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The Best Way to Beat Depression

Depression is debilitating. Symptoms such as hopelessness, weight loss and the inability to sleep can interfere with functioning and cause you to feel like giving up. Getting help quickly is the key to beating depression, so it is important to recognize the symptoms of depression and know how to seek help.

  1. Understanding Depression Symptoms

    • The key to beating depression is early treatment. Recognizing the symptoms of depression is the first step in treating depression. Depression can cause significant physical and mental symptoms. Changes in mood indicated by sadness or irritability lasting two weeks or longer can indicate depression. Weight changes, disrupted sleep patterns, frequent physical ailments, feelings of worthlessness, loss of pleasure and thoughts of suicide are all indicative of depression and may require treatment.

    Getting Professional Help

    • Getting help quickly is essential to beating depression. Understanding your treatment options can narrow down which form of treatment will work best for your symptoms. Extreme depression may require inpatient hospitalization. Thoughts of suicide or causing harm to oneself require immediate intervention. Calling 911 or going to the nearest emergency room will help ensure treatment. Inpatient hospitalization is a temporary solution to stabilize a depressed person. Psychiatric medications such as antidepressants are often prescribed to treat depression and can help alleviate some symptoms. Outpatient counseling is another beneficial treatment method and is designed to help depressed people identify the causes of their depression and to develop a realistic treatment plan. Coping strategies and stressors are addressed and can help treat depression.

    Alternative Treatments

    • There are numerous alternatives to beat depression. You may need to try several techniques to find the ones that work best. Support groups, writing in a journal, physical activity, meditation and relaxation techniques can be useful as coping strategies and can offer relief for some symptoms. Sunlight and natural herbs such as St. John's Wort might improve mood.

    Staying Active

    • Beating depression means not giving up even when you feel like giving up. Sometimes the best way to deal with depression is to keep doing things as if you are not depressed. The expression "fake it until you make it" applies and can be useful in keeping you going when you don't feel like going. Getting up and getting out and volunteering to help someone less fortunate are also excellent ways to beat depression.

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