Being diagnosed with depression might not be a surprising diagnosis for you, but you might be surprised when your doctor recommends going to therapy for treatment. While medications can be a good solution for treating depression, therapy is also a good option, and these two treatment methods tend to work well when combined. Here are several ways therapy can help you beat your depression, especially when combined with medication.
Therapy is useful for determining the cause of your depression
There are so many times when people feel depressed and cannot even tell you why they feel this way. While it could be due to a chemical imbalance or something similar, there are also times when it is due to hard, traumatic events a person has gone through in the past. The problem is that many people suppress their memories as a way of coping with them, yet they do not understand that suppressing their thoughts does not make them go away. In fact, suppressing your thoughts may cause more problems than you think.
Visiting a therapist is a great way to find out if your depression is the result of some type of traumatic event in your life, such as a divorce, loss of a child, or sexual molestation when you were a child.
Therapy teaches coping methods
Secondly, through therapy, you will have the opportunity to learn to think differently, and this is often accomplished through learning new methods of coping. As a human, you probably handle things the only way you know how, and this method might not be healthy. For example, if you feel sad, you may always go home and curl up in your bed and isolate yourself. Isolation when sad is one of the worst coping methods available, and your therapist will help you learn why this is and what you can do differently to help with your depression.
Therapy offers solutions
The other thing to understand is that therapy is not simply to allow you to talk and voice your feelings, but it is also there to help you learn solutions for your problems. If you can learn better ways to handle things, newer ways to think, and healthy options for dealing with your feelings, you are likely to feel better about yourself and have less depression.
Taking medication for depression is helpful if you have a chemical imbalance in your brain but seeking help from a therapist is also useful when treating depression. If you are ready to learn more about therapy for depression, contact a therapist like Donald McEachran, PhD today.
