Posted: Jul 03, 2013 11:28 am
Fallible wrote:
It's the ''sent from my Nexus with Tapatalk" message that some people tag to their posts.So tablets are just a form to help manage the mood levels, while therapy should help to stablise the mind in the future, if that is a possibility.
I'm a therapist, so here is my take - tablets are for managing a condition, yes, like medication for physical illnesses manage those conditions. Depression can ''go away'' while you are taking tablets, but then it can come and go anyway regardless of whether you are taking medication. For example I took them in about 1997 and have not taken them since, but have only been depressed once since then. Also it depends just how low you are and why you are low. If your depression is situational, tablets can help you through the tough times until life returns to normality, after which you don't need them anymore. Or the causes can be less obvious and not relating to anything specific you're going through, and medication can help you to manage that. Depending on how low my clients are, I might suggest that they try a dual-pronged approach - medication which evens them out, and therefore enables them to be more receptive to therapy. Therapy such as CBT has been shown to be as effective as SSRIs, and of course without the withdrawal symptoms which can be the legacy of some medications.
Edit: and yes, the aim of therapies is to help you to manage life better in the long-term, either by giving you the opportunity to better understand how you tick or to actually re-train your brain to make different connections and perceive things more rationally, which then has a knock-on effect on your mood.
Thank for your post Fallible.
I will be attending a doctors appointment today to see if I can be refered to the counselling / psychological services the NHS gives to people. I have had a hard time for the last 4 years in life (also some past issues), it seems I have been in a permanent state of feeling extremely down, feeling like I have to force myself to work (work helps to distract my mind), I can get extremely sad but I seem to push myself through it (but I do feel happiness with my wife and son, but it seems to revert back to feeling down). I did pay for some counselling privately (did seem to help my mood) but couldn't afforded for a while until fiancial matters got back on track. However, i feel if I can get a free service for a time with some therapy it may help my situation.
It's strange to feel like if I take tablets I have somehow failed. However, after my wife highlighted my mood and then I took it on myself to monitor my mood with a dairy, it seems best I try to get some help. Hopefully I've recognised my problem earlier than others or that my feelings are on the lower end of the scale.
Your post was helpful to put the tablets into perspective.