolved grief over the death of a loved one, and transitions from one role to another - such as a change in job.
• Cognitive therapy helps you recognize and change harmful or ineffective thinking patterns, like "I'm so stupid," or "I can't do anything right."
• Behavioral therapy examines your behaviors, substituting positive for harmful or inappropriate ones. For example, you might learn to tame an angry response by counting to 10 backwards.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a combination of cognitive and behavioral approaches and is widely used.

You can see a social worker, a counselor, a psychologist, a psychiatrist or a psychiatric nurse for help. It depends on your goals for treatment and the severity of your condition. Only a doctor - such as your primary care doctor or a psychiatrist - can prescribe medications.

Start with your primary care doctor and ask for a diagnosis, a referral or advice. Never guess the meaning of or dismiss your symptoms. Remember, in order to get on the path to wellness, you need to take the first step.

Related Articles Who Can I Talk to? Types of Psychotherapy What Is Psychotherapy? Is Online Therapy for You?

External Sources American Psychiatric Association American Psychological Association

This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.

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