Blog

Treating clinical depression can take dedication and a deep understanding of how the mental illness affects the body and the mind. Finding the right treatment—or combination of treatments—that works for you takes close collaboration with your doctor or mental health specialist. If you are suffering from clinical depression, it can be difficult to stay proactive about your personal well-being. But, hopefully, this list will give you some insight into the number of treatment options available when it comes to depression. If you are not suffering from the disorder, then let this list better inform you about how you can help others handle their mental illness. Without further ado, here is a list of 27 essential tips to treat clinical depression.

Clinical depression, also known as major depressive disorder (MDD), manifests itself differently in everyone. Some of us are genetically prone to experiencing the disorder during our lifetime. Others experience clinical depression as a result of traumatic events or stressful school, work, or personal environments. Changes in brain chemistry and hormones can also cause the onset of clinical depression episodes.

Symptoms of clinical depression vary greatly in the population that this mental illness affects, which is about 6.7% of the US adult population (or 16.1 million Americans over the age of 18 each year) according to The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (AADA). Symptoms >may include feelings of emptiness, fatigue, irritation, agitation, anxiety, and failure to enjoy activities which you once considered ‘fun’. Those who are clinically depressed may experience any combination of these symptoms due to a clinically depressed mental state.

Is your favorite summer activity huddling in a dark room with the AC blasting, while your friends and family enjoy the sunshine? Does the thought of a trip to the beach leave you anxious and depressed? You may feel like a party pooper, but there could well be a physical reason for your plight--each year about 1.6 million Americans suffer from summer-onset Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a condition whose symptoms include depression, anxiety, and an unusual sensitivity to heat and sunlight. Unfortunately, because summer-onset SAD is far less common than its winter cousin, experts have done less research on its etiology and developed fewer treatment options. Although there’s also less public awareness of the condition, those with summer SAD tend to be more agitated and are therefore at higher risk of suicide than those who experience the winter version.

Millennials often get a bad rap in the media for being “entitled,” “lazy,” and “narcissistic.” While these young adults do enjoy advantages such as greater connectivity, like every generation they face unique and difficult challenges--among theirs are a cultural of unrelenting overachievement, stagnating wages, and huge personal debt. These factors can cause serious stress, and trigger or exacerbate depression in those prone to suffer more from mental illness.  By understanding Millennials’ particular stressors we can better identify when to help them get the most appropriate treatment, whether it’s career or financial counseling, psychotherapy, medication, or brain stimulation therapies.

More than 70 percent of adults in the U.S. have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their life. Living through a distressing situation can cause common reactions in people that usually go away over time, including fear, shock, anger, nervousness, sadness, and possibly guilt. However, for 7.7 million American adults in a given year, these feelings don’t go away, and even intensify, affecting their quality of life and causing PTSD.

Twelve-year-old Portia Baptista had just come home from school when she heard soft sobs coming from her parents’ bedroom. Her heart sank. Her mom was in bed, crying yet again. Portia poked her head in the door. “What’s wrong, Ma?” she asked. “Nothing,” her mom replied, pulling the covers up, embarrassed that Portia was seeing her distraught. “No, please tell me,” Portia said. She knew it was not all that healthy to serve as her mom’s confidante. She also knew her mom didn’t have anyone else to talk to, so she insisted. Her mom paused. “Well, I just feel so bad. If it wasn’t for your father’s income, I’d be homeless on the street. I can’t take care of myself.” “No you wouldn’t end up on the street, Ma” she said quietly, trying to sound sure of her statement. “We’d find a way.”

I first noticed our art director’s performance start to slip a few months after she came back from maternity leave. At first, she had been her usual self: sharp, dedicated, punctual, funny. She seemed to be handling the transition back to the office well. Then she began coming in late and walking straight to her office instead of chatting with the rest of us over coffee in the kitchen. When we started working on a major ad campaign with a sneaker retailer, our small firm’s biggest client, she was consistently late with the layouts and her ideas just didn’t seem as inspired as usual. Then, she missed an important internal review meeting and I really started getting annoyed. One quarter of our annual revenue was riding on this campaign. I decided I needed to talk with her about her performance and started steeling myself for the discussion.

Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD) is a form of depression triggered by the change in seasons, primarily occurring in the late fall/early winter. For the approximately 10 million Americans with SAD, feeling sad, hopeless or lethargic for days or weeks at a time are common symptoms and a constant struggle.  SAD, like any form of depression, if untreated can limit your ability to function on daily basis and enjoy your life to the fullest.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of depression that’s related to changes in
seasons, is estimated to affect 10 million Americans. For most people, symptoms appear during late fall or early winter, making you feel blue around the winter holidays, or sad and disappointed after all the celebrations are over. While it’s normal to experience the “winter blues”, feeling sad, hopeless or lethargic for days or weeks at a time can be symptoms of something more serious, including depression. A smaller number of people experience symptoms in the spring or early summer.