Psychotherapy: A Treatment Alternative for Depression

In the United States, an estimated number of 17 million adults had depression during a 1-year period. Depression is a mental disorder that has been misunderstood over time. People view it as a sign of weakness rather than an illness that requires support and medical attention. Other mental disorders like bipolar disorder has symptoms of depression so it is usually misdiagnosed. Antidepressant medications are usually given when the diagnosis is made. One medication often prescribed is Zoloft. However, this can be a disadvantage because antidepressants including Zoloft are linked with the increased risk of suicide thoughts in children and young adolescents. Aside from that, Zoloft can cause more than the cardiac birth defects reported when taken by pregnant women. There are other treatment modalities available and one of them is psychotherapy.

What is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy is a treatment modality performed in patients suffering from major depression but is also applicable for other mental disorders. This treats the person as a human being with normal response to life experiences and processes. Unlike the medical model where it views depression as a disease, the psychotherapy model tries to understand the person and heal by knowing the source of depression. Psychodynamics sees depression as a coping behaviour so future emotional pain and suffering will be avoided.

How Can Psychotherapy Help?

It helps by assisting the person with depression gain self-awareness. Your therapist can help you identify the problems that might contribute to your condition and can give you pieces of advice to solve or improve them. Negative thoughts and behaviours that come with the illness can be pointed out by your therapist. Your therapist is there to help you understand the meaning behind your thoughts and feelings. He or she can help you develop coping mechanisms so you can regain control and enjoyment in your life. Psychotherapy can be paired with drugs as this is helpful in relieving the symptoms of depression. However, medication side effects can happen such as birth defects caused by Zoloft, one kind of antidepressant.

Some SSRI drugs can result in problems to infants born from mothers who’ve been using the medication Zoloft. Such defects can be considered as Zoloft birth defects .

The post Psychotherapy: A Treatment Alternative for Depression appeared first on The Site For Self Help.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1G8BGBu

via IFTTT