How Therapy can Help People Overcome Depression
Depression can be incredibly isolating. Some people who experience depression feel profound social anxiety, have low energy levels, and struggle with thoughts of hopelessness, worthlessness, and self-hatred. The longer the period of depression, the more isolated a person can become.
Increased avoidance of other people can lead to a higher degree of social anxiety, which could lead to further avoidance. This can make depression even worse. In other words, depression can turn into a self-sustaining force, and perpetuate its own vicious cycle of isolation and negativity.
Fortunately, nobody who experiences depression has to face it alone. There are many well-developed therapies that have been shown to help alleviate symptoms of depression and ease the effect of the condition overall. While some of these practices can be inculcated as personal habits, the benefits of seeing professional therapists are tremendous.
Many therapists have dedicated their careers to understanding and treating conditions like depression. They can serve as supportive, empathetic, and knowledgeable partners to help people understand and develop strategies to manage their mental illness. This article will cover a two of the many different ways in which therapy can help people cope with depression.
Identifying Life Events That May Contribute to Depression
Depression doesn’t occur in a vacuum — it can often be triggered by specific life events, especially traumatic experiences. One function of therapy is to identify life events that may have marked a turning point in a person’s life. It may not be as simple as “an event that occurred right at the onset of depression,” but in other instances the two may be closely related.
Identifying events that may have contributed to the onset of depression isn’t a cure for depression, but it can help people gain a sense of clarity and a sense of validation. Depression can be confusing, especially for people who have never experienced anything like it before. In extreme cases, it can feel like the whole world has flipped upside down.
Connecting these types of feelings to real lived experiences helps establish the possibility of a reason for these feelings, as opposed to them being simply spontaneous, arbitrary developments. Identifying a certain event can also help people process their feelings. Maybe a certain experience triggered a certain feeling and/or perspective within them, which might be a key factor in their depression.
Not everybody who is depressed will have a specific event that they can point to. However, working to identify past experiences that may have contributed to depression can be of immense value for many people.
Breaking Negative Thought and Behavior Patterns
Depression is more than “just a mindset.” It is a serious medical condition caused by a amalgamation of factors: biological, genetic, psychological, social, and environmental. However, it’s also true that depression is often typified by extremely negative thought patterns, in which thoughts and feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, self-hatred, and even suicide play a large role.
Similarly, certain actions, habits, or behaviors may be contributing to feelings of depression. These could be as mild as poor health habits — lack of sleep, exercise, or adequate nutrition — or range to more severe forms of unhealthy or damaging behavior.
A certain subset of therapy, known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), is designed to help establish healthier thought patterns and behaviors. CBT sessions are typically devoted to identifying thought processes or behaviors that may be contributing to depression; and drawing up, practicing, and establishing new ways of thinking and acting that will help with overcoming depression.
CBT often focuses on helping people practice instantiating changes in their lives and minds, as opposed to other forms of psychotherapy, like psychoanalysis, which may focus instead on plumbing the emotional depths of a person’s mind to further understand the root causes of depression. Neither is necessarily better than the other — they can both offer significant benefits, and may be more appropriate for certain people.
Regain a Sense of Control and Pleasure
Ultimately, therapy can help re-establish a missing sense of control in the lives of people who experience depression, and can reconnect them with the pleasurable, positive side of life. People who have lived with depression for a long time may feel as if they’ll never have another “happy” moment in life, and that they are helpless to change their future.
While there is no quick fix for depression, therapy can absolutely help people regain a sense of normalcy, and teach them that their destiny is in their own hands. It’s never too early or too late to seek therapy for depression, and it’s worth finding a therapist who help them develop coping skills and cultivate realistic goal setting abilities.
