How To Help A Person Suffering From Depression

How To Fight Depression?

The psychiatrist plays the most important role in the treatment of depression. He will prescribe medications, and he is unlikely to do without them. Psychotherapy itself may turn out to be ineffective.

Patients who live in a small town and do not have access to a psychiatrist may also be prescribed medication by their family doctor.

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Currently, there are over 40 different antidepressants on the market, including new generation drugs.

Patients are often distrustful of drug therapy, fearing that drugs will cause dementia or distort the picture of reality. Modern antidepressants, however, are completely safe and do not cause such side effects.

The key thing is, however, that all drugs of this type only start working 2-3 weeks after you start taking them. This is a critical moment, the patient begins to heal, which requires effort from him, and he does not see any quick results.

This often causes him to quit taking medications. The role of relatives is important here, who should watch over people suffering from depression, so that they do not stop treatment.

If you stop taking the medication, it may become ineffective if you choose to continue your treatment in the future.

Psychotherapy

However, drugs are not enough. It is also worth starting psychotherapy, which has an auxiliary effect.

In really severe cases, especially when suicidal thoughts arise, it may be necessary to admit the sick person to hospital.

What happens if medications and psychotherapy don’t help? It happens almost in every third case, because 30 percent. depression is drug-resistant depression. This does not mean, however, that there is no other way to save a person suffering from depression. Then the doctor may decide to use the ECT method, or electroconvulsive therapy.

Nowadays, it is an effective and safe method. The patient does not feel anything and undergoes general anesthesia. ECT treatment is used in hospital treatment, where it is possible to constantly monitor a depressed patient and ensure the highest level of safety during the procedure.

What Helps With Depression?

Appropriate medications and psychotherapy are essential. However, this treatment can be additionally supported. One of the methods is phototherapy – cyclic exposure of the patient to light of appropriate intensity. It is a safe and effective method, most often used in the case of seasonal depression, i.e. low mood during fall-winter or winter-spring time.

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Exercise can also help a depressed person. It is not about exhausting workouts, it is enough to persuade the sick person to go for a walk. It is important that he leaves the house. During physical activity, the body releases serotonin, known as the hormone of happiness.

Exercise can be a good form of treatment to help treat depression.

A depressed person often lacks energy, so only moderate exercise is recommended. Doctors figuratively recommend such a pace of the march that a person could talk without gasping, but could not sing anymore.

Depression and Diet

A proper diet, which affects the levels of serotonin in the body, can also help in mood disorders. A balanced diet provides your brain with the right amount of glucose and prevents blood sugar fluctuations from affecting your mood.

So what should you eat? Complex carbohydrates that are slowly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, and therefore deliver glucose slowly and steadily. It is, for example, whole grain bread or pasta, brown rice, porridge. It is worth avoiding simple sugars. For breakfast, it is better to eat a dark bread sandwich with white cheese and vegetables or oatmeal than honey or jam.

Fish, pumpkin seeds, eggs, avocados and bananas can also increase the level of the happiness hormone.

Patients should, however, avoid yellow, processed cheese. You should refrain from consuming alcohol.

Saturated and trans fats increase the risk of depression, while olive oil and nuts have a protective effect.