I think I have depression: what do I do?

It is true that most of us go through times in our lives where we seem to cry more than usual, feel sad, and feel sad. It is difficult to overcome the day to day, but when the situation we come to is an impediment to leading a normal life, at that moment we talk of a depression disorder.

In this Psychology-Online article, we offer tools to distinguish and be able to adequately treat this alteration. Read on if you want us to help you with your question about "I think I have depression: what do I do?" or if you know someone who needs these tips.

Index

1. How do I know if I have depression?
2. What can I do if I have depression?
3. Tips to get out of depression

If we feel sad, not wanting to do anything, yes we cry for no apparent reason And if we find it difficult to get out of bed, it is time to start asking ourselves if we can suffer from depression. Although there are many free and easy-to-reach tests, it is more advisable to go to a psychologist so that he can diagnose us correctly.

Below is a list of signs¹ to know if we have depression and whether or not we should go to consultation:

• Continued sadness
• Pessimism
• Feelings of failure or worthlessness
• Feelings of guilt and punishment
• Self-dissatisfaction and excessive self-criticism
• Loss of pleasure or interest
• Uncontrolled crying
• Agitation and irritability
• Changes in appetite and sleep patterns
• Loss of sexual interest
• Difficulties in decision making
• Thoughts of suicide
• Concentration difficulty
• Tiredness and fatigue

If you think that it is an extremely dangerous situation and you could threaten your own health, go as soon as possible to your nearest health center.

To answer the question of "I think I have depression: what do I do?", It must first be diagnosed by a doctor. Once depression is diagnosed, we must find out what to do to treat it so that it subsides and we can lead a normal lifestyle. It is important to know that each person has their way and that there are different treatments² for depression according to the personality of each individual.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness therapy to deal with depression is on everyone's lips. It has recently been shown that this treatment based on meditation and mindfulness in our emotions it is very effective in a multitude of both depressive and personality disorders.

Emotional management

Many times we are depressed and we are overwhelmed by emotions that we cannot control. One way to help treat depression is being the owner of your own emotions. By identifying how we feel, it is much easier to manage situations without our emotions overwhelming us.

A trick to learn to manage emotions is to find out the thought that has generated them. We put the following examples:

• "Why do I feel sad?Maybe it's because I lost my job What I can do?looking for a new job and keeping my mind busy with other tasks. "
• "Why am I feeling depressed? My boyfriend left meWhat I can do? blook for distractions and start loving myself. "

It is important guide thoughts toward solving the problem that saddens or depresses us. If you want to know more about this treatment, you can consult our article: Learn to control your emotions.

Behavior therapy

This treatment focuses on develop enjoyable activities that generate a feeling of well-being to recover from depression. It also offers tools to deal with problems in a better way and train social skills; social skills are a very important point in the person since thanks to them we can express our needs and expose our discontent in an assertive way and avoiding the discomfort of not saying what sorry.

Psychopharmaceuticals

An alternative to psychological therapies to get out of depression are drugs, we must bear in mind that They can only be prescribed by someone qualified as a doctor or a specialized psychiatrist. These drugs change the chemistry of our brain so that it generates more transmitters dedicated to making us feel good (serotonin and dopamine, although they mainly focus on serotonin). Among them, the Prozac (fluoxetine) and Zoloft (sertraline).

1. Ask your loved ones for help: Talk to them openly about your feelings, don't be afraid to express yourself, they can help you find solutions.
2. Contact a support group: Once we have consulted a psychologist or psychiatrist, he or she can provide us with a support group of people who have suffered or are suffering from depression. This advice can help some people share their path to improvement, but sometimes it is not suitable, it depends on the personality of each one.
3. Sleep the necessary hours and at an appropriate time: sleeping at an appropriate time and taking advantage of the hours of natural light helps our brain to generate the necessary chemicals to make us feel good. Otherwise, our body suffers from imbalances that can make depression disorder worse.
4. Avoid toxic relationships: Surrounding ourselves with a healthy environment helps us avoid problems and feel more comfortable with the people who are by our side, trusting them ensures support.
5. Being the owner of your own emotions: As we have mentioned before, managing and controlling our emotions prevents them from dominating us.
6. Avoid drugs at all costs: In addition to promoting an environment of toxic people, drugs are substances that harm by complete our mind, worsen all disorders and create an addiction that is very difficult to get out.

Remember that you can get out of all bad situations with a lot of willpower, social support and professional help, there is no reason to look for escape routes that avoid the problem or make it worse.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to I think I have depression: what do I do?, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

1. Items consulted in: Sanz, Jesús, Antonio Luis Perdigón, and Carmelo Vázquez. "Spanish adaptation of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II): 2. Psychometric properties in the general population. " Clinic and health 14.3 (2003).
2. Pérez Alvárez, M., & García Montes, J. M. (2001). Effective psychological treatments for depression. Psychothema, 13(3).