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Treating Depression Takes Time.
Back to all Preventive Health Programs
In the first weeks or months of treatment, it can
seem that you’ll never feel better. Be patient.
There are things you can do to feel better
sooner. Learn about your medicine.
Understand how talking therapy can help you.
The more you know, the better your
treatment will work for you. This newsletter
will tell you about ways to take care of yourself
and feel better.
1. What are Antidepressants &
How Do They Work?
Chemicals send messages
between the cells in
your brain. If there is
a low amount of one
of these chemicals,
your brain cannot
function the way it
should. When this
happens, you may
get depressed.
Antidepressant
medicine helps with
these brain chemicals.
It also repairs the brain’s ability to
send messages between cells. This happens in different
ways. That is why there are different medicines.
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2. How Can Antidepressants Help Me?
Antidepressant medicine can help you feel less nervous, guilty,
hopeless and sad. It can give you more energy and make it easier
for you to pay attention. Medicine can help you enjoy the things
you used to like to do, like recreational activities and sex. It can
help you sleep better and eat right. Medicine helps stop thoughts
of hurting or killing yourself. You cannot get addicted to your
antidepressant medicine.
Medicine makes you feel better by
curing your symptoms. Medicine can’t
help with family or relationship problems
or the loss of someone you love. It can’t
help with stress at work ormoney trouble.
That’s why talking therapy is important.
Talking therapy can helpwith these problems.
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3. What About Side Effects?
Take your medicine just the way the doctor tells you. It
works best this way. Usually you will take medicine every
day. Tell your doctor how the medicine makes you feel. This
helps the doctor treat your depression quickly and safely.
Your medicine may give you side effects. Side effects usually
only last a short time. The most common side effects are a
dry mouth, feeling tired and problems with sex. Many side
effects will go away 2 to 6 weeks after starting medicine.
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4. How Can I Make Therapy Better?
Talking therapy takes time. You must be active
in your therapy. Talk about what makes you
depressed. Do the following things to help to
make therapy a success:
- Make a commitment to therapy. Talk with your
therapist about what makes you depressed. Some
things are hard or painful to talk about. But you must
talk about them to feel better.
- Keep your therapy appointments. Therapy
won't help if you don't go to sessions.
- Think about your therapy before and after
each session. Each day think about what you talked
about in your last therapy session.
Think about what you want to talk
about in your next therapy
session.
- Write down your
thoughts between
sessions. This can help
you and your therapist see
what makes you depressed.
- Do any homework that your
therapist gives you. Homework can
help you sort out your thoughts, feelings
and behaviors.
- Tell your therapist about your thoughts,
feelings and actions. Talking with your therapist is
the most important part of therapy. Be honest with
your therapist. Do not hide information from your
therapist. Tell your therapist about your problems and
what you do about them. Tell your therapist about the
other people in your life. Use the symptoms listed in
the last newsletter to tell your therapist how you feel.
Then your therapist can decide the best way to treat
your depression.
- If you are uncomfortable or unhappy
with your therapy, tell your therapist.
Depression can make you feel hopeless. You
might not feel like talking. Tell your therapist
how you feel. You and your therapist can
change your treatment. You will feel better if
you are open and honest with your therapist.
- Your relationship with your therapist
can be an example of a successful
relationship. Two people are involved in
therapy. This is a relationship. Problems you
have with other people may also come up in
your relationship with your therapist. You and
your therapist can use the feelings that come
up between you to understand how you think
and feel in other relationships.
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5. Tell Your Doctors and Therapists About
Your Treatment.
More than one person may be treating you. Tell each person, including your
primary care doctor, about the others. Tell all of them about your medicines.
The people treating you should be able to talk to each other. It's a good idea to
sign a consent form to release information. Then all of these people can talk
to each other.
What Can I Do To Take Care of Myself?
Medicine and therapy can make you feel better. The following
list shows you some other things you can do to feel better.
- Take care of your health. Taking care of your basic health is
important. When you are depressed, you are more likely
to get physically sick, like a cold or the flu.
This can make you even more depressed.
- Get enough sleep. Sleep during regular
hours. Try to go to sleep and wake up at
about the same time each day.
- Eat a well-balanced diet at regular times. You might not feel
like eating. However, if you don't eat, you will
feel worse. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- Eat meals at the same time every day. This will
help you to be physically healthy.
- Exercise daily. Exercise helps you think about something besides
depressing thoughts. Ask your doctor what kind of exercise is best for
you. Think about walking, jogging, aerobics or a sport. Plan time for
your exercise. People who exercise feel better about themselves.
- Be around others. When you're feeling bad, it can be painful to talk with other people.
However, getting out of your home and being around other people can help you
feel better.
- Work at your friendships. Friendships can help you feel better. They help you
feel supported. You do not need to talk to everyone. However, it is important to
have someone to talk with. Friends are good people to talk to.
- Know your limits. When you're feeling bad, being around people can be hard.
It might make you feel worse. It's okay not to socialize a lot until you feel better. Make sure to tell your family and friends how you feel. Tell them you need time for yourself now.
- Let close friends and family members know what you are going through. Let people you trust know you are depressed. They can help you to feel better. Ask your family members and friends to put less stress on you for a while.
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To download a pdf version of this newsletter, click here. (PDF, 304K)
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