You may have read plenty of literature discussing the importance of changing your lifestyle and your diet for a healthy mind. These are excellent resources that can help you manage your depression. However, there are times that these alternative modes or natural ways of treating depression are not enough and that the only thing that can help you for the moment is a dose of anti-depression medicine.
Depression and Anxiety - The Basics
To understand how anti-depression medicine can help a depressed person, you must understand how depression and anxiety can strike a person.
It's not unusual for people of all ages to occasionally experience anxiety and depression. Anxiety is a normal reaction of a person whenever there's a significant event happening in their life, for example while awaiting the release of a test result a call from a prospective employer. Anxiety strikes when stressors such as these are present. However, normal feelings of anxiety don't last for long. Right after the test result arrives or that call has been received, anxiety ceases.
However, to some people, when they face these types of stressors, they over-react, become restless and suffer from insomnia. So, even after the cause of anxiety has passed or has been resolved, they remain anxious and they shut down and fall into depression.
Chronic depression and anxiety are two distinct debilitating mood disorders; but for psychiatrists and researchers, these two disorders often overlap, as shown by the illustration above. What's more, it was found that what could treat depression can also treat anxiety.
Depression may be mild or major. With mild depressive symptoms, a person can do well even with psychotherapy and other natural means (food supplements and meditation). However, in major depression, these are not likely to suffice. You need the help of an anti-depression medicine.
Major and Mild Depression
A person with major depression has a suicidal tendency that must be addressed immediately. People with this type of depression goes into a self loathe stage wherein they want to end everything, the hopelessness and sadness, once and for all. Since they hate themselves and that they feel their depression is caused by their being alive, they will want to end the life that they think causes their misery.
Anti-depression medicine is not just an option for major depression - it is a necessity, without which the hormonal imbalance can not be neutralized.
In fact even in mild depression, a medication therapy could help. If the depression although mild is chronic, meaning the depressed feeling lasts for years, anti-depression medicine can help a person live a normal life especially if he's falling into major depression during his chronic depression years.
What is the Role of Anti-Depression Medicine?
Antidepressants are designed to prevent hormonal imbalance from happening or to neutralize the imbalance if it is already present. It has been found that hormonal imbalance causes the brain to go haywire and to bring one's moods to the extreme: whether to extreme sadness or happiness or going into a happy-sad seesaw.
Antidepressant medicine is not the sole source of cure; it is just one of the many means of curing a depressed person. In fact, it only helps in relieving symptoms and not target the root source of the mental disorder.
If you are thinking of undergoing a medication therapy to help you get back on track and be able to live fully without the depression, talk the matter out with your psychiatrist. Weigh everything -- the benefits versus the risks - before you decide to have a go with antidepressant medicine. Discuss the pros and cons and ask for recommendations and advice.
Don't forget to learn about the side effects and what to do if a major side effect is noticed and in case overdose happens. What is important here is you take an active role in your treatment process. By doing so, it will give you strength and courage to face your condition and to achieve your speedy and successful recovery more easily.
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